Location based presence and privacy management
First Claim
1. A computer based method for sharing a user'"'"'s location contextual information, comprising:
- a) a mobile phone or another electronic device capable of determining or accessing said user'"'"'s current location from a mobile positioning system;
b) said current location comprising of geographic location coordinates of said user'"'"'s geographic location at that time, as determined within accuracy limitations of said device or said mobile positioning system;
c) said geographic location coordinates comprising of latitude and longitude or alternatively postal street address of said geographic location;
d) storing the geographic location coordinates of any user-specified locations specified or saved by said user;
e) said location contextual information comprising of a plurality of descriptive name, category, and other textual or graphical representation of a geographic location;
f) associating said location contextual information with said current or user-specified locations;
g) one or more contacts or applications that said location contextual information corresponding to said user'"'"'s current location is to be shared with or provided to;
h) determining if said contacts or applications are authorized to receive said location contextual information based on criteria specified by said user;
i) providing said location contextual information to said contacts or applications without providing said geographic location coordinates of said current location;
whereby the method enables said user to share said location contextual information indicating location status of said user without having to provide said geographic location coordinates of said user.
1 Assignment
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Accused Products
Abstract
A method and system for providing location based presence status and enhancing location privacy management in a mobile, instant messaging or social networking environment. A user specifies or saves their favorite locations (e.g. home, work, school, or particular business or point of interest locations), and specifies or selects names and/or categories to be shared for each user-specified location. In addition, the system provides multiple sharing levels for sharing multiple types of location contextual information. When user'"'"'s current location corresponds to user-specified locations, location based presence status is provided to specified contacts according to the sharing level settings, and provides user the option to share location contextual information without sharing location coordinates of the user. When user is driving, location based presence status is updated accordingly, and when user is at other business or POI locations, corresponding location contextual information is shared based on user'"'"'s settings for each sharing level.
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Citations
23 Claims
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1. A computer based method for sharing a user'"'"'s location contextual information, comprising:
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a) a mobile phone or another electronic device capable of determining or accessing said user'"'"'s current location from a mobile positioning system; b) said current location comprising of geographic location coordinates of said user'"'"'s geographic location at that time, as determined within accuracy limitations of said device or said mobile positioning system; c) said geographic location coordinates comprising of latitude and longitude or alternatively postal street address of said geographic location; d) storing the geographic location coordinates of any user-specified locations specified or saved by said user; e) said location contextual information comprising of a plurality of descriptive name, category, and other textual or graphical representation of a geographic location; f) associating said location contextual information with said current or user-specified locations; g) one or more contacts or applications that said location contextual information corresponding to said user'"'"'s current location is to be shared with or provided to; h) determining if said contacts or applications are authorized to receive said location contextual information based on criteria specified by said user; i) providing said location contextual information to said contacts or applications without providing said geographic location coordinates of said current location; whereby the method enables said user to share said location contextual information indicating location status of said user without having to provide said geographic location coordinates of said user. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
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13. A computer based method for enabling multiple levels of sharing location contextual information, comprising:
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a) a mobile phone or another electronic device capable of determining or accessing a user'"'"'s geographic location coordinates from a mobile positioning system; b) said geographic location coordinates comprising of latitude and longitude or alternatively postal street address of said geographic location; c) said location contextual information comprising of a plurality of descriptive name, category, and other textual or graphical representation of a geographic location; d) specifying multiple, numerically or descriptively labeled, location sharing levels with varying levels of location privacy; e) specifying multiple types of location contextual information corresponding to a geographic location coordinate including a plurality of city, state, zip, neighborhood or area name, names and categories of user-specified locations, businesses or points of interest, and proximity information including nearest intersection, street name, street address, and location coordinates; f) associating said types of location contextual information with said sharing levels wherein each type of location contextual information can be assigned specific sharing levels or a minimum sharing level; g) assigning specific sharing levels to selected contacts or groups of contacts, and assigning a default sharing level for all other contacts; h) providing said types of location contextual information to said contacts based on the sharing levels assigned to said contacts. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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19. A computer based method for sharing a user'"'"'s location status from a mobile phone, comprising:
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determining the user'"'"'s current speed from a mobile positioning system; if the user'"'"'s current speed is above a threshold, setting the user'"'"'s location status to indicate that the user is in motion; providing the user'"'"'s location status to one or more contacts associated with the user, wherein the location status does not include geographic location coordinates identifying the user'"'"'s location. - View Dependent Claims (20, 21)
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22. A computer based method for setting and sharing a mobile user'"'"'s location-based presence status from a mobile phone, comprising:
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determining the mobile user'"'"'s current location from a mobile positioning system associated with the mobile phone; associating location-based presence status options with identified locations, wherein the identified locations comprise point of interest locations and user-specified locations; setting the mobile user'"'"'s location-based presence status to a corresponding option when the mobile user'"'"'s determined current location matches (414) an identified location; and providing the mobile user'"'"'s location-based presence status to one or more other users without providing geographic location coordinates of the mobile user. - View Dependent Claims (23)
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Specification