“Unsubscribe and Delete Automation” in Patent Application Approval Process (USPTO 20210385181): Allstate Insurance Company
2021 DEC 23 (NewsRx) -- By a
This patent application is assigned to
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 they have long forgotten about 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.”
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. 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 accounts and subscriptions, including any data associated with those accounts and subscriptions.
“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. An apparatus, comprising: a cyber-privacy processor; a memory unit storing computer-executable instructions, which when executed by the processor, cause the apparatus to: determine, by the cyber-privacy processor, for a plurality of items of email correspondence, a likelihood that each item of email correspondence represents an account of a consumer; based on the likelihood that each item of email correspondence represents an account of the consumer, generate, by the cyber-privacy processor, a list of accounts associated with the consumer; determine, by the cyber-privacy processor, for each account, a deletion process, wherein the deletion process is configured to delete personal information that has been associated with the account and wherein the deletion process for at least one account is determined by analyzing a privacy policy on a webpage hosted by a source of the at least one account; and output, for display to the consumer, the list of accounts and an indication of a deletion action for each account, wherein the deletion action is configured to invoke the deletion process.
“2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the deletion process comprises a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) and at least one parameter.
“3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the at least one parameter comprises a credential of the consumer.
“4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the computer-executable instructions, when executed by the processor, further cause the apparatus to: receive, from the consumer, an indication to delete one or more accounts; retrieve a deletion process for each of the one or more accounts from the list of accounts and subscriptions; and initiate the deletion process for each of the one or more accounts.
“5. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the computer-executable instructions, when executed by the processor, further cause the apparatus to: transmit a report to the consumer upon successful completion of the deletion process for each of the one or more accounts; and generate a log record of an outcome of the deletion process for each of the one or more accounts.
“6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the computer-executable instructions, when executed by the processor, further cause the apparatus to recommend closing one or more accounts associated with the consumer, based on security recommendations related to at least account inactivity.
“7. (canceled)
“8. A method comprising: determining, by a cyber-privacy system, for a plurality of items of email correspondence, a likelihood that each item of email correspondence represents an account of a consumer; based on the likelihood that each item of email correspondence represents an account of the consumer, generating, by the cyber-privacy system, a list of accounts associated with the consumer; determining, by the cyber-privacy system, a deletion process for each account, wherein the deletion process is configured to delete personal information that has been associated with the account and wherein the deletion process for at least one account is determined by analyzing a privacy policy on a webpage hosted by a source of the at least one account; and outputting, for display to the consumer, the list of accounts and an indication of a deletion action for each account, wherein the deletion action is configured to invoke the deletion process.
“9. The method of claim 8, wherein the deletion process comprises a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) and at least one parameter.
“10. The method of claim 9, wherein the at least one parameter comprises a credential of the consumer.
“11. The method of claim 8, further comprising: receiving, from the consumer, an indication to delete one or more accounts; retrieving a deletion process for each of the one or more accounts from the list of accounts and subscriptions; and initiating the deletion process for each of the one or more accounts.
“12. The method of claim 11, further comprising: transmitting a report to the consumer upon successful completion of the deletion process for each of the one or more accounts; and generating a log record of an outcome of the deletion process for each of the one or more accounts.
“13. The method of claim 8, further comprising recommending closing one or more accounts associated with the consumer, based on security recommendations related to at least account inactivity.
“14. (canceled)
“15. A method comprising: determining, by a cyber-privacy system, for a plurality of items of email correspondence, a likelihood that each item of email correspondence represents an account or subscription of a consumer; based on the likelihood that each item of email correspondence represents an account or subscription of the consumer, generating, by the cyber-privacy system, a list of accounts and subscriptions associated with the consumer; determining, by the cyber-privacy system, an unsubscribe process and a deletion process for each account and subscription, wherein the deletion process is configured to delete personal information that has been associated with the account and wherein the deletion process for at least one account or subscription is determined by analyzing a privacy policy on a webpage hosted by a source of the at least one account and subscription; and outputting, for display to the consumer, the list of accounts and subscriptions, an indication of an unsubscribe action, and an indication of a deletion action for each account and subscription, wherein the unsubscribe action indicates a request to unsubscribe from the subscription and wherein the deletion action indicates a request to delete the account of the consumer.
“16. The method of claim 15, wherein the deletion process comprises a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) and at least one parameter.
“17. The method of claim 15, further comprising: receiving, from the consumer, an indication to delete one or more accounts; retrieving a deletion process for each of the one or more accounts from the list of accounts and subscriptions; and initiating the deletion process for each of the one or more accounts.
“18. The method of claim 17, further comprising: transmitting a report to the consumer upon successful completion of the deletion process for each of the one or more accounts; and generating a log record of an outcome of the deletion process for each of the one or more accounts.
“19. The method of claim 15, further comprising recommending closing one or more accounts associated with the consumer, based on security recommendations related to at least account inactivity.
“20. (canceled)
“21. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the computer-executable instructions, when executed by the processor, further cause the apparatus to initiate the deletion process for each of the one or more accounts, by causing the apparatus to transmit an email requesting that each of the one or more accounts be deleted.
“22. The method of claim 11, wherein the initiating the deletion process for each of the one or more accounts comprises transmitting an email requesting that each of the one or more accounts be deleted.
“23. The method of claim 17, wherein the initiating the deletion process for each of the one or more accounts comprises transmitting an email requesting that each of the one or more accounts be deleted.
“24-26. (canceled)”
URL and more information on this patent application, see: Lu, Marvin; Parkinson, John. Unsubscribe and Delete Automation. Filed
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