Zone Policy Administration For Entity Tracking And Privacy Assurance

• US 20080072284A1
• Filed: 08/29/2006
• Published: 03/20/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 08/29/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Klein, Johannes, Horvitz, Eric, Frank, Alexander, Westerinen, William Jefferson, Panabaker, Ruston John David
• Granted Patent: US 8,893,224 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 726/2
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/29 Geographical information databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6245 Protecting personal data, e.g. for financial or medical purposes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 30/00 Computer-aided design [CAD]

Abstract

The present invention includes entity tracking, privacy assurance, and zone policy administration technologies allowing for the creation of zone policies, including the definition of zones and managed entities, the zone policies including rules that apply to the managed entities within or in relation to the zones, and privacy policies assuring privacy of sensitive data. The technologies also provide for the definition of sensors, rule event objects, and default event objects, and for the establishment of associations between rules and managed entities, sensors, and rule event objects so as to create zone policies. Event objects may generate zone policy events or actions upon compliance with or violation of various rules of zone policy. Managed entities are defined as entities associated with mobile devices capable of location tracking and communication with zone policy servers. Entities may be persons, vehicles, animals, or any other object for which tracking and zone policy administration is of value. Zone policy may include privacy policy that may restrict access to or set access conditions for data or information. Privacy policies may be used to ensure individual managed entities and their data remain anonymous to a desired degree and that sensitive data is appropriately protected.

Claims

1. A system for tracking a managed entity and administering a zone policy, the system comprising:

a mobile device associated with the managed entity, the mobile device operable to track location and communicate via a network;

a zone policy server coupled to the mobile device via the network; and

a zone policy database coupled to the zone policy server, the zone policy database comprising the zone policy, zone information defining a zone, entity information defining the managed entity, and an association between the zone and the managed entity.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the zone policy database further comprises an event object defining a zone policy event.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the zone policy database further comprises sensor information defining a sensor.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein the zone policy includes a rule.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein the zone policy is automatically applied to the managed entity when the managed entity is within the zone.

6. The system of claim 1 further comprising a means to create the zone policy, define the zone, define the entity, and establish the association.

7. The system of claim 1 further comprising a means for associating the mobile device with an entity thus forming the managed entity.

8. The system of claim 1 wherein the zone policy includes a privacy policy that restricts access to the zone information and the entity information.

9. The system of claim 1 wherein the entity is a person.

10. The system of claim 1 wherein operable to track location is operable to sense a beacon.

11. A computer-implemented method for creating a zone policy, the method comprising:

selecting a zone from one or more zone definitions;

defining a rule that applies to the zone;

selecting a managed entity from one or more managed entity definitions; and

associating the managed entity with the rule.

12. The method of claim 11 further comprising:

selecting a sensor from one or more sensor definitions; and

associating the sensor with the rule.

13. The method of claim 11 further comprising defining a default event object.

14. The method of claim 11 further comprising:

defining a rule event object; and

associating the rule event object with the rule.

15. The method of claim 11 further comprising:

defining a sub-rule; and

associating the sub-rule with the rule or with another sub-rule.

16. The method of claim 11 further comprising defining a privacy policy.

17. A computer-implemented zone policy framework comprising:

a zone policy including a rule;

a zone definition associated with the zone policy; and

a managed entity definition associated with the rule.

18. The zone policy framework of claim 17 further comprising a privacy profile.

19. The zone policy framework of claim 17 further comprising a sub-zone definition.

20. The zone policy framework of claim 17 wherein the zone policy is a crawler management policy.