System and method for controlling access to location information
First Claim
1. A computer system for providing information about the location of location owners to a location consumer in response to the receipt of a location request from said location consumer comprising:
- (a) data storage for storing a location owner profile information being used for controlling access to information about the location of the associated location owner (“
location information”
), the location owner profile information including data describing a selected geographic area; and
(b) a data processing system for;
(i) receiving requests from location consumers for information about the location of location owners;
(ii) in response to the receipt of a request from a location consumer for location information, obtaining the location owner profile information from said data storage associated with said location owner, the location owner profile information including the data describing the selected geographic area;
(iii) obtaining from at least one location provider information about the location of said location owner;
(iv) processing the information provided by the location provider about the location of said location owner in accordance with said location owner profile information obtained from said data storage;
(v) determining if the location consumer is authorized to receive the location information, the authorization being based on an examination of the processed location information and the selected geographic area; and
(vi) if it is determined that the location consumer is authorized to receive the location information, transmitting the result of said processing of the information provided by the location provider to said location consumer requesting information about the location of said location owner.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A system and method for providing location information associated with a location owner to location consumers. A location server includes an owner profile for controlling access to the owner'"'"'s location information. The owner profile contains information describing a user-defined geographic area. In response to a location consumer requesting the location owner'"'"'s location information, the location server obtains data describing a current location of the location owner. The server determines if the current location falls within a set of boundaries that defines the user-defined geographic area. If the current location falls within a set of boundaries that defines the user-defined geographic area, the location server transmits the location information to the requesting location consumer.
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Citations
29 Claims
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1. A computer system for providing information about the location of location owners to a location consumer in response to the receipt of a location request from said location consumer comprising:
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(a) data storage for storing a location owner profile information being used for controlling access to information about the location of the associated location owner (“
location information”
), the location owner profile information including data describing a selected geographic area; and(b) a data processing system for; (i) receiving requests from location consumers for information about the location of location owners; (ii) in response to the receipt of a request from a location consumer for location information, obtaining the location owner profile information from said data storage associated with said location owner, the location owner profile information including the data describing the selected geographic area; (iii) obtaining from at least one location provider information about the location of said location owner; (iv) processing the information provided by the location provider about the location of said location owner in accordance with said location owner profile information obtained from said data storage; (v) determining if the location consumer is authorized to receive the location information, the authorization being based on an examination of the processed location information and the selected geographic area; and (vi) if it is determined that the location consumer is authorized to receive the location information, transmitting the result of said processing of the information provided by the location provider to said location consumer requesting information about the location of said location owner. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
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13. A method of providing information about the location of a location owner to a location consumer in response to the receipt of a location request produced by the location consumer, comprising:
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(a) in response to receiving a location request from a location consumer for information about the location of a location owner, obtaining an owner profile associated with the location owner, the owner profile including data describing a selected geographic area; (b) obtaining information about the location of the location owner from a location provider; (c) processing the obtained information about the location of the location owner in accordance with the owner profile to generate data indicative of a current location of the location owner; (d) using the data describing the selected geographic area and the data indicative of a current location to determine whether the location consumer is authorized to receive information about the location of the location owner; and (e) if the location consumer is authorized to receive the data indicative of the current location, transmitting the data indicative of the current location of the location owner to the location consumer. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27)
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28. A computer system for providing information about the location of location owners to a location consumer in response to the receipt of a location request from said location consumer comprising:
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(a) data storage for storing a location owner profile information being used for controlling access to information about the location of the associated location owner (“
location information”
), the location owner profile information including data describing a selected geographic area and data describing a time period during which the location consumer is authorized to access location information; and(b) a data processing system for; (i) receiving requests from location consumers for information about the location of location owners; (ii) in response to the receipt of a request from a location consumer for location information, obtaining the location owner profile information from said data storage associated with said location owner, the location owner profile information including the data describing the selected geographic area and the data describing a time period during which the location consumer is authorized to access location information; (iii) obtaining from at least one location provider information about the location of said location owner; (iv) processing the information provided by the location provider about the location of said location owner in accordance with said location owner profile information obtained from said data storage; (v) determining if the location consumer is authorized to receive the location information, the authorization being based on an examination of the processed location information, the selected geographic area and the time period during which the location consumer is authorized to access location information; and (vi) if it is determined that the location consumer is authorized to access information about the location of the location owner, transmitting the result of said processing of the information provided by the location provider to said location consumer requesting information about the location of said location owner. - View Dependent Claims (29)
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Specification