LOCATION DEPENDENT MONITORING FOR STOLEN DEVICES

• US 20100194567A1
• Filed: 02/02/2010
• Published: 08/05/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 02/02/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Absolute Software Corporation
• Original Assignee: Absolute Software Corporation
• Inventors: Jung, Byron, Loveland, Damien
• Granted Patent: US 8,362,901 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/568.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/88 Detecting or preventing theft or loss
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2111 Location-sensitive, e.g. geographical location, GPS
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/00 Burglar, theft or intruder alarms
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/0272 System arrangements wherein the object is to detect exact location of child or item using triangulation other than GPS
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/22 responsive to presence or absence of persons

Abstract

A system and method for controlling the surveillance conducted by lost or stolen electronic devices dependent upon the location of such electronic devices is provided. A data repository contains data that specifies, for each of a plurality of geographic regions (e.g. legal jurisdictions), a set of surveillance methods that are permissible in the respective region. At least some of the geographic regions have different respective sets of permissible surveillance methods than others. A computer system is operable to communicate with the devices over a computer network, and programmed to use received information regarding a location of a potentially lost or stolen device, in combination with the data in the computer data repository, to cause the potentially lost or stolen device to initiate surveillance according to the set of permissible surveillance methods (and/or other actions) corresponding to the location.

Claims

1. A system capable of controlling surveillance conducted by electronic devices, the system comprising:

a computer data repository containing data that specifies, for each of a plurality of geographic regions, a set of surveillance methods that are permissible in the respective region, wherein at least some of the geographic regions have different respective sets of permissible surveillance methods than others; and

a computer system that is operable to communicate with the devices over a computer network, said computer system programmed to use received information regarding a location of a potentially lost or stolen device, in combination with said data in the computer data repository, to cause the potentially lost or stolen device to initiate surveillance according to the set of permissible surveillance methods corresponding to said location.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein said geographic regions correspond to legal jurisdictions.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein said computer system is further operable to receive information relating to the loss or theft of a device, and further programmed to cause the initiation of surveillance according to the set of permissible monitoring methods corresponding to said location after said information relating to the loss or theft of a device has been received.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the computer system is programmed to:

a. receive, from the potentially lost or stolen device, an indication of an IP address assigned to the device; and

b. identify, based on the IP address, the geographic region of the device.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the computer system is additionally programmed to initiate a request for authorization to use a particular surveillance method on the device.

6. The system of claim 1, in combination with executable code that runs on the device and directs the device to conduct surveillance in accordance with instructions received from the computer system.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the computer system is further programmed to cause the device to display or emit a signal to induce a user of the device to maintain the device in a selected geographic region or to transport the device to a different geographic region.

8. A method for controlling surveillance conducted by a lost or stolen electronic device comprising the steps of:

a. maintaining a computer repository containing data that specifies, for each of a plurality of geographic regions, a set of surveillance methods that are permissible in the respective region, wherein at least some of the geographic regions have different respective sets of permissible surveillance methods than others;

b. communicating with said device over a computer network to obtain location information regarding the geographic region in which said device is located;

c. comparing said location information with said data to determine which set of surveillance methods are permissible in the geographic region in which said device is located; and

d. initiating surveillance according to the set of permissible monitoring methods corresponding to said geographic region,

wherein steps a, b, c and d are preformed automatically by one or more computing devices.

9. A computer readable medium which stores program code that instructs a computer system to perform the method of claim 8.