Over the air services for mobile devices

• US 8,086,695 B2
• Filed: 09/24/2009
• Issued: 12/27/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 11/15/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Welingkar, Bharat, Prasad, Srikiran
• Primary Examiner(s): Maung, Zarni
• Application Number:
  US12/566,541
• Publication Number:
  US 20100122324A1
• Time in Patent Office: 824 Days
• Field of Search: 709217-218, 709223-229, 709/250, 455/410, 455/412.2, 455/414.2
• US Class Current: 709/217
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/88 Detecting or preventing theft or loss
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/00 Services specially adapted for wireless communication networks; Facilities therefor

Abstract

A client device may be managed in the event of, for example, device loss or mislocation. In such a case, a user can effectively cause a restriction command to be generated, where the restriction command is wirelessly transmitted to the client device. The restriction command can be specified to either lock user data on the client device or erase user data on the client device.

Claims

1. A mobile computing device comprising:

a memory configured to store user data; and

at least one module configured to wireles sly receive a command from a server, and erase at least a portion of the user data stored in the memory of the mobile computing device in response to receiving the command;

wherein the user data comprises at least one of calendar data, e-mail data, and contact data, and in response to receiving the command, the at least one module is configured to wirelessly transmit the user data to a remote data store to backup the user data prior to erasing the user data from the memory of the mobile computing device.

2. The mobile computing device of claim 1, wherein the at least one module is configured to receive the command as part of an SMS message.

3. The mobile computing device of claim 1, wherein the at least one module is configured to erase the user data from the memory of the mobile computing device independent from whether the at least one module is successful in backing up the user data prior to erasing the user data from the memory of the mobile computing device.

4. The mobile computing device of claim 1, wherein the at least one module is configured to wirelessly transmit a signal after erasing the user data from the memory of the mobile computing device, the signal indicating that the user data has been erased from the memory of the mobile computing device.

5. The mobile computing device of claim 1, wherein the mobile computing device further comprises a display configured to display a message, wherein the displayed message is based on the command.

6. The mobile computing device of claim 1, wherein the at least one module is configured to erase a portion of the user data by writing over contents in the memory of the mobile computing device.

7. The mobile computing device of claim 1, wherein the mobile computing device is a handheld computing device.

8. A system comprising:

at least one server configured to;

receive an input from a user indicating a user request to erase data stored in the memory of a mobile computing device; and

in response to the input, wirelessly transmit a first instruction to the mobile computing device, the first instruction configured to cause the mobile computing device to attempt a wireless backup of the data stored in the memory of the mobile computing device; and

wirelessly transmit a second instruction to the mobile computing device, the second instruction configured to cause the mobile computing device to erase the user data stored in the memory of the mobile computing device.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the second instruction is configured to cause the mobile computing device to erase the data independent of whether the backup of the data is successful.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein the at least one server is configured to obtain confirmation from the user after receiving the first input confirming the user request to erase the data stored in the memory of the mobile computing device.

11. The system of claim 8, wherein the at least one server is configured to receive a wireless communication from the mobile computing device indicating whether the mobile computing device successfully erased the data stored in the memory of the mobile computing device.

12. The system of claim 8, wherein the at least one server is configured to receive a user name and a password prior to receiving the input, and authenticate the user based on the user name and password.

13. The system of claim 8, wherein the at least one server is configured to receive a second input from a user after the data stored in the memory of the mobile computing device is erased, and in response to the second input, wirelessly transmit a third instruction causing the backed up data to be restored to the memory of the mobile computing device.

14. A method comprising:

receiving a first input from a user at a server;

authenticating the user at the server based on the first input;

receiving a second input from the user at the server;

based on receiving the second input from the user, sending a wireless communication from the server to a mobile computing device, the wireless communication comprising at least one of a first instruction configured to cause the mobile computing device to restrict access to the mobile computing device and a second instruction configured to cause the mobile computing device to erase data stored in a memory of the mobile computing device; and

receiving an indication from the user to wirelessly back-up data on the mobile computing device prior to erasing the data stored in the memory of the mobile computing device.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the first instruction is configured to cause the mobile computing device to display a message while the mobile computing device is locked.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the message is configurable by the user.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein the wireless communication is configured to cause the mobile computing device to restrict access to the mobile computing device by setting a password for the mobile computing device, the password being required to access the mobile computing device.

18. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

receiving a confirmation from the user confirming the second instruction to erase data stored in the memory of the mobile computing device.