Patent Issued for Obscuring And Deleting Information From A Messaging Account (USPTO 10,346,634)

2019 JUL 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 Peterson, Nathan J. (Durham, NC); VanBlon, Russell Speight (Raleigh, NC); Weksler, Arnold S. (Raleigh, NC); Mese, John Carl (Cary, NC), filed on November 20, 2014, was published online on July 22, 2019.

The assignee for this patent, patent number 10,346,634, is Lenovo (Singapore) Pte. Ltd. (New Tech Park, Singapore).

Reporters obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “Often times sensitive information is sent via email and stored in an email account. Also often times, emails received at an email account are not permanently deleted, even after being read. If a person were to gain unauthorized access to an email account containing such sensitive information, many perils could ensue including e.g. identity theft.”

In addition to obtaining background information on this patent, NewsRx editors also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “Accordingly, in one aspect a device includes a processor and a memory accessible to the processor. The memory bears instructions executable by the processor to access a messaging account and parse contents of the messaging account to identify personal information to at least obscure in the messaging account.

“In another aspect, a method includes accessing messages in an account and parsing the messages to identify information to at least obfuscate in the account.

“In still another aspect, a computer readable storage medium that is not a carrier wave includes instructions executable by a processor to access messages associated with a messaging account, identify information to at least one of obfuscate in the messages and remove from the messaging account, and at least one of obfuscate the information and remove the information from the messaging account.

“The details of present principles, both as to their structure and operation, can best be understood in reference to the accompanying drawings, in which like reference numerals refer to like parts, and in which:”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“What is claimed is:

“1. A device, comprising: a processor; and storage accessible to the processor and bearing instructions executable by the processor to: access a messaging account; parse at least a first message of the messaging account to identify personal information to at least obscure in the first message, wherein the contents of the messaging account are parsed at intervals in response to a command to parse the contents of the messaging account at intervals to identify personal information to at least obscure in the messaging account; permit access to the first message with personal information at least obscured; and present at least one user interface (UI) on a display accessible to the processor, the UI comprising a setting that is selectable to configure the device to automatically obscure personal information in messages associated with the messaging account based on personal information being identified.

“2. The device of claim 1, wherein the at least obscuring comprises deleting personal information from the messaging account.

“3. The device of claim 1, wherein the instructions are further executable to: in response to identification of at least some personal information to obscure in the first message, obscure the at least some personal information from being observed upon access to the first message by replacing the at least some personal information with text that does not indicate the at least some personal information itself.

“4. The device of claim 1, wherein the instructions are further executable to: in response to identification of at least some personal information in at least one attachment to the first message to obscure, obscure the at least some personal information in the at least one attachment from being observed upon access to the at least one attachment.

“5. The device of claim 2, wherein the instructions are further executable to: in response to identification of at least some personal information to delete from the messaging account, delete one or more messages containing the at least some personal information.

“6. The device of claim 2, wherein the instructions are further executable to: in response to identification of at least some personal information in a message attachment to delete from the messaging account, delete the attachment.

“7. The device of claim 1, wherein the personal information is information selected from the group consisting of: social security number information, bank account number information, password information, loan information, credit card number information, health insurance information, medical record information, bank name information, credit card provider information, health insurance provider name information, healthcare provider name information, bank routing number information.

“8. The device of claim 1, wherein at least the first message is parsed in response to a command from a user without further input from a user.

“9. The device of claim 1, wherein the setting is selectable via selection of a selector element that is associated with the setting and that is presented on the UI.

“10. The device of claim 1, wherein the UI is a settings UI.

“11. A method, comprising: accessing messages in an account; and parsing the messages to identify, based on one or more of a particular numerical format and a particular number, personal information to at least obfuscate in the account; and presenting, on a display, at least one user interface (UI), the UI comprising a setting that is selectable to enable automatic parsing of messages associated with the account to identify personal information to at least obfuscate, wherein the automatic parsing is enabled so that parsing is performed at predefined intervals.

“12. The method of claim 11, wherein the UI is a UI for configuring settings related to parsing messages to identify information to at least obfuscate in the account.

“13. The method of claim 11, comprising: obfuscating personal information at least in part by corrupting portions of messages containing personal information.

“14. The method of claim 11, comprising: based on identification, in a first message, of personal information to at least obfuscate, sort the first message into a folder for messages that have been identified as having personal information.

“15. A computer readable storage medium that is not a transitory signal, the computer readable storage medium comprising instructions executable by a processor to: based on receipt of a first message at a messaging account, access the first message to identify information to at least one of obfuscate in the first message and remove from the first message; and based on the first message being opened a first time, at least one of: obfuscate the information in the first message, and remove the information from the first message.

“16. The computer readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the instructions are executable to: in response to identification of at least some of the information in the first message to at least one of obfuscate and remove from the messaging account, render the first message unable to be forwarded from the messaging account.

“17. The computer readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the instructions are executable by the processor to: responsive to the first message being opened the first time, at least one of: obfuscate the information in the first message, and remove the information from the first message.

“18. The computer readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the instructions are executable by the processor to: responsive to the first message being closed subsequent to being opened the first time, at least one of: obfuscate the information in the first message, and remove the information from the first message.

“19. The computer readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the instructions are executable by the processor to: highlight the information while the first message is opened the first time, the highlighting being performed without obfuscating or removing the information from the first message.”

For more information, see this patent: Peterson, Nathan J.; VanBlon, Russell Speight; Weksler, Arnold S.; Mese, John Carl. Obscuring And Deleting Information From A Messaging Account. U.S. Patent Number 10,346,634, filed November 20, 2014, and published online on July 22, 2019. Patent URL: http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=10,346,634.PN.&OS=PN/10,346,634RS=PN/10,346,634

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