Privacy control system for electronic communication

• US 8,135,790 B1
• Filed: 11/14/2009
• Issued: 03/13/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 11/20/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Everglade Holdco LLC
• Original Assignee: LashBack, LLC (PerformLine, Inc.)
• Inventors: Castelli, Eric L.
• Primary Examiner(s): EL CHANTI, HUSSEIN A
• Application Number:
  US12/618,715
• Time in Patent Office: 850 Days
• Field of Search: 709206-207, 709223-224
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/212 using filtering or selective blocking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/1416 Event detection, e.g. attack signature detection

Abstract

A privacy control system provides a centralized process for managing unsubscribe requests to unsolicited communications. The system receives reports of unsolicited communications, determines and follows the corresponding unsubscribe processes, and tracks the success of unsubscribe requests. The system can unsubscribe an individual or group of individuals through the centralized process, recording and monitoring the success of the request, independent of the email client used by the individuals.

Claims

1. A method for providing privacy control in a communication system comprising the steps of:

providing a centralized processing system in operative electronic communication with a set of participants and a set of advertisers;

receiving a set of spam notices at said centralized processing system from said participants;

determining a set of unsubscribe mechanisms at said centralized processing system from said received spam notices, wherein said unsubscribe mechanisms correspond with said advertisers; and

sending a set of unsubscribe requests from said centralized processing system to said advertisers according to said corresponding unsubscribe mechanisms.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein said determining step is comprised identifying a set of key attributes in said spam notices related to said unsubscribe mechanisms.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein said identifying step is selected from the group of steps consisting of:

identifying an email address in said spam notices;

identifying a reply action key attribute;

identifying an email address in web pages listed in said spam notices;

identifying request form key components in web pages listed in said spam notices;

identifying email subscription key components in web pages listed in said spam notices;

identifying a one-click unsubscribe link; and

identifying an unsubscribe function in email headers in said spam notices.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein said determining step is performed for participants that are subscribers in said centralized processing system and for participants that are not subscribers in said centralized processing system, wherein participant information is stored on a database for said subscribers.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein said set of spam notices are selected from the group of notices consisting of:

full email messages forwarded by said participants, partial email messages comprised of at least a portion of email headers;

partial email messages comprised of at least a portion of email bodies;

electronic representations of unsubscribe requests, and spam reports.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein said set of spam notices are communicated from said participants to said centralized processing system in at least one of batch groups and individual emails and wherein said electronic communication is selected from a group of communication means consisting of:

an email system, an XML web service and an FTP connection.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein said participants receive email on email clients independent from said centralized processing system.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising the steps of determining a second set of unsubscribe mechanisms at a set of computer systems corresponding to said participants, sending a second set of unsubscribe requests from said participant computer systems to said advertisers according to said second set of unsubscribe mechanisms, and sending unsubscribe status notices from said participant computer systems to said centralized processing system.

9. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of tracking said unsubscribe requests at the centralized processing system.

10. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of compiling compliance information on said advertisers from said unsubscribe requests.

11. The method of claim 10 further comprising the step of establishing a reputation for said advertisers from said compliance information.

12. A method for providing privacy control in a communication system comprising the steps of:

receiving at a centralized processing system a set of spam notices from a set of participants, wherein said spam notices are based on unwanted emails sent to said participants by a set of advertisers;

determining a set of unsubscribe mechanisms at said centralized processing system based on said received spam notices, wherein said determining step is comprised identifying a set of key attributes in said spam notices related to said unsubscribe mechanisms; and

sending a set of unsubscribe requests from said centralized processing system to said advertisers according to said corresponding set of unsubscribe mechanisms.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein said identifying step is selected from the group of steps consisting of:

identifying an email address in said spam notices;

identifying a reply action key attribute;

identifying an email address in web pages listed in said spam notices;

identifying request form key components in web pages listed in said spam notices;

identifying email subscription key components in web pages listed in said spam notices;

identifying a one-click unsubscribe link; and

identifying an unsubscribe function in email headers in said spam notices.

14. The method of claim 12 wherein said determining step is performed for said participants independent from a plurality of email clients that are being used by said participants.

15. The method of claim 12 wherein said set of spam notices are selected from the group of notices consisting of:

full email messages forwarded by said participants, partial email messages comprised of at least a portion of email headers;

partial email messages comprised of at least a portion of email bodies;

electronic representations of unsubscribe requests, and spam reports.

16. The method of claim 12 further comprising the steps of tracking said unsubscribe requests at the centralized processing system and compiling compliance information on said advertisers from said unsubscribe requests.

17. The method of claim 12 further comprising the steps of creating a set of probe email accounts linked to said centralized processing system and not associated with said participants, submitting a unique probe email address to at least one of said advertisers according to a corresponding unsubscribe mechanism and checking for email sent to said unique probe address.

18. A privacy control system for electronic communication systems, comprising:

a centralized processing system in operative electronic communication with a set of participants and a set of advertisers, said centralized processing system comprising a listener module and a notification engine;

a set of spam notices communicated from said participants to said listener module at said centralized processing system; and

a set of unsubscribe requests communicated from said notification engine at said centralized processing system to said advertisers, wherein said notification engine determines unsubscribe mechanisms for said unsubscribe requests from said spam notices.

19. The privacy control system set forth in claim 18, wherein said unsubscribe mechanisms are selected from a group of key components consisting of:

an email address in said spam notices;

a reply action key attribute;

an email address in web pages listed in said spam notices;

request form key components in web pages listed in said spam notices;

email subscription key components in web pages listed in said spam notices;

a one-click unsubscribe link; and

an unsubscribe function in email headers in said spam notices, and wherein said spam notices are communicated to said listener module through a plurality of email clients that are being used by said participants independent from said central processing system.

20. The privacy control system set forth in claim 18, wherein said centralized processing system further comprises a storage of said unsubscribe requests for tracking a success with said unsubscribe requests and compiling compliance information on said advertisers.