Patent Issued for Digital safety and account discovery (USPTO 11895131): Allstate Insurance Company

2024 FEB 22 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- According to news reporting originating from Alexandria, Virginia, by NewsRx journalists, a patent by the inventors Park, Jason D. (Chicago, IL, US), Parkinson, John S. (Burlington, VT, US), filed on November 1, 2022, was published online on February 6, 2024.

The assignee for this patent, patent number 11895131, 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 keeping track of all of them is difficult and time consuming. Many consumers have subscriptions and financial accounts that they have long forgotten about but those subscriptions and financial accounts may still be active and accessible online. It is important from a digital safety perspective that consumer be aware of all of their online accounts and be diligent in closing unused or no longer wanted subscriptions.

“Further, as consumers continue to gain an ever-increasing presence in online environments, there will be an ever-present need to better protect consumers from confidential information being breached (e.g., made available publicly) in order to protect consumers from fraud and/or other harms.”

In addition to obtaining background information on this patent, NewsRx editors also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “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 keep track of a consumer’s accounts and to prevent unauthorized access or use of the consumers identified subscriptions and financial accounts. The discovered subscriptions and financial accounts may be listed and displayed to the consumer along with recommendations and assistance for closing any discovered unused or unwanted financial accounts and subscriptions. The described cyber-security system may prevent unauthorized access, use, and security breaches by unauthorized users and devices of the consumer’s accounts.

“In some aspects, the cyber-security system may include a cyber-security account analysis system and a cyber-security data processing system. The cyber-security system may include at least one processor and a memory unit storing computer-executable instructions. The cyber-security system may be configured to, in operation, generate a consumer profile based on consumer information, scan a consumer device to determine potential security threat, and associate the consumer device and the results of the scan with the generated consumer profile. The cyber-security system may also be configured to, in operation, monitor at least one email account of the consumer. The cyber security system may be configured to, in operation, determine source information for each email correspondence in the monitored at least one email account. Based on the determined source information for each email correspondence, the cyber-security system may generate a list of financial institutions associated with the consumer. The cyber-security system may, in operation, also determine for each email correspondence a likelihood that each email correspondence represents a subscription of the consumer. Based on the determined likelihood that each email correspondence represents a subscription of the consumer, the cyber-security system may generate a list of subscriptions associated with the consumer. The cyber-security system may, in operation, recommend closing accounts associated with the consumer based on security recommendations. The cyber-security system may also, in operation, assist or automate closing of any selected accounts.

“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 cyber-security account analysis device comprising: a processor; and a memory unit storing computer-readable instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the cyber-security account analysis device to: generate a list of subscriptions associated with a consumer based on a determined likelihood that an item of email correspondence is related to a subscription of the consumer, update a consumer profile associated with the consumer with the generated list of subscriptions, determine a digital safety score associated with the consumer based on the consumer profile and the generated list of subscriptions, and initiate automatic closing of an account associated with a subscription on the generated list of subscriptions based on a determination that the account has not been accessed.

“2. The cyber-security account analysis device of claim 1, wherein the instructions, when executed by the processor, further cause the cyber-security account analysis device to: update the consumer profile based on the closed account; and adjust, based on the consumer profile and the closed account, the digital safety score associated with the consumer.

“3. The cyber-security account analysis device of claim 1, wherein the digital safety score represents a risk of a data breach of the consumer.

“4. The cyber-security account analysis device of claim 3, wherein the digital safety score is determined based on a risk associated with each of a plurality of components that contribute to the risk of the data breach, and wherein a first component, of the plurality of components that contribute to the risk of the data breach, comprises a number of subscriptions.

“5. The cyber-security account analysis device of claim 4, wherein the instructions, when executed by the processor, further cause the cyber-security account analysis device to: generate a user interface comprising a graphical depiction of the digital safety score and the plurality of components; and send, to a user computing device associated with the consumer, the generated user interface.

“6. A method comprising: generating, by a computing device and based on a determined likelihood that an item of email correspondence is related to a subscription of a consumer, a list of subscriptions associated with the consumer; updating, by the computing device and with the generated list of subscriptions, a consumer profile associated with the consumer; determining, by the computing device and based on the consumer profile and the generated list of subscriptions, a digital safety score associated with the consumer; and initiating, by the computing device and based on a determination that an account associated with a subscription on the generated list of subscriptions has not been accessed, automatic closing of the account.

“7. The method of claim 6, further comprising: updating the consumer profile based on the closed account; and adjusting, based on the consumer profile and the closed account, the digital safety score associated with the consumer.

“8. The method of claim 6, wherein the digital safety score represents a risk of a data breach of the consumer.

“9. The method of claim 8, wherein the digital safety score is determined based on a risk associated with each of a plurality of components that contribute to the risk of the data breach, and wherein a first component, of the plurality of components that contribute to the risk of the data breach, comprises a number of subscriptions.

“10. The method of claim 9, further comprising: generating a user interface comprising a graphical depiction of the digital safety score and the plurality of components; and sending, to a user computing device associated with the consumer, the generated user interface.

“11. A non-transitory, computer-executable storage medium storing instructions that, when executed by a processor of a computing device, cause the computing device to: monitor an email account of a consumer; determine source information for one or more items of email correspondence in the monitored email account; generate, based on a determined likelihood that an item of email correspondence or the determined source information for the item of email correspondence is related to a subscription of the consumer, generate a list of subscriptions associated with the consumer; update, with the generated list of subscriptions, a consumer profile associated with the consumer; determine, based on the consumer profile and the generated list of subscriptions, a digital safety score associated with the consumer; and initiate, based on a determination that an account associated with a subscription on the generated list of subscriptions has not been accessed for a predetermined period of time, automatic closing of the account.

“12. The non-transitory, computer-executable storage medium of claim 11, wherein the instructions, when executed by the processor, further cause the computing device to: update the consumer profile based on the closed account; and adjust, based on the consumer profile and the closed account, the digital safety score associated with the consumer.

“13. The non-transitory, computer-executable storage medium of claim 11, wherein the digital safety score represents a risk of a data breach of the consumer.

“14. The non-transitory, computer-executable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the digital safety score is determined based on a risk associated with each of a plurality of components that contribute to the risk of the data breach, wherein a first component, of the plurality of components that contribute to the risk of the data breach, comprises a number of subscriptions, and wherein the instructions, when executed by the processor, further cause the computing device to: generate a user interface comprising a graphical depiction of the digital safety score and the plurality of components; and send, to a user computing device associated with the consumer, the generated user interface.”

For more information, see this patent: Park, Jason D. Digital safety and account discovery. U.S. Patent Number 11895131, filed November 1, 2022, and published online on February 6, 2024. Patent URL (for desktop use only): https://ppubs.uspto.gov/pubwebapp/external.html?q=(11895131)&db=USPAT&type=ids

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