Online identity management

• US 8,782,217 B1
• Filed: 11/09/2011
• Issued: 07/15/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 11/10/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Consumerinfo.com Incorporated (Experian plc)
• Original Assignee: SafetyWeb, Inc. (Experian plc)
• Inventors: Arone, Geoffrey V., Clark, Michael P., Thompson, Adam T.
• Primary Examiner(s): Shin, Kyung H
• Application Number:
  US13/293,014
• Time in Patent Office: 979 Days
• Field of Search: 709/224, 726/22, 726/23
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/554 involving event detection and direct action
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2149 Restricted operating environment
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/212 using filtering or selective blocking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/52 for supporting social networking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/1408 by monitoring network traffic monitoring network traffic per se H04L43/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/08 Access security
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/37 Managing security policies for mobile devices or for controlling mobile applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/67 Risk-dependent, e.g. selecting a security level depending on risk profiles

Abstract

An identity scanner monitors information regarding a target individual on various data sources, such as social networking sites. The information is analyzed to identify risk and/or reward factors that are indicative of risk levels associated with the target'"'"'s privacy, reputation, safety, health, and/or other attributes. Various information regarding the identified risks and/or reward factors identified may be provided to a monitoring individual (e.g., a guardian of the target individual) in various customizable manners and mediums.

Claims

1. A method of providing information to a guardian of a minor regarding activities of the minor, the method comprising:

receiving information from the guardian identifying one or more events of interest to the guardian;

scanning a plurality of online data sources including at least one social network for information regarding the minor, wherein information regarding the minor includes information provided by the minor and information provided by one or more third-parties that refers to the minor;

determining one or more keywords or patterns of words to search for in the information regarding the minor, wherein presence of the keywords or patterns is indicative of one or more of the identified events;

parsing text portions of the information to identify text matching the one or more keywords or patterns indicative of one or more of the identified events;

scanning image portions of the information to identify objects present in the images matching one or more objects indicative of one or more of the identified events; and

determining a risk score for the minor based on at least a quantity of identified text and identified objects.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying one or more negative factors associated with respective keywords or patterns identified in the text portions of the information or associated with respective identified objects;

identifying one or more positive factors associated with respective keywords or patterns identified in the text portions of the information or associated with respective identified objects;

wherein the risk score is based on at least the negative and positive factors.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying one or more negative factors associated with respective keywords or patterns identified in the text portions of the information or associated with respective identified objects; and

determining weightings for respective factors, the weightings indicating importance of the respective negative factors;

wherein the risk score is dependent on weightings of the respective factors.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving login information regarding respective data sources that is usable to access non-public information regarding the minor from the respective data sources.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the negative factors are associated with activities that the guardian likes the minor to participate in, and the positive factors are associated with activities that the guardian does not like the minor to participate in.

6. A method of providing real-time information regarding activities of an individual, the method comprising:

receiving, from a computing device of a monitoring entity, at least a name of a target individual for which information is desired;

periodically accessing or receiving information from one or more social media networks for information regarding the target individual, wherein the information regarding the target individual includes information provided by the target individual and information provided by one or more third-parties that refers to the target individual;

analyzing the information regarding the target individual to determine whether any of the information is indicative of a high risk activity; and

in response to determining that one or more high risk activities are in the information, initiating transmission of a real-time alert to a computing device of the monitoring entity.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the high risk activity is associated with an alert rule that defines criteria for detecting the high risk activity.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the criteria include detection of one or more negative factors.

9. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

generating user interface information for transmission to the computing device of the monitoring entity, the user interface information identifying a plurality of activities of the target individual.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the user interface information highlights ones of the plurality of activities that are categorized as high risk activities.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein high risk activities include activities that indicate possible illegal activities.

12. A system for monitoring online activity impacting a user comprising:

a memory configured to store computer program instructions;

a discovery engine configured to discover one or more social networks in which the user is involved or mentioned;

a data extraction engine configured to extract data from the one or more social networks discovered by the discovery engine;

an analytics engine configured to interpret the data extracted by the data extraction engine to identify information that may help or hurt the user'"'"'s privacy, reputation or safety;

a scoring engine configured to determine a risk score for the user based on at least a number of occurrences of identified information; and

a reporting engine configured to provide the identified information and the risk score.