| ABSOLUTE SOFTWARE CORPORATION Patent applications |
| Patent application number | Title | Published |
|---|
| 20120003991 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR TRACKING MOBILE ELECTRONIC DEVICES WHILE CONSERVING CELLULAR NETWORK RESOURCES - A system and associated methods are disclosed for tracking mobile electronic devices while conserving cellular network resources used for such tracking. The tracking may be performed for purposes of facilitating recovery of lost or stolen devices. To conserve network resources, different telephone numbers may be assigned depending upon the location of each device and the time of each call, and individual calls may be made only after a determination has been made that a telephone call is required. A determination that a telephone call is required may be made depending upon whether a protected electronic device had been reported lost or stolen, and/or whether an internet communication between the protected electronic device and a monitoring center has been made within a selected previous period of time. A dynamic schedule permits reserved telephone call slots to be freed up if not needed so that they can be used for devices that need the communication time. | 01-05-2012 |
| 20110115621 | MULTIPLE DEVICE LOSS STATUS RETRIEVAL WITHOUT ID PROVISION - A system is disclosed that enables multiple electronic devices to be tracked in the case of theft or loss without the need for monitoring or tracking the devices prior to the loss or theft. The system operates by sending bulk status information regarding the lost/stolen statuses of multiple devices to one of these devices. The receiving device then decodes the bulk status information to determine its own lost/stolen status. If the status reveals that the device is currently reported as lost or stolen, the device initiates an appropriate security action, such as the transmission of its location to a monitoring center. | 05-19-2011 |
| 20110057797 | ALERT FOR REAL-TIME RISK OF THEFT OR LOSS - Devices, methods, systems and a computer readable medium for the provision of alerts to electronic devices in response to real-time, location based analysis of the risk of theft or loss of such devices are provided. A continually updated database of locations of thefts, losses and/or stolen or lost electronic devices is accessed in order to provide the alerts to the electronic devices. | 03-10-2011 |
| 20100287619 | DISCRIMINATING DATA PROTECTION SYSTEM - A data protection system selectively deletes data from an electronic device when the device is reported as lost or stolen, or when another data protection triggering event occurs. Different data files may, for example, be treated differently depending on when such files were created. For example, data files that were created while the computing device was known to be in the owner's possession may be deleted, while data files created after the electronic device left the owner's possession may be left intact (since they may have been created by an innocent user). Data files created between these two points in time may be quarantined so that they later be restored, if appropriate. | 11-11-2010 |
| 20100229248 | AUTOMATIC CONTROL OF A SECURITY PROTECTION MODE OF AN ELECTRONIC DEVICE - An automated method and apparatus is provided for deterring unauthorized use or theft of electronic devices, or other sorts of items into which a tracking device has been installed, particularly those in a distribution channel. The automated method is performed by a computer system of a monitoring center, and comprises the steps of: receiving a call over a network from the electronic device, said call initiated by an agent installed on the electronic device, said agent including functionality for tracking usage of the electronic device and for reporting information regarding said usage to the monitoring center, the agent thereby facilitating recovery of the electronic device when stolen; in response to the call, determining, at least, whether a sale of the electronic device has been reported; and by communication with the agent, causing the electronic device to enter into a state that is dependent, at least, upon the determination of whether a sale of the electronic device has been reported, said state affecting whether the agent reports information to the monitoring center regarding usage of the electronic device. | 09-09-2010 |
| 20100194567 | LOCATION DEPENDENT MONITORING FOR STOLEN DEVICES - A system and method for controlling the surveillance conducted by lost or stolen electronic devices dependent upon the location of such electronic devices is provided. A data repository contains data that specifies, for each of a plurality of geographic regions (e.g. legal jurisdictions), a set of surveillance methods that are permissible in the respective region. At least some of the geographic regions have different respective sets of permissible surveillance methods than others. A computer system is operable to communicate with the devices over a computer network, and programmed to use received information regarding a location of a potentially lost or stolen device, in combination with the data in the computer data repository, to cause the potentially lost or stolen device to initiate surveillance according to the set of permissible surveillance methods (and/or other actions) corresponding to the location. | 08-05-2010 |
| 20100115417 | CONDITIONAL WINDOW CAPTURE - A device, method, system and computer readable medium are disclosed for the remote, intelligent capture of screenshots and keystrokes which can subsequently be transmitted with reduced bandwidth requirements. | 05-06-2010 |
| 20100064046 | MANAGEMENT OF COMMUNICATIONS FROM STOLEN DEVICES - A device, method, system and computer readable medium are disclosed for the management of communications provided by a multitude of stolen electronic devices reporting location information to a monitoring center. | 03-11-2010 |
