PERMISSION-BASED UPDATING OF CONTACT INFORMATION

• US 20140317760A1
• Filed: 02/19/2014
• Published: 10/23/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 02/19/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Barry Gold, Karen Sallick
• Original Assignee: Barry Gold, Karen Sallick
• Inventors: Gold, Barry, Sallick, Karen
• Granted Patent: US 9,386,020 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 726/29
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6245 Protecting personal data, e.g. for financial or medical purposes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/10 for controlling access to devices or network resources

Abstract

A system for automatically updating personal consumer and business contact information is disclosed. A server located “in the cloud” automatically controls a database of contact data elements, some of which have preferred privacy protocol. These protocols may restrict some data elements from being shared unless a data-owner'"'"'s explicit permission is obtained. When the server receives a request for such a restricted data element, the server issues an email or text message in order to obtain the necessary permissions. If permission is granted, the server then supplies the requested data.

Claims

1. A method for automatically updating a database of personal contact information on an end-user electronic communications device, comprising:

providing a manager server having programmed instructions for automatically controlling a server database, said database comprising a plurality of contact data elements, one or more of said contact data elements being obtained from a data-owner programmed app operative on a contact data-owner electronic communications device via said manager server and wherein one or more of said contact data elements comprises a preferred privacy protocol selected via said contact data-owner electronic communications device;

receiving a request, from an end-user programmed app operative on said end-user electronic communications device, for one or more of said contact data elements stored on said server database, said contact data element being identified by a known data element of said data-owner contact data elements;

automatically applying, by said manager server, said preferred privacy protocol of said requested communications data element; and

if said preferred privacy protocol allows, automatically supplying, by said server manager, a requested contact data element to said programmed app operative on said end-user electronic communications device.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein said known data element of said data element is an email address and wherein said preferred privacy protocol comprises automatically generating and sending a permission request email to said data-owner programmed app, said email comprising an identity of said requester, a nature of said contact data element requested, and an allow or disallow option.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein said known data element of said data element is a phone number and wherein said preferred privacy protocol comprises automatically generating and sending a permission request SMS message to said data owner, said SMS message comprising an identity of said requester, a nature of said contact data element requested, and an allow or disallow option.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein said automatically supplying said requested contact data element further comprises using said known data element to query said database, and wherein said matches in said database are prioritized in order of a phone number match, a name and city match, a name and zip code match and a name and street address match.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein said database of contact database elements further comprises functionality for querying at least one third party database.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein said third party databases comprise at least one B2C contact information database and one B2B contact database, and wherein said automatically supplying further comprises using said known data element to obtain a first matching data element from said B2C database and a second matching data element from said B2B database and wherein said first matching data element is prioritized over said second matching data element.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprises receiving a plurality of requests from said programmed app and wherein said server manager responds by providing a number of records checked, a number of records matched and a number of possible changes available to be made on a personal contacts database associated with said end user electronic communications device.

8. The method of claim 7 further comprising receiving a request to make one or more of said possible changes, and supplying said information to make said requested possible changes.

9. The method of claim 3 wherein said known data element of said data element is a wireless phone number.