Preventing deregistration from fleet accounts

• US 9,021,069 B2
• Filed: 06/27/2012
• Issued: 04/28/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 06/27/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Ducrou, Jon Robert, Smith, Brandon J., Brennan, Christopher M., Sanders, Kenneth O. II, Miller, Erik J., Lerner, David M., Budker, Andrew, Barry, Marcus A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Park, Jeong S
• Application Number:
  US13/534,662
• Publication Number:
  US 20140006567A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,035 Days
• Field of Search: 709220-224
• US Class Current: 709/221
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 15/177 Initialisation or configuration control processor initialisation G06F9/4405
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/00 Administration; Management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0803 Configuration setting
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0806 for initial configuration or provisioning, e.g. plug-and-play
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/10 for controlling access to devices or network resources
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/104 Grouping of entities
• 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 12/77 Graphical identity
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/50 Service provisioning or reconfiguring

Abstract

This disclosure describes, in part, techniques for managing access to a fleet account of mobile electronic devices. For instance, an administrator of a business and educational institution may place an order with an offering service to purchase a large number of eBook reader devices. The offering service identifies that the business and educational institution is ordering a fleet of devices. Furthermore, each of the devices ordered are associated or registered to a managed or fleet account controlled by the administrator of the business and educational institution. The techniques described herein prevent an individual user of a fleet device from de-registering the device from the managed account, and also allow an account administrator to alter preferred settings of the managed account. Further, techniques are described for allowing a user of a device to opt-in or associate their device with the account.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

under control of one or more computing systems configured with executable instructions,

receiving an order for one or more client devices;

determining whether a particular client device of the one or more client devices is to be registered with an account; and

at least partly in response to determining that the particular client device of the one or more client devices is to be registered with the account;

registering the particular client device with the account; and

sending configuration instructions to the particular client device of the one or more client devices, the configuration instructions adapted to modify one or more settings of the particular client device to prevent the particular client device from deregistering from the account.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the account is associated with specified content, the specified content being accessible by client devices that are registered with the account.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the account is associated with multiple sub-groups, a first sub-group of the multiple sub-groups associated with first content accessible by a first group of devices and a second sub-group of the multiple sub-groups associated with second content accessible by a second group of devices.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein determining that the particular client device of the one or more client devices is to be registered with the account further comprises determining that the one or more client devices include multiple client devices and that a number of client devices is greater than a threshold number.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more client devices are for distribution to individual users and the account is managed by at least one administrator, the method further comprising:

receiving a request from the at least one administrator to configure one or more settings on individual client devices of the one or more client devices; and

sending instructions to configure the one or more settings on the individual client devices of the one or more client devices at least partly in response to receiving the request from the at least one administrator.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the particular client device of the one or more client devices is associated with a device identifier, the registering the particular client device comprises registering the device identifier with the account, and the method further comprises:

receiving, over a network, an indication when the particular client device is first powered on, the indication including the device identifier of the particular client device; and

determining that the device identifier has been registered with the account;

wherein the sending of configuration instructions includes sending the configuration instructions to the particular client device at least partly in response to determining that the device identifier has been registered with the account.

7. The method of claim 1, the method further comprising:

receiving, from an additional client device, a request to register the additional client device with the account; and

at least partly in response to receiving the request, registering the additional client device with the account.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a request for a locked action associated with the one or more settings; and

based at least partly on the request, causing display of a locked action indicator at the particular client device.

9. A system comprising:

one or more processors; and

one or more computer readable media storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed on the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform acts comprising;

receiving a request to register one or more client devices with an account;

registering individual client devices of the one or more client devices with the account in response to the request; and

in response to registering a particular client device of the one or more client devices, sending configuration instructions to the particular client device, the configuration instructions adapted to modify one or more settings of the particular client device to prevent the particular client device from deregistering from the account.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the account is associated with specified content, the specified content being accessible by client devices that are registered with the account.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the account is managed by an educational institution or a business.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein the account is associated with multiple sub-groups, wherein a first sub-group of the multiple sub-groups is associated with first content accessible by a first group of devices and wherein a second sub-group of the multiple sub-groups is associated with second content accessible by a second group of devices.

13. The system of claim 9, wherein the one or more client devices are for distribution to individual users and the account is managed by at least one administrator, the acts further comprising:

receiving a request from the at least one administrator to configure one or more settings on the particular client device of the one or more client devices; and

sending configuration instructions to configure the one or more settings on the particular client device of the one or more client devices at least partly in response to receiving the request from the at least one administrator.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the sending comprises communicating with the particular client device of the one or more client devices over a network after distributing the particular client device to an individual user.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein the configuration instructions are further adapted to modify one or more settings of the particular client device to:

disable a web browser on the particular client device, disable access to a web-store from the particular client device, request that a user implement a password for accessing the particular client device, disable a media player on the particular client device, disable the particular client device, request that a user implement a minimum password length for accessing the particular client device, disable use of a specified wireless network by the particular client device, enable a wireless network filter for the particular client device, enable access to specific content, or prevent the particular client device from playing a specified game.

16. The system of claim 13, wherein the configuration instructions are further adapted to modify one or more settings of the particular client device to disable the particular client device.

17. The system of claim 9, wherein the particular client device of the one or more client devices is associated with a device identifier, the registering the particular client device comprises registering the device identifier with the account, and the acts further comprise:

receiving, over a network, an indication when the particular client device is first powered on, the indication including the device identifier of the particular client device;

determining that the device identifier has been registered with the account; and

wherein the sending of configuration instructions includes sending the configuration instructions to the particular client device at least partly in response to determining that the device identifier has been registered with the account.

18. The system of claim 9, the acts further comprising sending a message for display on the particular client device of the one or more client devices, the message indicating that the particular client device may not be deregistered from the account.

19. The system of claim 9, the acts further comprising:

receiving, from an additional client device, a request to register with the account;

sending an image for display on the additional client device;

receiving an indication that a device other than the additional client device has captured the image displayed on the additional device; and

registering the additional client device with the account.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the image comprises a quick response (QR) code or a bar code that identifies the account.

21. The system of claim 19, wherein the image comprises a quick response (QR) code or a bar code that identifies the account and the additional client device.

22. The system of claim 19, the acts further comprising;

receiving a request from the additional client device to deregister the additional device from the account; and

at least partly in response to receiving the request, deregistering the additional client device from the account.

23. An apparatus comprising:

a display; and

one or more processors configured to perform acts comprising;

sending a first signal to an account server that is remote from the apparatus, the first signal configured to register the apparatus to an account managed, at least in part, by the account server;

at least partly in response to the sending of the first signal, receiving a second signal from the account server; and

at least partly in response to the receiving of the second signal, configuring the apparatus to prevent the apparatus from being deregistered from the account.

24. The apparatus of claim 23, the acts further comprising updating, at least partly in response to the receiving of the second signal, at least one setting of the apparatus, the at least one setting specified by an administrator of the account.

25. The apparatus of claim 23, wherein the first signal is sent when the apparatus is first powered on.

26. The apparatus of claim 23, the acts further comprising:

requesting to register with a second account, the requesting comprising capturing an image associated with the second account;

sending the captured image to the account server;

receiving a third signal from the account server, the third signal causing the apparatus to prompt a user of the apparatus to register the apparatus with the second account; and

register the apparatus with the second account at least partly in response to receiving a selection of the prompt from the user.

27. The apparatus of claim 26, the acts further comprising:

sending, to the account server, a request to deregister from the second account; and

receiving a fourth signal from the account server, the fourth signal causing the apparatus to deregister from the second account.

28. The apparatus of claim 23, the acts further comprising:

requesting to register with a second account; and

receiving, from the account server, an image on the display of the apparatus that is unique to the second account and the apparatus.

29. The apparatus of claim 23, the acts further comprising:

presenting, via the display, a first indication indicating that a deregistration function is locked, wherein locking of the deregistration function prevents deregistration of the apparatus from the account;

receiving a request to activate the deregistration function; and

based at least partly on the request, presenting, via the display, a second indication indicating that the device cannot be deregistered from the account.