Location aware transaction authorization

• US 9,171,301 B1
• Filed: 08/09/2013
• Issued: 10/27/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 06/26/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Gupta, Diwakar, Schattauer, Paul C., Huang, Chih-Jen, Meduri, Kiran Kumar
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, David Q
• Application Number:
  US13/963,470
• Time in Patent Office: 809 Days
• Field of Search: 455/406, 455/405, 455/408, 705/39, 705/78
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/04 Payment circuits
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/12 specially adapted for electronic shopping systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3224 Transactions dependent on location of M-devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/325 using wireless networks
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/405 Establishing or using transaction specific rules
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/1058 Shopping and product ordering

Abstract

A mobile payment network may include a server receiving a request for payment from a device, where the request may include information related to a location for the device. The information related to location information for the device that is included within the request may then be used for deriving location information for the device. Given the location information for the device, a distance between the location information and a geographic area may be determined. The distance between the location information for the device and the geographic area may then serve, at least in part, as the basis for approving the request for payment.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

at least one processor; and

one or more memory devices to store instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause a computing device to;

receive, from a device, a request for payment, wherein the request for payment includes information related to a location of the device, wherein the request for payment is between a first entity and a second entity, wherein the device is associated with an account, and wherein the account is associated with the first entity;

determine a location information for the device based at least in part on the information related to the location of the device;

determine a distance between the location information for the device and a geographic area;

determine whether to authorize or decline the request for payment based at least on whether the distance between the location of the device and the geographic area satisfies a proximity rule and whether the first entity has previously identified the second entity as a potential transaction partner; and

decline the request for payment unless the first entity has previously identified the second entity as a potential transaction partner and the distance between the location information for the device and the geographic area satisfies the proximity rule.

2. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the device is a first device, and wherein the geographic area is identified based at least partly on location information received from a second device.

3. The system as recited in claim 2, wherein the payment is authorized based at least in part on the distance between the location information for the first device to the geographic area being less than or equal to a threshold distance;

and wherein the instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, further cause the computing device to;

decline the payment based at least in part on the distance between the location for the first device to the geographic area being greater than the threshold distance.

4. A system comprising:

at least one processor; and

one or more memory devices to store instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause a computing device to;

receive, from a first device, a request for payment, the request including information related to a location of the first device;

determine a geographic location for the first device based at least in part on the information related to the location of the first device;

determine a distance between the geographic location of the first device and a geographic area, wherein the geographic area is identified based at least partly on location information received from a second device; and

at least one of;

perform a first set of actions to authorize the request for payment based at least in part on the distance between the geographic location of the first device and the geographic area;

or

perform a second set of actions to;

decline the request for payment based at least partly on the second device not being within the geographic area;

receive updated location information from the second device;

determine an updated geographic area based at least partly on the updated location information from the second device;

determine an updated distance between the geographic location of the first device and the updated geographic area; and

authorize the request for payment based at least partly on the updated distance of the geographic location of the first device to the updated geographic area.

5. A method comprising:

receiving, from a device, a request to perform a financial transaction between the first entity and a second entity, wherein the request includes information indicative of a location of the device, wherein the device is associated with an account, and wherein the account is associated with the first entity;

determining a geographic location of the device based at least in part on the information included in the request;

determining a distance between the geographic location of the device and a geographic area; and

conditioning the transaction based at least on a proximity rule applied to the determined distance between the geographic location of the device and the geographic area, wherein the conditioning comprises declining the transaction unless the first entity has previously identified the second entity as a potential transaction partner.

6. The method as recited in claim 5, wherein the device is a first device, wherein a second device is within the geographic area, and wherein the proximity rule specifies authorizing the transaction based at least partly on the second device being within a specified distance of the first device.

7. The method as recited in claim 6, wherein the proximity rule further specifies authorizing the transaction based at least partly on a relationship between a user of the second device and a user of the first device.

8. The method as recited in claim 5, wherein the information indicative of the location comprises global positioning data indicating an explicit location of the device.

9. The method as recited in claim 5, wherein the information indicative of the location comprises cellular tower information.

10. The method as recited in claim 5, wherein the information indicative of the location is specified according to capabilities of locating technology of the device.

11. The method as recited in claim 5, wherein the information indicative of the location corresponds to a ZIP code, a street, a city, or a state.

12. The method as recited in claim 5, wherein the information indicative of the location is an estimate deduced from the information related to the location of the device.

13. The method as recited in claim 5, wherein the one or more conditions include authorizing the requested payment if the geographic area and the location information for the device are within a specified physical distance of each other.

14. The method as recited in claim 5, wherein the one or more conditions include declining the requested payment if the geographic area and the location information for the device are not within a specified physical distance of each other.

15. One or more non-transitory, computer-readable media storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed on one or more processors, perform acts comprising:

associating a first account with a device;

in response to receiving a request from the device for a financial transaction between the first account and a second account, conditioning the financial transaction based at least in part on a proximity rule applied to a distance between the device and a geographic area, wherein the request includes location information associated with the device and the distance is determined based at least partly on the location information for the device and wherein the conditioning comprises declining the financial transaction unless an entity associated with the first account has previously identified an entity associated with second account as a potential transaction partner.

16. The one or more non-transitory, computer-readable media as recited in claim 15, wherein the geographic area is at least in part based on second location information received from a second device.

17. The one or more non-transitory, computer-readable media as recited in claim 16, wherein the device is a first device, and wherein the distance is based at least in part on a location of one or more cellular towers near the first device and the second device.

18. The one or more non-transitory, computer-readable media as recited in claim 16, wherein the device is a first device, and wherein said approving the fulfillment of the transaction is at least in part based on receiving the second location information from the second device within a threshold amount of time since said receiving the request from the first device.

19. The one or more non-transitory, computer-readable media as recited in claim 15, wherein the one or more conditions include authorizing the requested payment if the geographic area and the location information for the device are within a specified physical distance of each other.

20. The one or more non-transitory, computer-readable media as recited in claim 15, wherein the one or more conditions include declining the request if the geographic area and the location information for the device are not within a specified physical distance of each other.