Patent Application Titled “Unsubscribe And Delete Automation” Published Online (USPTO 20220004660): Allstate Insurance Company

2022 JAN 26 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- According to news reporting originating from Washington, D.C., by NewsRx journalists, a patent application by the inventors BURNS, William P. (Northbrook, IL, US); DAFTARY, Siddharth (Northbrook, IL, US); DHAKSHNAMOORTHY, Jhanani (Northbrook, IL, US); HUDSON, Colin (Northbrook, IL, US); LU, Marvin (Northbrook, IL, US); NEWELL, Stephen Robert (Northbrook, IL, US); PARKINSON, John S. (Northbrook, IL, US); SCHAPIRO, Jessica (Northbrook, IL, US); SHARP, Michael (Northbrook, IL, US), filed on September 20, 2021, was made available online on January 6, 2022.

The assignee for this patent application is Allstate Insurance Company (Northbrook, Illinois, United States).

Reporters obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “Protecting confidential information in today’s online environment is difficult due to the increased connectivity and the increased number of consumer accounts accessible via web enabled computing devices. Consumers today have a large number of online subscriptions and accounts, and keeping track of all of them is difficult and time consuming. Many consumers have subscriptions and digital or web-based accounts that have been long forgotten, but those subscriptions and accounts may still be active, may contain personal information, and may be accessible online. It is important, from a digital safety perspective, that consumers be aware of all of their online accounts and be diligent in closing unused or no longer wanted subscriptions.

“For each of these unused or unwanted accounts or subscriptions, a consumer may continue to receive unwanted emails and/or other communications. However, for consumers, unsubscribing and/or deleting unused or no longer needed accounts and subscriptions can be difficult.

“Website owners provide privacy policies that may contain opt-out provisions that detail how to unsubscribe or delete an account, but finding such information is difficult and time consuming. Unsubscribing details may also be found in email list services or in marketing communications, but such unsubscribing details may be confusing and burdensome for consumers to implement. Therefore, there is a need for a simpler and more efficient approach to unsubscribing for consumers.

“Furthermore, data brokers, such as credit reporting bureaus and people-search companies, may collect personal information about a consumer, even though the consumer may not have signed up for an account with the data broker. The consumer may not even be aware of these data brokers, and, since each data broker may have a different user interface, it may be difficult for the consumer to delete personal data held by these data brokers.

“In addition, for those accounts that a consumer retains, a consumer may be able to modify privacy settings associated with their accounts, however, these privacy settings are often located deep inside a user interface hierarchy and each account may have a different user interface, making it challenging for the consumer to locate and modify these privacy settings.”

In addition to obtaining background information on this patent application, NewsRx editors also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent application: “In light of the foregoing background, the following presents a simplified summary of the present disclosure in order to provide a basic understanding of some aspects of the invention. This summary is not an extensive overview of the invention. It is not intended to identify key or critical elements of the invention or to delineate the scope of the invention. The following summary merely presents some concepts of the invention in a simplified form as a prelude to the more detailed description provided below.

“Aspects of the disclosure address one or more of the issues mentioned above by disclosing methods, computer readable storage media, software, systems, and apparatuses for use by a consumer in order to discover and remove unwanted mailing list traffic and digital communication based relationships associated with a consumer’s discovered accounts and subscriptions, to modify privacy settings associated with the accounts, and/or to purge personal information held by a data broker.

“In an embodiment, for each identified account or subscription, an unsubscribe and deletion method may be determined and implemented for the consumer. Discovered accounts and subscriptions may be listed and displayed to the consumer along with recommendations and assistance for closing and purging any discovered unused or unwanted account or subscription, including any data associated with those accounts or subscriptions. In some aspects, the discovered accounts and subscriptions may be displayed with privacy setting options which, when selected, may cause updates to privacy settings of the associated accounts or subscriptions to be performed.

“In some aspects, a listing of one or more data brokers may be displayed with user options for purging data held by the data brokers. Upon user selection, one or more data brokers may be contacted on behalf of the consumer and a request to delete personal information may be submitted.

“In some aspects, the system may include at least one processor and a memory unit storing computer-executable instructions. The system may be configured to, in operation, determine the actual unsubscribe dialog or deletion criteria required for each requested action and execute the requested action using the appropriate method. The system may also be configured to, in operation, handle exceptions, report results, and transmit confirmations that the requests were successfully completed. The system may be configured to, in operation, create log records of the transactions.

“Of course, the methods and systems of the above-referenced embodiments may also include other additional elements, steps, computer-executable instructions, or computer-readable data structures. In this regard, other embodiments are disclosed and claimed herein as well. The details of these and other embodiments of the present invention are set forth in the accompanying drawings and the description below. Other features and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the description, drawings, and claims.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A system, comprising: one or more processors configured to: determine, for a plurality of items of email correspondence, a plurality of user accounts indicated by information included in the email correspondence; determine a plurality of information elements common to at least two of the plurality of accounts; present an option for selecting one or more of the plurality of information elements as a filter for account display; and responsive to selection of one or more of the plurality of information elements, display all accounts, from the plurality of accounts, that store the selected one or more information elements.

“2. The system of claim 1, wherein the information element includes a user location.

“3. The system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of information elements include at least one category and wherein the determination of information elements common to at least two of the plurality of accounts includes determining commonality based on at least one information element in each of the at least two accounts corresponding to the at least one category.

“4. The system of claim 3, wherein the at least one category includes financial information.

“5. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to: receive input indicating at least one of the information elements, common to at least two of the accounts, to be changed; receive new information to replace existing information stored as the at least one information element in each of the at least two of the accounts; and automatically update all of the accounts to replace the existing information stored as the at least one information element with the received information.

“6. The system of claim 5, wherein the existing information stored as the at least one information element includes a user address or phone number.

“7. The system of claim 5, wherein the existing information stored as the at least one information element includes a user credit card number.

“8. A method comprising: determining, for a plurality of items of email correspondence, a plurality of user accounts indicated by information included in the email correspondence; determining a plurality of information elements common to at least two of the plurality of accounts, the information elements including at least one category and wherein the determination of information elements common to at least two of the plurality of accounts includes determining commonality based on at least one information element in each of the at least two accounts corresponding to the at least one category; presenting an option for selecting one or more of the plurality of information elements as a filter for account display; and responsive to selection of one or more of the plurality of information elements, displaying all accounts, from the plurality of accounts, that store the selected one or more information elements.

“9. The method of claim 8, wherein the information element includes a user location.

“10. The method of claim 8, wherein the at least one category includes financial information.

“11. The method of claim 8, further comprising: receiving input indicating at least one of the information elements, common to at least two of the accounts, to be changed; receiving new information to replace existing information stored as the at least one information element in each of the at least two of the accounts; and automatically updating all of the accounts to replace the existing information stored as the at least one information element with the received information.

“12. The method of claim 11, wherein the existing information stored as the at least one information element includes a user address or phone number.

“13. The method of claim 11, wherein the existing information stored as the at least one information element includes a user credit card number.

“14. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform the method comprising: determining, for a plurality of items of email correspondence, a plurality of user accounts indicated by information included in the email correspondence; determining a plurality of information elements common to at least two of the plurality of accounts; presenting an option for selecting one or more of the plurality of information elements as a filter for account display; responsive to selection of one or more of the plurality of information elements, displaying all accounts, from the plurality of accounts, that store the selected one or more information elements; receiving input indicating at least one of the information elements, common to at least two of the accounts, to be changed; receiving new information to replace existing information stored as the at least one information element in each of the at least two of the accounts; and automatically updating all of the accounts to replace the existing information stored as the at least one information element with the received information.

“15. The storage medium of claim 14, wherein the information element includes a user location.

“16. The storage medium of claim 14, wherein the plurality of information elements include at least one category and wherein the determination of information elements common to at least two of the plurality of accounts includes determining commonality based on at least one information element in each of the at least two accounts corresponding to the at least one category.

“17. The storage medium of claim 16, wherein the at least one category includes financial information.

“18. The storage medium of claim 14, wherein the existing information stored as the at least one information element includes a user address or phone number.

“19. The storage medium of claim 14, wherein the existing information stored as the at least one information element includes a user credit card number.”

For more information, see this patent application: BURNS, William P.; DAFTARY, Siddharth; DHAKSHNAMOORTHY, Jhanani; HUDSON, Colin; LU, Marvin; NEWELL, Stephen Robert; PARKINSON, John S.; SCHAPIRO, Jessica; SHARP, Michael. Unsubscribe And Delete Automation. Filed September 20, 2021 and posted January 6, 2022. Patent URL: https://appft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PG01&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=%2220220004660%22.PGNR.&OS=DN/20220004660&RS=DN/20220004660

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