Securely locating a device

• US 8,977,294 B2
• Filed: 11/12/2007
• Issued: 03/10/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 10/10/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: De Atley, Dallas
• Primary Examiner(s): MAPA, MICHAEL Y
• Application Number:
  US11/938,745
• Publication Number:
  US 20090098857A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,675 Days
• Field of Search: 455/404.2, 455/412.2, 455410-411, 4554561-457, 726 26- 29, 340/539.13
• US Class Current: 455/456.2
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/66 with means for preventing unauthorised or fraudulent calling verifying user identity or authority in secret or secure digital communications H04L9/32
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72436 for text messaging, e.g. short messaging services [SMS] or e-mails
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/10 including a GPS signal receiver
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/22 including a touch pad, a touch sensor or a touch detector digitizers for touch screens G06F3/041
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/60 logging of communication history, e.g. outgoing or incoming calls, missed calls, messages or URLs logging of telephone numbers H04M1/56, H04M1/57

Abstract

Methods, systems, and computer-readable medium for securely locating a mobile device. In one implementation, a method is provided. The method includes receiving first information from a first device, where the first information is usable to identify a geographic location of the first device. The first information is verified as originating from the first device. A first request for the geographic location of the first device is received, where the first request includes second information associated with a user associated with the first device. The geographic location of the first device is provided to the user at a second device.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, by a host device and from a user of a mobile device, a request to locate the mobile device;

in response, remotely activating, by the host device, a function of the mobile device to record a last known location of the mobile device and submit the recorded location to the host device; and

displaying, on a display device coupled to the host device, an identifier of the user of the mobile device and a first user selectable tab for displaying a device location on a map, a second user selectable tab for displaying a call activity log, and a third user selectable tab for displaying a web activity log, wherein;

the call activity log comprises one or more call activity records arranged in a table format, each call activity record includes representations of a date of a call, a time of the call, a duration of the call, and a last known location at the time of the call,

the web activity log comprises one or more web activity records arranged in the table format, each web activity record includes representations of a date of a web activity, a time of the web activity, and a last known location at the time of the web activity,

each of the last location at the time of the call and the last location at the time of the web activity is presented as a selectable link that, when selected, triggers the host device to switch from the second user selectable tab or from the third user selectable tab to the first user selectable tab to display the map, wherein the selected last location is marked in the displayed map, and

the map is displayed in association with a user interface item for remotely activating a security procedure of the mobile device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the security procedure comprises functions of recording an attribute of a user activity performed on the mobile device,

the user activity includes at least one of a telephone call activity, a web browsing activity, or an e-mail activity, and

the attribute includes a telephone number, a web address, or an e-mail address.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein:

each call activity record includes a destination phone number when the call is initiated from the mobile device or a source phone number when the call is received by the mobile device, and

each web activity record includes a record of a web site visited.

4. The method of claim 3, where the last known location includes geographic coordinates of the mobile device, the coordinates being incorporated in a domain name system (DNS) record as a part of a DNS message transmitted from the mobile device.

5. The method of claim 4, where the geographic coordinates of the last known location of the mobile device is incorporated in a text record of the DNS message.

6. The method of claim 5, where the text record is a TXT record of the DNS message.

7. The method of claim 3, wherein:

each last known location is included in a text message that is digitally signed with a private key of the mobile device.

8. The method of claim 1, comprising:

providing, by the host device and to the mobile device, a request to update the last known location of the mobile device upon determining that a pre-determined amount of time has passed since the host device received the location.

9. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon, the instructions operable to cause a processor to perform operations comprising:

receiving, by a host device and from a user of a mobile device, a request to locate the mobile device;

in response, remotely activating, by the host device, a function of the mobile device to record a last known location of the mobile device and submit the recorded location to the host device; and

displaying, on a display device coupled to the host device, an identifier of the user of the mobile device and a first user selectable tab for displaying a device location on a map, a second user selectable tab for displaying a call activity log, and a third user selectable tab for displaying a web activity log, wherein;

the call activity log comprises one or more call activity records arranged in a table format, each call activity record includes representations of a date of a call, a time of the call, a duration of the call, and a last known location at the time of the call,

the web activity log comprises one or more web activity records arranged in the table format, each web activity record includes representations of a date of a web activity, a time of the web activity, and a last known location at the time of the web activity,

each of the last location at the time of the call and the last location at the time of the web activity is presented as a selectable link that, when selected, triggers the host device to switch from the second user selectable tab or from the third user selectable tab to the first user selectable tab to display the map, wherein the selected last location is marked in the displayed map, and

the map is displayed in association with a user interface item for remotely activating a security procedure of the mobile device.

10. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 9, wherein:

the security procedure comprises functions of recording an attribute of a user activity performed on the mobile device,

the activity includes at least one of a telephone call activity, a web browsing activity, or an e-mail activity, and

the attribute includes a telephone number, a web address, or an e-mail address.

11. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 10, wherein:

each call activity record includes a destination phone number when the call is initiated from the mobile device or a source phone number when the call is received by the mobile device, and

each web activity record includes a record of a web site visited.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 11, where the last known location includes geographic coordinates of the mobile device, the coordinates being incorporated in a domain name system (DNS) record as a part of a DNS message transmitted from the mobile device.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 12, where the geographic coordinates of the last known location of the mobile device is incorporated in a text record of the DNS message.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 13, where the text record is a TXT record of the DNS message.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein:

each last known location is included in a text message that is digitally signed with a private key of the mobile device; and

the operations comprise authenticating the digitally signed text message.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 9, the operations comprising:

providing, by the host device and to the mobile device, a request to update the last known location of the mobile device upon determining that a pre-determined amount of time has passed since the host device received the location.

17. A system, comprising:

a host device including a processor; and

a non-transitory computer-readable medium coupled to the processor and including instructions, which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising;

receiving, by a host device and from a user of a mobile device, a request to locate the mobile device;

in response, remotely activating, by the host device, a function of the mobile device to record a last known location of the mobile device and submit the recorded location to the host device; and

displaying, on a display device coupled to the host device, an identifier of the user of the mobile device and a first user selectable tab for displaying a device location on a map, a second user selectable tab for displaying a call activity log, and a third user selectable tab for displaying a web activity log, wherein;

the call activity log comprises one or more call activity records arranged in a table format, each call activity record includes representations of a date of a call, a time of the call, a duration of the call, and a last known location at the time of the call,

the web activity log comprises one or more web activity records arranged in the table format, each web activity record includes representations of a date of a web activity, a time of the web activity, and a last known location at the time of the web activity,

each of the last location at the time of the call and the last location at the time of the web activity is presented as a selectable link that, when selected, triggers the host device to switch from the second user selectable tab or from the third user selectable tab to the first user selectable tab to display the map, wherein the selected last location is marked in the displayed map, and

the map is displayed in association with a user interface item for remotely activating a security procedure of the mobile device.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein:

the security procedure comprises functions of recording an attribute of a user activity performed on the mobile device,

the activity includes at least one of a telephone call activity, a web browsing activity, or an e-mail activity, and

the attribute includes a telephone number, a web address, or an e-mail address.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein:

each call activity record includes a destination phone number when the call is initiated from the mobile device or a source phone number when the call is received by the mobile device, and

each web activity record includes a record of a web site visited.

20. The system of claim 19, where the last known location includes geographic coordinates of the mobile device, the coordinates being incorporated in a domain name system (DNS) record as a part of a DNS message transmitted from the mobile device.

21. The system of claim 20, where the geographic coordinates of the last known location of the mobile device is incorporated in a text record of the DNS message.

22. The system of claim 21, where the text record is a TXT record of the DNS message.

23. The system of claim 19, wherein:

each last known location is included in a text message that is digitally signed with a private key of the mobile device; and

the operations comprise authenticating the digitally signed text message.

24. The system of claim 17, the operations comprising:

providing, by the host device and to the mobile device, a request to update the last known location of the mobile device upon determining that a pre-determined amount of time has passed since the host device received the location.

25. The system of claim 17, comprising:

determining, by the security procedure of the mobile device, that the mobile device is located outside of a designated country, wherein the designated country is a home country of a user of the mobile device.

26. The system of claim 25, comprising:

in response to determining that the mobile device is located outside of the designated country, erasing designated sensitive information from a storage device of the mobile device, wherein the designated sensitive information includes financial data and a password.