“Unsubscribe And Delete Automation” in Patent Application Approval Process (USPTO 20200302087)

2020 OCT 12 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- A patent application by the inventors Parkinson, John S. (Lake Forest, IL); Schapiro, Jessica (Chicago, IL); Lu, Marvin (Chicago, IL); Daftary, Siddharth (Chicago, IL); Sharp, Michael (Chicago, IL); Newell, Stephen Robert (Belfast, GB); Burns, William P. (Ballymena, IE); Dhakshnamoorthy, Jhanani (Boothwyn, PA); Hudson, Colin (Chicago, IL), filed on March 19, 2020, was made available online on September 24, 2020, according to news reporting originating from Washington, D.C., by NewsRx correspondents.

This patent application is assigned to Allstate Insurance Company (Northbrook, Illinois, United States).

The following quote was obtained by the news editors 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 the background information obtained for this patent application, NewsRx journalists 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 method comprising: determining, by a computing device, one or more entities that have stored a consumer’s personal information; outputting, for display, a list of the one or more entities; determining, for each of the one or more entities, a corresponding data removal action; receiving a user input indicative of a command to perform a data removal action corresponding to a first entity of the one or more entities; and based on the input, sending a message to the first entity, wherein the message comprises a request to delete the consumer’s personal information.

“2. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the one or more entities comprises a data broker, and wherein the determining the one or more entities that have stored the consumer’s personal information comprises determining, based on a pre-configuration, that the data broker has stored the consumer’s personal information.

“3. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the one or more entities comprises a data broker and wherein the determining the one or more entities that have stored the consumer’s personal information comprises determining, based on a response to a query message sent to the data broker, that the data broker has stored the consumer’s personal information.

“4. The method of claim 1, wherein the sending the message to the first entity comprises sending an HTTP request to the first entity.

“5. The method of claim 1, further comprising: determining, for a plurality of items of email correspondence, a likelihood that each item of email correspondence represents an account or subscription of a consumer; and based on the determined likelihood that each item of email correspondence represents an account or subscription of the consumer, generating a list of accounts and subscriptions associated with the consumer, wherein the determining the one or more entities that have stored the consumer’s personal information comprises determining entities associated with the accounts and subscriptions.

“6. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more entities comprises at least two entities, the method further comprising: determining, for each of the at least two entities, a privacy settings update action; receiving a user input indicative of a command to perform a privacy settings update action corresponding to a second entity of the at least two entities; and sending, to the second entity, a request to update a consumer’s privacy settings.

“7. The method of claim 6, wherein the request to update the consumer’s privacy settings comprises a data service agreement, and wherein the sending the request comprises sending an email message with the data sharing agreement.

“8. The method of claim 6, wherein the sending the request comprises sending one or more HTTP requests.

“9. A method comprising: determining, by a computing device, a plurality of data brokers that have stored a consumer’s personal information; outputting, for display, a listing of the plurality of data brokers; determining, for each of the plurality of data brokers, a corresponding data removal action; receiving a user input indicative of a command to perform a data removal action corresponding to a first data broker of the plurality of data brokers; and sending, to the first data broker, a message comprising a request to delete the consumer’s personal information.

“10. The method of claim 9, wherein the determining the plurality of data brokers that have stored the consumer’s personal information comprises determining, based on a pre-configuration, that the plurality of data brokers have stored the consumer’s personal information.

“11. The method of claim 9, wherein the determining the plurality of data brokers that have stored the consumer’s personal information comprises determining, based on a response to a query message sent to at least one data broker of the plurality of data brokers, that the at least one data broker has stored the consumer’s personal information.

“12. The method of claim 9, wherein the sending the message to the first data broker comprises sending an HTTP request to the first data broker.

“13. The method of claim 9, wherein at least one data broker of the plurality of data brokers comprises a credit reporting bureau or a people-search company.

“14. The method of claim 9, further comprising: receiving, from the first data broker, a response indicative of a result of the request; and outputting, for display, the result of the request.

“15. A method comprising: determining, by a computing device and for a plurality of items of email correspondence, a likelihood that each item of email correspondence represents an account or subscription of a consumer; and based on the determined likelihood that each item of email correspondence represents an account or subscription of the consumer, generating a list of accounts and subscriptions associated with the consumer; determining one or more entities associated with the accounts and subscriptions; outputting, for display, a list of the one or more entities; determining, for each of the one or more entities, a corresponding data removal action; determining, for each of the one or more entities, a privacy settings update action; receiving a user input indicative of a command to perform a privacy settings update action corresponding to a first entity of the one or more entities; and based on the input, sending a message to the first entity, wherein the message comprises a request to update the consumer’s privacy settings.

“16. The method of claim 15, wherein the request to update the consumer’s privacy settings comprises a data sharing agreement, and wherein the sending the message to the first entity comprises sending an email message with the data sharing agreement to the first entity.

“17. The method of claim 15, wherein the sending the message to the first entity comprises sending one or more HTTP requests.

“18. The method of claim 15, the determining the one or more entities further comprising: determining at least one entity associated with a data broker; receiving a user input indicative of a command to perform a data removal action corresponding to the data broker; and sending, to the data broker, a message comprising a request to delete the consumer’s personal information.

“19. The method of claim 18, wherein the sending, to the data broker, the message comprises sending an HTTP request to the data broker.

“20. The method of claim 18, wherein the data broker comprises a credit reporting bureau or a people-search company.”

URL and more information on this patent application, see: Parkinson, John S.; Schapiro, Jessica; Lu, Marvin; Daftary, Siddharth; Sharp, Michael; Newell, Stephen Robert; Burns, William P.; Dhakshnamoorthy, Jhanani; Hudson, Colin. Unsubscribe And Delete Automation. Filed March 19, 2020 and posted September 24, 2020. Patent URL: http://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=%2220200302087%22.PGNR.&OS=DN/20200302087&RS=DN/20200302087

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