Hotspot network access system and method

• US 9,066,227 B2
• Filed: 12/10/2009
• Issued: 06/23/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 07/17/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Datavalet Technologies
• Original Assignee: Datavalet Technologies
• Inventors: Spencer, Ron, Camps, Tom, Burchett, Chris, Gagne, Brad, Madge, Rob
• Primary Examiner(s): Arani, Taghi
• Assistant Examiner(s): LYNCH, SHARON S
• Application Number:
  US13/384,580
• Publication Number:
  US 20120192258A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,021 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/06 Authentication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/08 Access security
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/50 Secure pairing of devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 74/00 Wireless channel access
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/10 Connection setup
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/18 Processing of user or subscriber data, e.g. subscribed services, user preferences or user profiles; Transfer of user or subscriber data
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/12 WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]

Abstract

A system and method are disclosed for providing wireless network access to a user of a remote device at a hotspot. In general, wireless communication is established by the system with the remote device to enable wireless transmission therefrom of social networking credentials associated with a social network profile maintained by a third party social network service provider. Using these credentials, the user is authenticated with the third party social network service provider, and, upon authentication, is provided wireless access to the network.

Claims

1. A method for providing wireless network access to a user of a remote device to a wireless network at a hotspot, the method comprising:

establishing wireless communication with the remote device at the hotspot to enable wireless transmission therefrom of social networking credentials associated with a pre-existing personal social network profile, wherein said personal social network profile was previously created by the user on a third party social network operated by a third party social network service provider, and wherein said personal social profile is sharable with other social network users via their respective personal social network profiles that are associated with said personal social profile by the user via said social network;

using said social networking credentials, authenticating the user with said third party social network service provider, wherein authenticating the user comprises assessing social profile data associated with said pre-existing personal social network profile and automatically generating a legitimacy assessment of said social network profile based on said social profile data;

providing the user with wireless access to the wireless network at the hotspot as a result of authenticating the user, wherein said wireless access is tailored based at least in part on the legitimacy assessment by adjusting at least one of an access bandwidth or access time as a function of the legitimacy assessment; and

creating an update to said personal social network profile, wherein said update identifies the user as being currently located at a location of the hotspot.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein said authorizing comprises further tailoring access privileges as a function of said legitimacy assessment.

3. The method according to claim 1, further comprising further tailoring said wireless access as a function of said social profile data.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein said further tailoring comprises automatically directing the remote device to tailored content.

5. The method according to claim 3, further comprising accessing one or more of remote device-related data and user-related data, and binding said accessed data with said social profile data in a combined network access profile, wherein said wireless access is further tailored as a function of said combined network access profile.

6. The method according to claim 1, further comprising accessing hotspot-related data, and further tailoring said wireless access as a function of said hotspot-related data.

7. The method according to claim 6, wherein said legitimacy assessment comprises automatically identifying a relationship between said social profile data and said hotspot-related data, and wherein said wireless access is tailored at least in part as a function of said relationship.

8. The method according to claim 1, further comprising accommodating, as a result of said authenticating the user, invitation of the user to establish a relationship on said personal social network profile with an entity associated with said location, wherein establishment of said relationship results in creation of a reference to said entity on said personal social network profile visible to at least some of said other social network users.

9. The method according to claim 1, further comprising associating said social networking credentials with a pre-existing user profile, thereby enabling network access authentication as a function of said pre-existing user profile using said social networking credentials.

10. The method according to claim 9, wherein said pre-existing user profile comprises affiliated user credentials associated with an affiliated service provider distinct from said social network service provider, whereby network access authentication initiated via said social networking credentials is completed via said affiliated user credentials.

11. The method according to claim 1, further comprising inviting the user, once authenticated via said social networking credentials, to submit affiliated user credentials associated with an affiliated service provider, and associating said affiliated user credentials with said social networking credentials.

12. The method according to claim 11, further comprising, upon subsequently initiating wireless network access via said social networking credentials, automatically authenticating the user via said affiliated user credentials.

13. The method according to claim 11, further comprising reporting on user network access to said affiliated service provider.

14. The method according to claim 1, wherein the method is automatically implemented by a computerized system communicatively linked to the remote device and to a network-enabled social networking device implemented by the social network service provider.

15. The method according to claim 1, wherein said update is visible to at least some of said other social network users.

16. The method according to claim 15, wherein said update comprises visibly identifying the user as being currently located at said location or at an establishment associated with said location.

17. The method according to claim 1, wherein said social network is Facebook™

, wherein said personal social network profile is a personal page associated with the user on Facebook™

, and wherein said other users are associated with the user on Facebook™

as friends of the user.

18. The method according to claim 1, wherein said legitimacy assessment comprises automatically identifying a relationship between said social profile data and said location or an establishment associated with said location, and wherein said wireless access is tailored at least in part as a result of said relationship.

19. The method according to claim 1, wherein said wireless access is further tailored based at least in part on said location by adjusting at least one of said access bandwidth or said access time as a function of said location.

20. A system for providing wireless network access to a user of a remote device to a network at a hotspot, the system comprising:

a wireless access point (WAP) having hardware configured to establish wireless communication with the device to enable wireless transmission therefrom of social networking credentials associated with a pre-existing personal social network profile, wherein said personal social network profile was previously created by the user on a third party social network operated by a third party social network service provider, and wherein said personal social network profile is sharable with other social network users that are associated with the user via said social network via respective personal social network profiles; and

an authentication engine communicatively linked to said hardware and configured to accommodate authentication of the user using said social networking credentials with said third party social network service provider and provide wireless network access to the user via said WAP as a result of authenticating said social networking credentials;

wherein said authentication engine computes an authenticity score for association with said social networking credentials,

wherein said wireless access is tailored based at least in part on said authenticity score by adjusting at least one of an access bandwidth or access time as a function of the authenticity score, and

wherein said personal social network profile is updated to identify the user as being currently located at a location of the WAP.

21. The system according to claim 20, wherein said authentication engine is configured to provide the remote device limited wireless access over the network to a social network authentication processor and knowledge base to accommodate said authentication of the user, wherein said social network authentication processor and knowledge base are configured to authenticate said credentials.

22. The system according to claim 20, wherein said authentication engine is configured to communicate said credentials to a social network authentication processor and knowledge base for authentication.

23. The system according to claim 20, wherein said authentication engine is further configured to receive as input one or more social profile data elements associated with said social network profile distinct from said credentials, and process said one or more social profile data elements against a programmed set of authentication rules to selectively authorize access to the network upon said one or more social profile data elements satisfying one or more of said rules.

24. The system according to claim 20, wherein said wireless access is only authorized upon said authenticity score exceeding a predefined threshold.

25. The system according to claim 20, wherein said authenticity score is computed based on one or more attributes of said personal social network profile being verified as true.

26. The system according to claim 25, wherein said one or more attributes comprise an identifiable relationship between said personal social network profile and said location or an establishment associated with said location.

27. The system according to claim 20, further comprising a knowledge base for storing one or more pre-existing profiles associated with the user, said pre-existing profiles comprising one or more of a device profile and an affiliated user profile, wherein said authentication engine is further configured to bind said social networking credentials with said pre-existing profiles in a combined network access profile to tailor said wireless access as a function of the combined network access profile.

28. The system according to claim 20, further configured to automatically detect device-related data embedded within device transmissions, said authentication engine being further configured to generate a device profile based on said device-related data for association with said social networking credentials and further tailor said wireless access as a function of the device profile.

29. The system according to claim 20, wherein the system is further configured to accommodate, as a result of authenticating said social network credentials, a user invitation to establish a relationship on said personal social network profile with an entity associated with said location, wherein establishment of said relationship results in creation of a reference to said entity on said personal social network profile visible to at least some of said other social network users.

30. The system according to claim 20, wherein said personal social network profile is visible to at least some of said other social network users.

31. The system according to claim 30, wherein said personal social network profile visibly identifies the user as being currently located at said location or at an establishment associated with said location.

32. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising statements and instructions for implementation by a computing system in authenticating a user of a remote device at a hotspot for providing wireless network access to a wireless network thereto, in accordance with the following:

receiving as input social networking credentials associated with a pre-existing personal social network profile, wherein said personal social network profile was previously created by the user on a third party social network operated by a third party social network service provider, and wherein said personal social network profile is sharable with other social network users that are associated with the user via said social network via respective personal social network profiles;

using said social networking credentials, authenticating the user with said third party social network service provider, wherein authenticating the user comprises assessing social profile data associated with said pre-existing personal social network profile and automatically generating a legitimacy assessment of said social network profile based on said social profile data;

providing the user with wireless access to the wireless network at the hotspot as a result of authenticating the user, wherein said wireless access is tailored based at least in part on the legitimacy assessment by adjusting at least one of an access bandwidth or access time as a function of the legitimacy assessment; and

creating an update to said personal social network profile, wherein said update identifies the user as being currently located at a location of the hotspot.

33. The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to claim 32 embodying an authentication engine programmed to tailor said wireless access as a function of said social profile data accessible thereto.

34. The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to claim 33, wherein said authentication engine is further programmed to tailor said wireless access as a function of one or more of device-related data, hotspot-related data and affiliated user-related data accessible thereto.

35. The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to claim 32 embodying an authentication engine programmed to process said social profile data accessible thereto as a function of pre-set authentication rules and selectively authorize said wireless access to the user as a function of said social profile data.

36. The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to claim 32, further comprising statements and instructions to automatically accommodate a user invitation to establish a relationship on said personal social network profile with an entity associated with said location, wherein establishment of said relationship results in creation of a reference to said entity on said personal social network profile visible to at least some of said other social network users.

37. The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to claim 32, wherein said update is visible to at least some of said other social network users.

38. The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to claim 37, wherein said update comprises visibly identifying the user as being currently located at said location or at said establishment associated with said location.

39. A method for providing wireless network access to a user of a remote device to a wireless network at a hotspot, the method comprising:

establishing wireless communication with the remote device at the hotspot to enable wireless transmission therefrom of social networking credentials associated with a pre-existing personal social network profile, wherein said personal social network profile was previously created by the user on a third party social network operated by a third party social network service provider, and wherein said personal social profile is sharable with other social network users via their respective personal social network profiles that are associated with said personal social profile by the user via said social network;

using said social networking credentials, authenticating the user with said third party social network service provider, wherein authenticating the user comprises assessing social profile data associated with said pre-existing personal social network profile and automatically generating a legitimacy assessment of said social network profile based on said social profile data;

providing the user with wireless access to the wireless network at the hotspot as a result of authenticating the user, wherein said wireless access is limited to at least one of a restricted access time or restricted online content upon said legitimacy assessment scoring below a predefined threshold; and

creating an update to said personal social network profile, wherein said update identifies the user as being currently located at a location of the hotspot.

40. The method according to claim 39, wherein said update is visible to at least some of said other social network users, and wherein said update comprises visibly identifying the user as being currently located at said location or at an establishment associated with said location.

41. The method according to claim 39, wherein said legitimacy assessment comprises automatically identifying a relationship between said social profile data and said location or an establishment associated with said location.

42. A system for providing wireless network access to a user of a remote device at a hotspot, the system comprising:

a wireless access point (WAP) having hardware configured to establish wireless communication with the device to enable wireless transmission therefrom of social networking credentials associated with a pre-existing personal social network profile, wherein said personal social network profile was previously created by the user on a third party social network operated by a third party social network service provider, and wherein said personal social network profile is sharable with other social network users that are associated with the user via said social network via respective personal social network profiles; and

an authentication engine communicatively linked to said hardware and configured to accommodate authentication of the user using said social networking credentials with said third party social network service provider and provide wireless network access to the user via said WAP as a result of authenticating said social networking credentials;

wherein said authentication engine computes an authenticity score for association with said social networking credentials,

wherein said wireless access is limited to at least one of a restricted access time or restricted online content upon said authenticity score being below a predefined threshold, and

wherein said personal social network profile is updated to identify the user as being currently located at a location of the WAP.

43. The system according to claim 42, wherein said authenticity score is computed at least in part based on one or more attributes of said personal social network profile being verified as true, and wherein said one or more attributes comprise an identifiable relationship between said personal social network profile and said location or an establishment associated with said location.