BROKER-BASED MANAGEMENT OF MOBILE DEVICES

• US 20130080522A1
• Filed: 09/28/2011
• Published: 03/28/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 09/28/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: Ren, Dahai
• Granted Patent: US 8,799,365 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/204
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/6418 Hybrid transport
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/108 when the policy decisions are valid for a limited amount of time
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/08 Access security
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/37 Managing security policies for mobile devices or for controlling mobile applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/61 Time-dependent
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/50 Service provisioning or reconfiguring

Abstract

An authorized blocker application is installed on a user device to monitor application usage and enforce usage restrictions. A network device receives, from the user device, information identifying a list of applications installed on the user device and receives from a customer terminal, configuration settings including usage restrictions for at least one application from the list of applications. The network device receives, from the user device, application usage data for the at least one application from the list of applications and compares the configuration settings received from the customer terminal and the application usage data received from the user device. When the application usage data includes times exceeding the configurations settings, the network device sends, to the user device, a blocking instruction to prevent use of the at least one application.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving, by a network device and from a user device, a list of applications installed on the user device;

receiving, by the network device and from a customer terminal, configuration settings including usage restrictions for at least one application from the list of applications;

receiving, by the network device and from the user device, application usage data for the at least one application from the list of applications;

comparing, by the network device, the configuration settings and the application usage data; and

sending, by the network device and to the user device, a blocking instruction to prevent use, by a user of the user device, of the at least one application when the application usage data includes times exceeding the configurations settings.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the user device is a different device than the customer terminal.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, from the customer terminal, a request to view the application usage data; and

providing the application usage data to the customer terminal.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein providing the application usage data to the customer terminal includes one or more of:

retrieving the application usage data from a memory within the network device,

formatting the application usage data into a graphical format, or

providing, to the customer terminal, a graphical user interface that include a presentation of the application usage data.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the configuration settings include one or more of:

a cumulative time limit, over a particular period, for use of the least one application;

a cumulative time limit, over a particular period, for use of a group of applications that includes the least one application;

or

a time period when use of the least one application is prohibited.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the user device includes a blocker application having a higher level of privilege than the at least one application to send the list of applications to the network device and to prevent use of the at least one application.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

sending to the user device, as part of an operating system update, changes to the blocker application.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the configuration settings includes:

receiving, from the customer terminal, login information to access a customer tracking account;

verifying the login information;

providing, to the customer terminal and when the login information is verified, an interactive user interface that includes the list of applications installed on the user device; and

receiving, from the customer terminal and via the interactive user interface, the configuration settings for the at least one application from the list of applications.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

sending, to the customer terminal, a notification when the blocking instruction is sent to the user device.

10. A network device, comprising:

a memory to store a plurality of instructions; and

a processor configured to execute instructions in the memory to;

receive, from a user device, information identifying a list of applications installed on the user device,

receive, from a customer terminal, configuration settings including usage restrictions for at least one application from the list of applications,

receive, from the user device, application usage data for the at least one application from the list of applications,

monitor the application usage data received from the user device against the configuration settings received from the customer terminal,

format the application usage data for presentation to a customer, and

provide the formatted application usage data to the customer terminal.

11. The network device of claim 10, wherein the configuration settings include a shared time limit among multiple applications from the list of applications.

12. The network device of claim 10, wherein, when formatting the application usage data, the processor is further configured to configured to execute instructions in the memory to:

format the application usage data in relation to the configuration settings, or

format the application usage data in relation to usage data for other applications of the list of applications.

13. The network device of claim 10, wherein the processor is further configured to configured to execute instructions in the memory to:

store the application usage data and the configuration settings.

14. The network device of claim 10, wherein the processor is further configured to configured to execute instructions in the memory to:

send, to the user device, a blocking instruction to prevent use, by a user of the user device, of the at least one application when the application usage data includes times exceeding the configurations settings.

15. The network device of claim 10, wherein the processor is further configured to:

provide, to the customer terminal, an interactive user interface that includes the list of applications installed on the user device and an input mechanism to set or modify the configuration settings.

16. A user device, comprising:

a memory to store a plurality of instructions; and

a processor configured to execute instructions in the memory to;

identify applications residing on the memory of the user device,

send, to a network device, a list of the identified applications,

record usage times of applications in the list of applications,

send, to the network device, usage data based on the recorded usage times,

generating, from the network device, an instruction to block access to a particular application in the list of applications, and

blocking, based on the instruction, access to the particular application.

17. The user device of claim 16, where the processor is further configured to execute instructions in the memory to:

receive, from a network device, instructions to perform an operating system update for the user device, and

install the operating system update, wherein the operating system update includes a background application to block access to the particular application.

18. The user device of claim 16, wherein the user device includes one of:

a personal communications system (PCS) terminal,

a tablet computer,

a wireless device,

a cellular telephone,

a smart phone,

a laptop computer,

a music playing device, or

a portable gaming device.

19. A method, comprising:

receiving, by a user device, a blocker application that includes a higher level of privilege than other applications residing on a memory the user device;

identifying, by the user device, the other applications residing on the memory of the user device;

sending, by the user device and to a network device, a list of the identified other applications;

recording, by the user device, usage times of the other applications in the list of applications;

sending, by the user device and to the network device, usage data based on the recorded usage times, wherein the usage data is sent without requiring authorization from a user of the user device;

receiving, by the user device and from the network device, an instruction to block access to a particular application of the other applications; and

blocking, by the user device and based on the instruction, access to the particular application.

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising:

presenting, to a user of the user device, a notification when access to the particular application has been blocked.