System and Method for Cleaning/Wiping and Transferring Digital Data of Various Devices, Digital Assets and Account Information Upon Death of a Customer or Member

A system and method for cleaning/wiping and transferring digital data of various devices, digital assets, account information and social media accounts upon death of a customer or member, wherein the customer self-registers and selects their desired number of devices and other levels of service, where once registered in the system as a member, an artificial intelligence (AI) process is run daily to determine whether the member is living, i.e., verify their status, such that when a vital check process identifies someone (i.e., the member) as deceased, automated and manual verification steps are triggered, and if a confirmation that the customer is deceased is received, then registered and active (payment current) services are executed, otherwise if a confirmation that the customer is deceased is not received, then the customer becomes marked as a false positive for a predetermined number of days.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to identity protection and, more particularly, to a system and method for cleaning/wiping and transferring digital data of various devices, digital assets and account information upon death of a customer or member.

2. Description of the Related Art

As explained by Sid Kirchheimer in a recent 2019 article entitled “Protecting the Dead From Identity Theft”, identity thieves are sinking to new lows—specifically, six feet under. As explained by Kirchheimer, each year these identity thieves use the identities of nearly 2.5 million deceased Americans to fraudulently open credit card accounts, apply for loans and obtain cellphone or other services, according to fraud prevention firm ID Analytics.

Nearly 800,000 of those deceased people are deliberately targeted, e.g., roughly 2,200 a day. The identities of the others are used by chance. Here, criminals create a Social Security number that just happens to match that of someone who has died.

This practice is called “ghosting”, and because it can take up to six months or even longer for financial institutions, credit-reporting bureaus and the Social Security Administration to receive, share or register death records, crooks have ample time to accumulate charges. It will be appreciated the dead do not monitor their credit, for obvious reasons. Moreover, the grieving survivors of the deceased often fail to monitor the assumed inactive credit.

Sometimes, criminals glean personal information from hospitals or funeral homes. More often, the crime begins with thieves trolling through obituaries. With a name, address and birth date in hand, these unscrupulous individuals can illicitly purchase the person's Social Security number on the Internet for as little as $10.

At certain times of the year, criminals may file tax returns under the identities of deceased individuals, collecting refunds (e.g., a total of $5.2 billion in 2011) from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

The only good news here is that surviving family members are ultimately not responsible for such charges (or for legitimate debts of the dead if their names are not on the accounts). But ghosting can still cause plenty of angst.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Disclosed is a system and method for cleaning/wiping and transferring digital data of various devices, digital assets and account information upon death of a customer or member. In accordance with the invention, a customer self-registers and selects their desired number of devices and other levels of service. In alternative embodiments, the customer is registered by a third party entity, such as an insurance company.

Once registered in the system as a member, an artificial intelligence (AI) processes is run daily to determine whether the member is living, i.e., their status. If the vital check process identifies someone (i.e., the member) as deceased, then automated and manual verification steps are triggered.

On the one hand, if a confirmation that the customer is deceased is received, then registered and active (payment current) services are executed. On the other hand, if a confirmation that the customer is deceased is not received, then the customer becomes marked as a false positive for a predetermined number of days.

The disclosed system and method solve a number of problems. For example, the system and method provide protection against ghosting and other forms of cybercrime, provide protection for all forms of assets and provide “peace-of-mind” for the customer (i.e., member) in knowing their data has been “wiped” or erased. This can include hiding information that the member may not want to become known, thereby protecting any intellectual property that may be on their systems such that unwanted parties can be protected and prevented from profiting from any abandoned work that the deceased may have owned while alive. Moreover, the system and method provide protection against identity theft, and provide protection against masquerade attacks, where others do not know this person is deceased. A masquerade attack is any attack that uses a forged identity (such as a network identity) to gain unofficial access to a personal or organizational computer.

Problems are additionally solved by the disclosed system and method by removing social media accounts such that these types of accounts do not exist in perpetuity. Here, as before, in this way the system and method protect against access to any information a customer may not want to be known. Moreover, the system and method provide a member with security of their information from social related attacks and information gathering that could be used against them, or their family and/or friends.

The disclosed system and method additionally provide the ability to transfer digital information, and thus provide another layer of protection by providing an information vault. The information vault provides a way to ensure services that do not need to be deleted will be transferred to an appropriate entity or person. The information vault also provides a method to ensure the member's intended digital assets are transferred to the intended beneficiary, such as individual or collections of files, documents, photos and other digital assets. As a result, problems associated with working with companies when seeking to prove and/or establish ownership and gain access to the accounts of the deceased member become eliminated.

An initial customer onboarding process is the initial step pursuant to the performing the method in accordance with the invention. Here, a customer creates an account at a website. The account creation process begins with entering the following exemplary information, i.e., personal information, customer contact information, customer contact/beneficiary contact information.

Next, the customer selects services, such as the number of devices to protect based on a monthly fee per device, paid annually, the number of social services to protect for a one-time fee per level, information vault information transfer service (monthly fee per device, paid annually), and credit card information. Upon successful processing, the customer will enter the portal to begin entering information for their selected services.

With respect to the devices that will be covered, the customer adds their devices (e.g., desktop computers, laptops, tablets or mobile phones) into the system. For each device that is added, the system sends that device to a mobile device management (MDM) service. This integration creates the link between the device and system, and allows for the remote wipe and other services.

The MDM software sends the customer an email with instructions to link and register their device(s) with the system for management in accordance with the method of the invention. It should be noted that this is an important step and, is clear in a term of service (TOS), that the onus of this step and responsibility is on the customer, or services cannot be rendered. The portal at which customers interface with the services shows with red and green indicators if this link is visible to the system, i.e., whether services can be executed when needed. In accordance with the invention, notifications are sent to the customer or member when the registered devices are not sensed with a designated period of time. This designated period of time is adjustable, depending on the age and well-being of the customer or member. Accordingly, the time period can extend from a period of weeks to months.

For any relevant social media/service accounts, the customer adds their social/service account(s), such as Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn. Here, the customer supplies information such as the service name, a username, a password and notes. It should be understood that the mentioned services, Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn, are exemplary and it is not the intention to be limited to these platforms. That is, the system and method of the invention are applicable to any social media/service account.

With respect to information transfer, the information vault establishes a collection of usernames and passwords for internet services, files, documents, photos and other digital assets which, upon confirmation of death, will be transferred to their registered contact/beneficiary. Here, the customer supplies, a service name, a username, a password and notes. As for files or collections of files and other digital assets, the customer adds a label/name for each entry, notes and supplies the files or collections of files and other digital assets for storage.

The method and system include an inventive process that continually checks to determine the status of the customer or member, i.e., are they alive or deceased. In accordance with the invention, the process is initiated and runs daily at a predetermined time, such as midnight or 1200 hrs. The process utilizes code that uses automated web searches, via an application program interface (API), automations through search engines. Here, the searches utilize the contact information of the member in combination with other word phrases to retrieve or pull search results. These results are passed through an algorithm to determine whether the customer is indeed no longer alive.

In accordance with the invention, a short message service (SMS) confirmation is provided. When the above-described check process identifies a customer or member, the system generates an automatic text message requesting the customer reply with “alive” within a predetermined time window, such as a 12-hour window. If the customer or member responds, then the customer or member is marked as a false positive. If the customer fails to respond, then the customer is placed into a queue to be contacted directly, e.g., manually via telephone. As such, it should be appreciated the “contact/beneficiary” aspect of the invention is a manual step in the process, where the member is directly contacted via telephone to confirm their status when no SMS confirmation is obtained.

Pursuant to the manual aspects of the invention, the beneficiary of the member is contacted, where the contact/beneficiary provided by the member is contacted directly via telephone to confirm the status of the member when no SMS and no phone confirmation were obtained.

Upon the occurrence of the following, e.g., no SMS confirmation is received from the member, no phone confirmation is received from the member and a confirmation from the contact/beneficiary that the customer or member is deceased is received, “services” provided in accordance with the system and method of the invention are executed. The service includes cleaning/wiping any registered devices via the MDM software, and a manual log-in to the registered social/cloud services belonging to the customer or member is performed to delete the accounts. In addition, the information vault is transferred to the contact/beneficiary who will receive an email notification instructing them on how to access a special portal where this information will be available. When all services have been successfully executed, a report is generated and emailed to both the customer email as well as the contact/beneficiary via email.

Within the scope of the invention, the terms “digital footprint”, “digital estate”, “digital estate planning” and “end of life services” are all associated with cleaning/wiping and transferring digital data of various devices and account information.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS

FIG. 1is a schematic block diagram of the system architecture100for eliminating a “digital foot print” or “digital estate” of a member, in manner that provides “end-of-life services” such that “digital death” is ensured. With reference toFIG. 1, the system includes a computer10through which a customer self-registers and selects their desired number of devices20and other levels of service, such as “social cleaning” to ensure a “social death”, i.e., delete all social media accounts, allow data assembled over a lifetime to die, be expunged or deleted.

A load balancer30is used to distribute a set of tasks over a set of resources (e.g., computing units) such that the overall processing associated with self-registration of the customer is more efficient. In this way, the response time for each task is optimized, which avoids unevenly overloading compute nodes while other compute nodes are left idle.

The system implements a public website40that provides potential customers with information and instructions for registering with the system. Once registered in the system as a member, an artificial intelligence (AI) processes is run daily to determine whether the member is living, i.e., their status. If this check process identifies someone (i.e., the member) as deceased, automated and manual verification steps are triggered.

Thus, if a confirmation that the customer is deceased is received, then registered and active (payment current) services will be executed. Otherwise, the customer becomes marked as a false positive for a predetermined number of days.

Vault server50stores a member's digital information. Here, usernames and passwords to any service are stored in a manner which also permit the storage of files, notes associated with each entry, or other digital assets. Digital Photos are also stored at the vault server50, i.e., a single, memorable photo or a collection that the member wishes to pass on or bequeath.

Also stored in the vault server50are sensitive documents, such as a will, or a collection of information that beneficiaries will need. The vault server90creates an efficient, organized and centrally located information vault for the beneficiary of a member to find all important information after the life of the member has ended. A member has continual access to the vault server50to permit the member to add digital copies of information such as financial final documents, and to add passwords, family photos, and other digital assets.

The disclosed system100and method thus additionally provide the ability to transfer digital information, and thus provide another layer of protection by providing data from the information vault. The information vault provides a way to ensure services that do not need to be deleted will be transferred to an appropriate entity or person. The information vault also provides a method to ensure the member's intended digital assets are transferred to the intended beneficiary, such as individual or collections of: files, documents, photos and other digital assets. As a result, problems associated with working with companies when seeking to prove and/or establish ownership and gain access to the accounts of the deceased member become eliminated.

An initial customer onboarding process is the initial step pursuant to performing the method in accordance with the invention. Here, a customer creates an account at the public website40. The account creation process begins by entering the following exemplary information, e.g., personal information, customer contact information, customer contact/beneficiary contact information, where a login is facilitated by the login web server30in a conventional manner. Two factor authentication60is implemented to provide secure customer/member verification. Two-factor authentication (also known as 2FA) is a type, or subset, of multi-factor authentication. Two-factor authentication60provides a way to confirm the claimed identity of a customer/member by using a combination of two different factors: i) something they know, ii) something they have, or iii) something they are.

Next, the customer selects services, such as the number of devices to protect based on a monthly fee per device, the number of social services to protect for a one-time fee per level, information vault transfer service (e.g., monthly fee per device, paid annually), and credit card information. Upon successful processing, the customer enters the portal to begin entering information for their selected services.

With respect to the devices20that will be covered, the customer adds their devices (e.g., desktop computers, laptops, tablets or mobile phones) into the system. For each device that is added, the system sends that device to a mobile device management (MDM) service70. This integration creates the link between the device and system, and allows for a remote “wipe” of the digital device and other services.

MDM software of the MDM service70sends the customer an email with instructions to link and register their device(s) with the system100for management in accordance with the method of the invention. It should be noted that this is an important step and, is clear in the terms of service (TOS), that the onus of this step and responsibility is on the customer, or services cannot be rendered. The portal at which customers interface with the services shows with red and green indicators if this link is visible to the system, i.e., whether services can be executed when needed. In accordance with the invention, notifications are sent to the customer or member when the registered devices are not sensed within a designated period of time. This designated period of time is adjustable, depending on the age and well-being of the customer or member. Accordingly, the time period can extend from a period of weeks to months.

For the social media/service accounts 80, the customer adds their social/service account(s), such as Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn. Here, the customer supplies information such as the service name, a username, a password and notes.

With respect to information transfer, the information vault created by the vault server50establishes a collection of usernames and passwords for internet services, files, documents, photos and other digital assets which, upon confirmation of death, will be transferred to their registered contact/beneficiary. Here, the customer supplies, a service name, a username, a password and any notes for services. As for files or collections of files and other digital assets, the customer adds a label/name for each entry, notes and supplies the files or collections of files and other digital assets for storage.

The method and system includes an inventive process that continually checks to determine the status of the customer or member, i.e., are they alive or deceased. In accordance with the invention, the process is initiated and runs daily at a predetermined time, such as midnight or 1200 hrs. The process utilizes code that uses automated web searches, via API automations, through search engines. Here, the searches utilize the contact information of the member in combination with other word phrases to retrieve search results. These results are then passed through an algorithm to determine where the customer is indeed no longer alive.

In accordance with the invention, an SMS confirmation is utilized to provide notifications to customers or members. When the above-described check process identifies a customer or member, the system generates an automatic SMS message requesting the customer reply with “alive” within a fixed time window. Preferable, the fixed window is a 12-hour window. If the customer or member responds, then the customer or member is marked as a false positive. If the customer fails to respond, then the customer is placed into a “queue” to be contacted directly, manually via telephone. As such, it should be appreciated the “contact member” aspect of the invention is a manual step in the process where the member is directly contacted via phone to confirm their status when no SMS confirmation was obtained.

Pursuant to the manual aspects of the invention, the beneficiary of the member is contacted, where the contact/beneficiary provided by the member is contacted directly via phone to confirm the status of the member when no SMS and no phone confirmation were obtained.

Upon the occurrence of the following, the “services” provided in accordance with the system and method of the invention will be executed, e.g., no SMS confirmation is received from the member, no phone confirmation is received from the member and confirmation from the contact/beneficiary that the customer or member is deceased. The services include cleaning/wiping any registered devices VIA the MDM software, a manual log-in into the registered social/cloud services belonging to the customer or member is performed to delete the accounts. In addition, the information vault is transferred to the contact/beneficiary who will receive an email notification instructing them on how to access a special portal where this information will be available. When all services have been successfully executed a report is generated and emailed to both the customer as well as the contact/beneficiary.

Problems are additionally solved by the disclosed system and method by removing social media accounts such that these types of accounts do not live in perpetuity. Here, as before, in this way the system and method protects against any information customer my not want to be known from being accessed. Moreover, the system and method provides information security from social related attacks and info gathering that could be used against them, or their family and/or friends.