Patent Publication Number: US-11645646-B2

Title: Determining specific terms for contactless card activation

Description:
RELATED APPLICATIONS 
     This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 16/847,268, titled “DETERMINING SPECIFIC TERMS FOR CONTACTLESS CARD ACTIVATION” filed on Apr. 13, 2020. The contents of the aforementioned application are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety. 
    
    
     TECHNICAL FIELD 
     Embodiments herein generally relate to computing platforms, and more specifically, to computing platforms to determine specific terms for contactless card activation. 
     BACKGROUND 
     Payment cards may be mailed to a customer in an inactive state such that the cards cannot be used for purchases or other transactions prior to activation. There are significant security risks involved in the card activation process. Furthermore, different requirements may be imposed on the activation of specific types of cards. While some solutions have attempted to move the activation process to online platforms, these solutions do not offer the flexibility and security required to scale to the ever increasing number of card types. 
     SUMMARY 
     Embodiments disclosed herein provide systems, methods, articles of manufacture, and computer-readable media for determining specific terms to activate a contactless card. In one example, an application executing on a server may receive a request from a device specifying a uniform resource locator comprising encrypted data, the encrypted data based at least in part on a private key assigned to a contactless card. The application may decrypt the encrypted data and determine a type of the contactless card. The application may determine a plurality of terms associated with the type of the contactless card and transmit the terms to a web browser on the device. The application may receive, from the web browser, an indication specifying acceptance of the plurality of terms. The application may store, based on the decryption of the encrypted data and the received indication specifying acceptance of the terms, an indication in a database specifying the contactless card is activated for use. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIGS.  1 A- 1 C  illustrate embodiments of a system for determining specific terms for contactless card activation. 
         FIGS.  2 A- 2 C  illustrate embodiments of a system for determining specific terms for contactless card activation. 
         FIGS.  3 A- 3 D  illustrate embodiments of determining specific terms for contactless card activation. 
         FIGS.  4 A- 4 D  illustrate embodiments of determining specific terms for contactless card activation. 
         FIGS.  5 A- 5 B  illustrate an example contactless card. 
         FIG.  6    illustrates an embodiment of a first logic flow. 
         FIG.  7    illustrates an embodiment of a second logic flow. 
         FIG.  8    illustrates an embodiment of a third logic flow. 
         FIG.  9    illustrates an embodiment of a fourth logic flow. 
         FIG.  10    illustrates an embodiment of a computing system. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     Embodiments disclosed herein provide techniques for secure activation of contactless cards with disclosure of card-specific terms and/or customer-specific terms. Generally, a user may receive a contactless card in an inactive state that must be activated to be used. In some embodiments, the user may tap the contactless card to a computing device, such as a smartphone, to initiate the activation process. Tapping the contactless card to the smartphone (or otherwise brining the contactless card within wireless data communications range of the smartphone) may cause the contactless card to generate encrypted data. The encrypted data may be transmitted to the smartphone. 
     In some embodiments, the encrypted data generated by the contactless card may be part of a uniform resource locator (URL) directed to a server. Once received, an operating system (OS) of the smartphone may cause a web browser to access the URL. When accessed, the server may receive the encrypted data, and decrypt the encrypted data to verify the authenticity of the contactless card. The server may then determine a type of the contactless card and determine a plurality of terms and conditions associated with the card. The terms and conditions may be transmitted to the web browser on the smartphone, where the user may then accept and/or decline the terms and conditions. If the user accepts, an indication of the acceptance is transmitted to the server, which may activate the contactless card, e.g., by storing an indication that the contactless card is active in a database. The user may then use the contactless card for any desired payment transaction. 
     Advantageously, embodiments disclosed herein improve the security of all devices and associated data. For example, by requiring validation of encrypted data generated by the contactless card to activate the contactless card, the security of the contactless card is improved. As another example, by presenting terms and conditions specific to a type of the contactless card and/or other user attributes, user privacy and compliance with applicable laws and regulations is improved. Furthermore, doing so removes the need of the card issuer to mail the terms and condition in paper format, thereby conserving resources. 
     With general reference to notations and nomenclature used herein, one or more portions of the detailed description which follows may be presented in terms of program procedures executed on a computer or network of computers. These procedural descriptions and representations are used by those skilled in the art to most effectively convey the substances of their work to others skilled in the art. A procedure is here, and generally, conceived to be a self-consistent sequence of operations leading to a desired result. These operations are those requiring physical manipulations of physical quantities. Usually, though not necessarily, these quantities take the form of electrical, magnetic, or optical signals capable of being stored, transferred, combined, compared, and otherwise manipulated. It proves convenient at times, principally for reasons of common usage, to refer to these signals as bits, values, elements, symbols, characters, terms, numbers, or the like. It should be noted, however, that all of these and similar terms are to be associated with the appropriate physical quantities and are merely convenient labels applied to those quantities. 
     Further, these manipulations are often referred to in terms, such as adding or comparing, which are commonly associated with mental operations performed by a human operator. However, no such capability of a human operator is necessary, or desirable in most cases, in any of the operations described herein that form part of one or more embodiments. Rather, these operations are machine operations. Useful machines for performing operations of various embodiments include digital computers as selectively activated or configured by a computer program stored within that is written in accordance with the teachings herein, and/or include apparatus specially constructed for the required purpose or a digital computer. Various embodiments also relate to apparatus or systems for performing these operations. These apparatuses may be specially constructed for the required purpose. The required structure for a variety of these machines will be apparent from the description given. 
     Reference is now made to the drawings, wherein like reference numerals are used to refer to like elements throughout. In the following description, for the purpose of explanation, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding thereof. It may be evident, however, that the novel embodiments can be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, well-known structures and devices are shown in block diagram form in order to facilitate a description thereof. The intention is to cover all modification, equivalents, and alternatives within the scope of the claims. 
       FIG.  1 A  depicts a schematic of an exemplary system  100 , consistent with disclosed embodiments. As shown, the system  100  includes one or more contactless cards  101 , one or more mobile computing devices  110 , and an authentication server  120 . The contactless cards  101  are representative of any type of payment cards, such as a credit card, debit card, ATM card, gift card, and the like. The contactless cards  101  may comprise one or more communications interfaces  109 , such as a radio frequency identification (RFID) chip, configured to communicate with the computing devices  110  via NFC, the EMV standard, or other short-range protocols in wireless communication. Although NFC is used as an example communications protocol, the disclosure is equally applicable to other types of communications, such as the EMV standard, Bluetooth, and/or Wi-Fi. The mobile devices  110  are representative of any type of network-enabled computing devices, such as smartphones, tablet computers, wearable devices, laptops, portable gaming devices, and the like. The authentication server  120  is representative of any type of computing device, such as a server, workstation, compute cluster, cloud computing platform, virtualized computing system, and the like. 
     As shown, a memory  102  of the contactless card includes an applet  103 , a counter  104 , a private key  105 , a diversified key  106 , and a unique customer identifier (ID)  107 . The applet  103  is executable code configured to perform the operations described herein. The counter  104 , private key  105 , diversified key  106 , and customer ID  107  are used to provide security in the system  100  as described in greater detail below. 
     As shown, a memory  111  of the mobile device  110  includes an instance of an operating system (OS)  112 . Example operating systems  112  include the Android® OS, iOS®, macOS®, Linux®, and Windows® operating systems. As shown, the OS  112  includes an account application  113 . The account application  113  allows users to perform various account-related operations, such as activating one or more contactless cards  101 , viewing account balances, purchasing items, processing payments, and the like. The account application  113  may further control access permissions to different functions provided by the account application  113 . In some embodiments, a user may authenticate using authentication credentials to access certain features of the account application  113 . For example, the authentication credentials may include a username (or login) and password, biometric credentials (e.g., fingerprints, Face ID, etc.), and the like. 
     As stated, the contactless cards  101  may need to be activated before the contactless cards  101  may be used to provide payment data for transactions. To activate a contactless card  101 , the user may tap the contactless card  101  to the device  110 . Generally, once the contactless card  101  is brought within communications range of the communications interface  118  of the device  110 , the applet  103  of the contactless card  101  may generate encrypted data as part of the authentication process required to activate the contactless card  101 . For example, in some embodiments, the applet  103  may generate a URL with encrypted data  108  as part of the authentication process required to activate the contactless card  101 . To enable NFC data transfer between the contactless card  101  and the mobile device  110 , the account application  113  may communicate with the contactless card  101  when the contactless card  101  is sufficiently close to the communications interface  118  of the mobile device  110 . The communications interface  118  may be configured to read from and/or communicate with the communications interface  109  of the contactless card  101  (e.g., via NFC, Bluetooth, RFID, etc.). Therefore, example communications interfaces  118  include NFC communication modules, Bluetooth communication modules, and/or RFID communication modules. 
     As stated, the system  100  is configured to implement key diversification to secure data, which may be referred to as a key diversification technique herein. Generally, the server  120  (or another computing device) and the contactless card  101  may be provisioned with the same private key  105  (also referred to as a master key, or master symmetric key). More specifically, each contactless card  101  is programmed with a unique private key  105  that has a corresponding pair in (or managed by) the server  120 . For example, when a contactless card  101  is manufactured, a unique private key  105  may be stored in the memory  102  of the contactless card  101 . Similarly, the unique private key  105  may be stored in a record (or profile) of a customer associated with the contactless card  101  in the account data  124  of the server  120  (and/or stored in a different secure location, such as the hardware security module (HSM)  125 ). The private key  105  may be kept secret from all parties other than the contactless card  101  and server  120 , thereby enhancing security of the system  100 . In some embodiments, the applet  103  of the contactless card  101  may encrypt and/or decrypt data (e.g., the customer ID  107 ) using the private key  105  and the data as input a cryptographic algorithm. For example, encrypting the customer ID  107  with the private key  105  may result in an encrypted customer ID. Similarly, the authentication server  120  may encrypt and/or decrypt data associated with the contactless card  101  using the corresponding private key  105 . 
     In some embodiments, the counters  104  and/or private keys  105  of the contactless card  101  and server  120  may be used in conjunction with the counters  104  to enhance security using key diversification. The counters  104  comprise values that are synchronized between a given contactless card  101  and server  120 . The counter value  104  may comprise a number that changes each time data is exchanged between the contactless card  101  and the server  120  (and/or the contactless card  101  and the mobile device  110 ). When preparing to send data (e.g., to the server  120  and/or the mobile device  110 ), the applet  103  of the contactless card  101  may increment the counter value  104 . The contactless card  101  may then provide the private key  105  and counter value  104  as input to a cryptographic algorithm, which produces a diversified key  106  as output. The cryptographic algorithm may include encryption algorithms, hash-based message authentication code (HMAC) algorithms, cipher-based message authentication code (CMAC) algorithms, and the like. Non-limiting examples of the cryptographic algorithm may include a symmetric encryption algorithm such as 3DES or AES128; a symmetric HMAC algorithm, such as HMAC-SHA-256; and a symmetric CMAC algorithm such as AES-CMAC. Examples of key diversification techniques are described in greater detail in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 16/205,119, filed Nov. 29, 2018. The aforementioned patent application is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety. The applet  103  of the contactless card  101  may include the cryptographic payload as a parameter of the URL with encrypted data  108 . 
     Continuing with the key diversification example, the contactless card  101  may then encrypt the data (e.g., the customer ID  107  and/or any other data) using the diversified key  106  and the data as input to the cryptographic algorithm. For example, encrypting the customer ID  107  with the diversified key  106  may result in an encrypted customer ID. In some embodiments, the encrypted data generated by the contactless card  101  may include a URL. The URL may be directed to the authentication server  120 , or some other URL associated with an entity issuing the contactless card  101 . In other embodiments, the URL may further be a universal link URL that opens a local resource (e.g., a specific page of the account application  113 , such as a card activation page). The URL may further include data (e.g., parameters) used by the authentication server  120  to validate the data generated by the contactless card  101 . 
     For example, if the URL to the authentication server  120  (and/or the URL to the account application  113 ) is “http://www.example.com/accountapp” and the encrypted data generated based on the aforementioned encryption operations is “ABC123”, the URL with encrypted data  108  may be “http://www.example.com/accountapp?data=ABC123”. In some embodiments, the applet  103  may encode the encrypted data according to an encoding format compatible with URLs prior to including the encrypted data as a parameter of the URL  108 . For example, the encrypted data may be a string of binary data (e.g., zeroes and ones), which may not be compatible with URLs. Therefore, the applet  103  may encode the encrypted data to the American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII) base64 encoding format. Doing so represents the binary encrypted data in an ASCII string format by translating it into a radix-64 representation (e.g., “ABC123” in the previous example). Further still, in embodiments where the URL is directed to a local resource, such as the account application  113 , the URL  108  may include an indication of which page of the account application  113  to open. Continuing with the previous example, a page identifier of “1” (or other page identifier, such as a page name, etc.) may be added as a parameter to the URL, and the URL with encrypted data  108  may be “http://www.example.com/accountapp?data=ABC123&amp;p=1”. 
     Once generated, the applet  103  may transmit the URL with encrypted data  108  to the mobile device  110 , e.g., via NFC. In one embodiment, when received by the OS  112 , the OS  112  causes the web browser  115  to access the URL with encrypted data  108 . Doing so causes information describing the mobile device  110  to be sent with the request to access the URL with encrypted data  108 . For example, the information may include attributes of the mobile device  110 , such as operating system version, hardware capabilities, and software capabilities. 
     In the embodiment depicted in  FIG.  1 A , the URL with encrypted data  108  is directed to the server  120 , which may include a hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) server. In one embodiment, the authentication application  123  provides the HTTP server and/or associated functionality. Therefore, the web browser  115  accessing the URL with encrypted data  108  causes the server  120  to receive the URL with encrypted data  108 , e.g., in an HTTP request. The authentication application  123  may receive the URL with encrypted data  108  and extract the encrypted data, which may include the encrypted customer ID (e.g., the “ABC123” from the previous example, etc.). The authentication application  123  may convert the encrypted data to the original encoding format (e.g., from ASCII base64 to binary). The account application  113  may similarly perform conversions, e.g., from ASCII base  64  to binary, and vice versa. 
     The authentication application  123  may then attempt to authenticate the encrypted data. For example, the authentication application  123  may attempt to decrypt the encrypted data using a copy of the private key  105  stored by the server  120 . In another example, the authentication application  123  may provide the private key  105  and counter value  104  as input to the cryptographic algorithm, which produces a diversified key  106  as output. The resulting diversified key  106  may correspond to the diversified key  106  of the contactless card  101 , which may be used to decrypt the encrypted customer ID  107 . Therefore, the authentication application  123  may successfully decrypt the encrypted data, thereby verifying the encrypted data. For example, as stated, a customer ID  107  may be used to generate the encrypted data included in the URL with encrypted data  108 . In such an example, the authentication application  123  may decrypt the encrypted data using the private key  105  of the authentication server  120 . If the result of the decryption yields the customer ID  107  associated with the account in the account data  124 , the authentication application  123  verifies the encrypted data. If the authentication application  123  is unable to decrypt the encrypted data to yield the expected result (e.g., the customer ID  107  of the account associated with the contactless card  101 ), the authentication application  123  does not verify (or validate or authenticate) the encrypted data. Due to the failed verification, the authentication application  123  may return an error to the web browser  115  and/or otherwise reject the attempted activation of the contactless card  101 . 
     Regardless of the decryption technique used, the authentication application  123  may successfully decrypt the encrypted customer ID  107 , thereby verifying the encrypted customer ID  107  (e.g., by comparing the resulting customer ID  107  to a customer ID stored in the account data  124 , and/or based on an indication that the decryption using the key  105  and/or  106  was successful). Although the keys  105 ,  106  are depicted as being stored in the memory  122 , the keys  105 ,  106  may be stored elsewhere, such as in a secure element and/or the HSM  125 . In such embodiments, the secure element and/or the HSM  125  may decrypt the encrypted customer ID  107  using the keys  105  and/or  106  and a cryptographic function. Similarly, the secure element and/or HSM  125  may generate the diversified key  106  based on the private key  105  and counter value  104  as described above. 
     If the authentication application  123  verifies the encrypted customer ID  107  in the URL with encrypted data  108 , the authentication application  123  may return a corresponding indication of verification to the web browser  115 . The authentication application  123  may then determine a type of the contactless card  101  being activated, e.g., based on a type specified in the account data  124  and/or the card data  126 . For example, each card may be associated with a unique identifier that is associated with at least one type of card, of a plurality of card types. The authentication application  123  may further receive data describing attributes of the customer associated with the contactless card  101  being activated, e.g., the customer&#39;s address, date of birth, etc. Using the card type and/or the customer attributes, the authentication application  123  may determine a plurality of terms  127  from the card data  126  applicable to the card type and/or the customer data. The terms  127  may generally include terms, conditions, card member agreements, disclosures regarding the use of personal information, legal disclosures, privacy notices, and the like, which may collectively be referred to as “terms” herein. For example, a first card type may have a first plurality of terms (e.g., interest rates, disclosures, etc.), while a second card type may have a second plurality of terms, which may be the same and/or different than the first plurality of terms. Similarly, a customer located in a first state (e.g., based on the customer&#39;s address) may be required to receive additional and/or different terms relative to a customer located in a second state. Therefore, based on the customer attributes and/or the card type, the authentication application  123  dynamically determines a specific set of terms required to activate the contactless card  101 . 
     In some embodiments, the authentication application  123  may determine that the contactless card  101  is a replacement for a previously active contactless card. In such embodiments, the user may have previously accepted the custom terms for the previous card, and a reduced set of terms  128  may be determined to activate the contactless card. For example, each contactless card  101  may be associated with an issue and/or manufacture date. The authentication application  123  may determine the dates of the replacement card  101  and the previous card and determine the terms  127  based on the dates. In one embodiment, the authentication application  123  computes a difference of the different terms to determine the reduced set of terms (also referred to as a subset of terms). The authentication application  123  may therefore determine the reduced set of terms that have changed, been added, and/or been removed based on the dates of each card. Doing so allows the authentication application  123  to transmit the reduced set of terms as the custom terms  128  to the web browser  115 . However, the full set of terms may be included with the reduced set of terms. The user may then accept the reduced set of terms as part of the activation process of the replacement card  101 . In some embodiments, the authentication application  123  may modify the format of the custom terms  128  to reflect which terms have changed for the replacement card. For example, if a new disclosure is added to the custom terms  128  of the replacement card that were not present in the terms  127  of the original card, the authentication application  123  may highlight, bold, italicize, enlarge the font, or otherwise modify the new disclosure such that the user can easily detect the new terms. 
       FIG.  1 B  illustrates an embodiment where the authentication application  123  has decrypted the encrypted customer ID, thereby verifying (or authenticating) the encrypted data in the URL with encrypted data  108 , and determined a set of custom terms  128  applicable to the activation of the contactless card  101 . As shown, the authentication application  123  transmits the custom terms  128  to the web browser  115 , where the custom terms  128  may further indicate that the authentication application  123  successfully decrypted the encrypted customer ID. 
     Responsive to receiving the custom terms  128 , the web browser  115  may output an interface displaying the custom terms  128  for activation of the contactless card  101 . The user may then read the custom terms  128  and determine to accept the custom terms  128  to activate the contactless card  101 . For example, the user may click a checkbox indicating acceptance of the custom terms  128 , provide a signature, etc. 
       FIG.  1 C  depicts an embodiment where the user has accepted the custom terms  128  via the web browser  115 . As shown, the web browser  115  then transmits an indication of acceptance  129  to the server  120 . The authentication application  123  may then receive the acceptance  129 , and determine to activate the contactless card  101  based on the successful decryption of the encrypted data included in the URL with encrypted data  108  and the user&#39;s acceptance of the custom terms  128 . In one embodiment, the authentication application  123  may store an indication in a user profile in the account data  124  and/or the card data  126  indicating the contactless card  101  has been activated. Doing so allows the customer to use the contactless card  101  to provide payment data for transactions and/or provide the card number, expiration date, and/or CVV of the contactless card  101  in virtual interfaces to provide the payment data for transactions. 
       FIG.  2 A  is a schematic  200  depicting an embodiment where the account application  113  is used to activate the contactless card  101 . As shown, the user taps the contactless card  101  to the mobile device  110  to proceed with the card activation. In some embodiments, the user may provide authentication credentials to access the account associated with the contactless card  101  prior to tapping the contactless card  101  to the device  110 . However, in other embodiments, the user need not be logged in to their account to activate the contactless card  101 . 
     In response to the tap of the contactless card  101 , the applet  103  encrypts the customer ID  107 , which is transmitted to the account application  113  as at least a portion of encrypted data  208 . Generally, the encrypted customer ID included in the encrypted data  208  is generated by the applet  103  as described above with respect to the generation of the URL with encrypted data  108  (e.g., by encrypting the customer ID  107  with the private key  105  and/or the diversified key  106 , where the diversified key  106  is generated based on the private key  105  and the counter value  104 ). 
     Responsive to receiving the encrypted customer ID in the encrypted data  208 , the account application  113  may transmit the encrypted data  208  to the authentication server  120 . Once received, the authentication application  123  may attempt to decrypt the encrypted customer ID  208  using the private key  105  and/or the diversified key  106  as described above. If the attempted decryption yields the customer ID  107  associated with the account, the authentication application  123  may transmit an indication of successful validation to the account application  113 . Otherwise, if the attempted decryption of the encrypted customer ID  208  is not successful, the authentication application  123  may transmit an indication of the failed decryption to the account application  113 , which may reject activation of the contactless card  101 . As another example, the authentication application  123  may reject activation of the contactless card  101 . 
       FIG.  2 B  reflects an embodiment where the authentication application  123  verified the encrypted customer ID included in the encrypted data  208 . As stated, the authentication application  123  may determine a type of the card  101 , a date of the card  101 , or any other attribute of the card  101 . The authentication application  123  may further determine one or more attributes of the associated account holder (e.g., name, address, age, etc.). The authentication application  123  may then use the attributes of the card  101  and/or the attributes of the account holder to determine a plurality of custom terms  228  for the contactless card  101 . The authentication application  123  may then transmit the custom terms  228  to the account application  113 . The account application  113  may then output the custom terms  228  for display on the mobile device  110 . As stated, in some embodiments (e.g., where the contactless card  101  is a replacement card), the terms  228  may be a reduced set of terms. In such embodiments, the authentication application  123  and/or the account application  113  may modify the reduced set of terms to improve readability thereof. 
     The account application  113  may provide one or more graphical user interface (GUI) elements allowing the user to accept the terms  228 .  FIG.  2 C  depicts an embodiment where the user has accepted the terms  228 . In the depicted embodiment, the account application  113  transmits an indication of acceptance  229  to the authentication application  123 . Once the authentication application  123  receives the acceptance  229 , the authentication application  123  may activate the contactless card  101  based on the acceptance of the terms and the verification of the encrypted customer ID  208 . For example, the authentication application  123  may store an indication in the account data  124  and/or the card data  126  indicating the contactless card  101  has been activated. 
     As previously stated, a URL may be directed to the account application  113 . Therefore, in such embodiments, the encrypted data  208  generated in  FIG.  2 A  may include a URL directed to a card activation page of the account application  113 . In such embodiments, the account application  113  may extract the encrypted customer ID  107  from the URL, optionally decode the encrypted customer ID  107 , and transmit the encoded and/or decoded customer ID  107  to the to the server  120  via the network  130 . The authentication application  123  may then decrypt the encrypted customer ID  107  to verify the encrypted data. 
     By requiring validation of encrypted data generated by the contactless card  101  to activate the contactless card  101 , embodiments disclosed herein improve the security of the contactless card  101 . Furthermore, by presenting terms specific to a type of the contactless card and/or specific to user attributes (e.g. country of residence, state of residence, city of residence, age, legal status, etc.), user privacy and compliance with applicable laws and regulations is improved. Furthermore, doing so removes the need of the card issuer to mail the terms and condition in paper format, thereby conserving resources. 
       FIG.  3 A  is a schematic  300  depicting an example embodiment of tapping the contactless card  101  to provide secure activation using custom terms for the contactless card  101 . Once the user taps the contactless card  101  to the mobile device  110 , the applet  103  of the contactless card  101  encrypts the customer ID  107  to generate the URL with encrypted data  108 . The applet  103  may then transmit the URL with encrypted data  108  to the mobile device  110 , e.g., via NFC. Once received, the OS  112  may cause the device  110  to access the URL with encrypted data  108 . Because no application is in the foreground of the device  110  (e.g., the device displays a home screen of the OS  112 ), the NFC data transfer may be a background NFC read from the perspective of the device  110 . The background NFC read may cause the OS  112  to open an application (e.g. the web browser  115  and/or the account application  113 ). 
     In the embodiment depicted in  FIG.  3 A , the URL with encrypted data  108  may be directed to the server  120  and/or the authentication application  123 . As shown in the schematic  310  of  FIG.  3 B , the OS  112  may launch the web browser  115  and cause the web browser  115  to access the URL with encrypted data  108 . As shown, the web browser  115  provides the user with indications specifying that the activation process has been initiated. The authentication application  123  may then attempt to decrypt the encrypted customer ID  107  using the private key  105  and/or the diversified key  106  assigned to the contactless card  101 . If the authentication application  123  is unable to decrypt the encrypted customer ID  107  to yield an expected result (e.g., the customer ID  107  of the account, etc.), the authentication application  123  does not verify the encrypted customer ID  107 . If the authentication application  123  successfully decrypts the encrypted customer ID  107  to yield an expected result (e.g., the customer ID  107  of the account, etc.), the authentication application  123  verifies the encrypted customer ID  107 . As shown in  FIG.  3 B , the authentication application  123  successfully decrypts the encrypted customer ID, and the authentication application  123  transmits an indication of the verification to the web browser  115 . The authentication application  123  may then determine the custom terms for the contactless card  101  based on one or more attributes of the card  101  and/or one or more attributes of the account holder(s). 
       FIG.  3 C  is a schematic  320  illustrating a simplified portion of the custom terms  127  determined by the authentication application  123  for the contactless card  101  being activated. More specifically,  FIG.  3 C  depicts an embodiment where the contactless card  101  being activated is a replacement of a previous contactless card  101 . Therefore, the web browser  115  may output some terms, such as the terms  321 , in a modified format, such as bold and italicized font. Doing so may allow the user to easily view the terms. Furthermore, as shown, the web browser may provide a link  322  to the complete terms specific to the account holder and the card  101 . Once accessed, the link  322  may cause the web browser  115  to display all relevant terms. The user may select the accept button to accept the terms, which causes the web browser  115  to transmit an indication of acceptance to the authentication application  123 .  FIG.  3 D  is a schematic  330  illustrating an embodiment where the authentication application  123  has activated the card  101  for use, and returns a success page to the web browser  115 . 
       FIG.  4 A  is a schematic  400  depicting an example embodiment of tapping the contactless card  101  to provide secure activation using custom terms for the contactless card  101 . As shown, the account application  113  may be executing on the mobile device  110 , and instruct the user to tap the contactless card  101  for activation. Once the user taps the contactless card  101  to the mobile device  110 , the applet  103  of the contactless card  101  encrypts the customer ID  107 . The applet  103  may then transmit the encrypted customer ID  107  to the mobile device  110 , e.g., via NFC. 
       FIG.  4 B  is a schematic  410  illustrating an embodiment where the account application  113  receives the encrypted customer ID  107  from the contactless card  101 . The account application  113  may then transmit the encrypted customer ID  107  to the authentication application  123  for verification. The authentication application  123  may then attempt to decrypt the encrypted customer ID  107  using the private key  105  and/or the diversified key  106  assigned to the contactless card  101 . If the authentication application  123  is unable to decrypt the encrypted customer ID  107  to yield an expected result (e.g., the customer ID  107  of the account, etc.), the authentication application  123  does not verify the encrypted customer ID  107 . If the authentication application  123  successfully decrypts the encrypted customer ID  107  to yield an expected result (e.g., the customer ID  107  of the account, etc.), the authentication application  123  verifies the encrypted customer ID  107 . As shown in  FIG.  4 B , the authentication application  123  successfully decrypts the encrypted customer ID, and the authentication application  123  transmits an indication of the verification to the web browser  115 . The authentication application  123  may then determine the custom terms for the contactless card  101  based on one or more attributes of the card  101  and/or one or more attributes of the account holder(s). 
       FIG.  4 C  is a schematic  420  illustrating a simplified portion of the custom terms  127  determined by the authentication application  123  for the contactless card  101  being activated. More specifically,  FIG.  4 C  depicts an embodiment where the contactless card  101  being activated is not a replacement of a previous contactless card  101 . Therefore, the account application  113  may output all terms received from the authentication application  123 . While not depicted in  FIG.  4 C  (or  FIG.  3 C ) for the sake of clarity, the complete set of terms may be displayed on the device  110 . The user may select the accept button to accept the terms, which causes the account application  113  to transmit an indication of acceptance to the authentication application  123 .  FIG.  4 D  is a schematic  430  illustrating an embodiment where the authentication application  123  has activated the card  101  for use, and returns a success page to the account application  113 . 
       FIG.  5 A  illustrates a contactless card  101 , which may comprise a payment card, such as a credit card, debit card, and/or a gift card. As shown, the contactless card  101  may be issued by a service provider  502  displayed on the front or back of the card  101 . In some examples, the contactless card  101  is not related to a payment card, and may comprise, without limitation, an identification card. In some examples, the payment card may comprise a dual interface contactless payment card. The contactless card  101  may comprise a substrate  510 , which may include a single layer or one or more laminated layers composed of plastics, metals, and other materials. Exemplary substrate materials include polyvinyl chloride, polyvinyl chloride acetate, acrylonitrile butadiene styrene, polycarbonate, polyesters, anodized titanium, palladium, gold, carbon, paper, and biodegradable materials. In some examples, the contactless card  101  may have physical characteristics compliant with the ID-1 format of the ISO/IEC 7810 standard, and the contactless card may otherwise be compliant with the ISO/IEC 14443 standard. However, it is understood that the contactless card  101  according to the present disclosure may have different characteristics, and the present disclosure does not require a contactless card to be implemented in a payment card. 
     The contactless card  101  may also include identification information  515  displayed on the front and/or back of the card, and a contact pad  520 . The contact pad  520  may be configured to establish contact with another communication device, such as the mobile devices  110 , a user device, smart phone, laptop, desktop, or tablet computer. The contactless card  101  may also include processing circuitry, antenna and other components not shown in  FIG.  5 A . These components may be located behind the contact pad  520  or elsewhere on the substrate  510 . The contactless card  101  may also include a magnetic strip or tape, which may be located on the back of the card (not shown in  FIG.  5 A ). 
     As illustrated in  FIG.  5 B , the contact pad  520  of contactless card  101  may include processing circuitry  525  for storing and processing information, including a microprocessor  530  and the memory  102 . It is understood that the processing circuitry  525  may contain additional components, including processors, memories, error and parity/CRC checkers, data encoders, anti-collision algorithms, controllers, command decoders, security primitives and tamper proofing hardware, as necessary to perform the functions described herein. 
     The memory  102  may be a read-only memory, write-once read-multiple memory or read/write memory, e.g., RAM, ROM, and EEPROM, and the contactless card  101  may include one or more of these memories. A read-only memory may be factory programmable as read-only or one-time programmable. One-time programmability provides the opportunity to write once then read many times. A write once/read-multiple memory may be programmed at a point in time after the memory chip has left the factory. Once the memory is programmed, it may not be rewritten, but it may be read many times. A read/write memory may be programmed and re-programed many times after leaving the factory. A read/write memory may also be read many times after leaving the factory. 
     The memory  102  may be configured to store one or more applets  103 , the counter value  104 , private key  105 , the diversified key  106 , and one or more customer (or user) IDs  107 . The one or more applets  103  may comprise one or more software applications configured to execute on one or more contactless cards, such as a Java® Card applet. However, it is understood that applets  103  are not limited to Java Card applets, and instead may be any software application operable on contactless cards or other devices having limited memory. The customer ID  107  may comprise a unique alphanumeric identifier assigned to a user of the contactless card  101 , and the identifier may distinguish the user of the contactless card from other contactless card users. In some examples, the customer ID  107  may identify both a customer and an account assigned to that customer and may further identify the contactless card associated with the customer&#39;s account. In some embodiments, the applet  103  may use the customer ID  107  as input to a cryptographic algorithm with the keys  105  and/or  106  to encrypt the customer ID  107 . Similarly, the applet  103  may construct a URL that includes the encrypted customer ID  107  as a parameter. The URL may be directed to the server  120  and/or the account application  113 . 
     The processor and memory elements of the foregoing exemplary embodiments are described with reference to the contact pad, but the present disclosure is not limited thereto. It is understood that these elements may be implemented outside of the pad  520  or entirely separate from it, or as further elements in addition to processor  530  and memory  102  elements located within the contact pad  520 . 
     In some examples, the contactless card  101  may comprise one or more antennas  555 . The one or more antennas  555  may be placed within the contactless card  101  and around the processing circuitry  525  of the contact pad  520 . For example, the one or more antennas  555  may be integral with the processing circuitry  525  and the one or more antennas  555  may be used with an external booster coil. As another example, the one or more antennas  555  may be external to the contact pad  520  and the processing circuitry  525 . 
     In an embodiment, the coil of contactless card  101  may act as the secondary of an air core transformer. The terminal may communicate with the contactless card  101  by cutting power or amplitude modulation. The contactless card  101  may infer the data transmitted from the terminal using the gaps in the contactless card&#39;s power connection, which may be functionally maintained through one or more capacitors. The contactless card  101  may communicate back by switching a load on the contactless card&#39;s coil or load modulation. Load modulation may be detected in the terminal&#39;s coil through interference. More generally, using the antennas  555 , processing circuitry  525 , and/or the memory  102 , the contactless card  101  provides a communications interface to communicate via NFC, Bluetooth, and/or Wi-Fi communications. 
     As explained above, contactless cards  101  may be built on a software platform operable on smart cards or other devices having limited memory, such as JavaCard, and one or more or more applications or applets may be securely executed. Applets may be added to contactless cards to provide a one-time password (OTP) for multifactor authentication (MFA) in various mobile application-based use cases. Applets may be configured to respond to one or more requests, such as near field data exchange requests, from a reader, such as a mobile NFC reader (e.g., the communications interface  118  of the device  110 ), and produce an NDEF message that comprises a cryptographically secure OTP (e.g., an encrypted customer ID) encoded as an NDEF text tag. 
     Operations for the disclosed embodiments may be further described with reference to the following figures. Some of the figures may include a logic flow. Although such figures presented herein may include a particular logic flow, it can be appreciated that the logic flow merely provides an example of how the general functionality as described herein can be implemented. Further, a given logic flow does not necessarily have to be executed in the order presented unless otherwise indicated. In addition, the given logic flow may be implemented by a hardware element, a software element executed by a processor, or any combination thereof. The embodiments are not limited in this context. 
       FIG.  6    illustrates an embodiment of a logic flow  600 . The logic flow  600  may be representative of some or all of the operations executed by one or more embodiments described herein. For example, the logic flow  600  may include some or all of the operations to activate a contactless card  101  using terms specific to the contactless card and the account holder. Embodiments are not limited in this context. 
     As shown, the logic flow  600  begins at block  605 , where a user taps the contactless card  101  to the mobile device  110  to cause the applet  103  of the contactless card  101  to generate encrypted data. At block  610 , the applet  103  generates the customer ID  107  as part of a URL with encrypted data. At block  615 , the applet transmits the URL with encrypted data to the mobile device  110 . At block  620 , the OS  112  may launch the web browser  115  to access the URL with encrypted data, which may be directed to the server  120  and/or the authentication application  123 . The server  120  may attempt to decrypt the encrypted customer ID included in the URL as described herein. At block  625 , the web browser  115  receives an indication from the server  120  that the encrypted customer ID  107  was verified by decrypting the encrypted customer ID  107 . Doing so may cause the server  120  to determine the terms that are specific to the account holder and the contactless card  101 . 
     At block  630 , the web browser  115  receives the plurality of terms from the server  120  and outputs the terms for display. At block  635 , the web browser  115  receives acceptance of the terms from the user. At block  640 , the web browser  115  transmits an indication of the acceptance to the server  120 . Doing so may cause the server  120  to activate the contactless card  101 . At block  645 , the web browser  115  may receive and output an indication from the server specifying that the contactless card  101  has been activated. 
       FIG.  7    illustrates an embodiment of a logic flow  700 . The logic flow  700  may be representative of some or all of the operations executed by one or more embodiments described herein. For example, the logic flow  700  may include some or all of the operations to activate a contactless card  101  using terms specific to the contactless card and the account holder. Embodiments are not limited in this context. 
     As shown, the logic flow  700  begins at block  705 , where a user taps the contactless card  101  to the mobile device  110  to cause the applet  103  of the contactless card  101  to generate encrypted data. At block  710 , the applet  103  generates the encrypted customer ID  107 , which may be part of a URL with encrypted data, where the URL is directed to an activation page of the account application  113 . At block  715 , the applet transmits the URL with encrypted data to the mobile device  110 . At block  720 , the OS  112  may launch the account application  113  and open the card activation page responsive to receiving the URL with encrypted data  108 . At block  725 , the account application  113  transmits the received encrypted data (e.g., the encrypted customer ID  107 ) to the server  120 . In one embodiment, the account application extracts the encrypted data (e.g., the encrypted customer ID  107 ) from the URL  108  before transmitting the encrypted data to the server. In another embodiment, the account application  113  transmits the URL with encrypted data  108  to the server  120 . The server  120  may then attempt to decrypt the encrypted data as described herein. Doing so may cause the server  120  to determine the terms that are specific to the account holder and the contactless card  101 . 
     At block  730 , the account application  113  receives an indication from the server  120  that the encrypted customer ID  107  was verified by decrypting the encrypted customer ID  107  and the determined plurality of terms. At block  735 , the account application  113  receives acceptance of the terms from the user. At block  740 , the account application  113  transmits an indication of the acceptance to the server  120 . Doing so may cause the server  120  to activate the contactless card  101 . At block  745 , the account application  113  may receive and output an indication from the server specifying that the contactless card  101  has been activated. 
       FIG.  8    illustrates an embodiment of a logic flow  800 . The logic flow  800  may be representative of some or all of the operations executed by one or more embodiments described herein. For example, the logic flow  800  may include some or all of the operations to activate a contactless card  101  using terms specific to the contactless card and the account holder. Embodiments are not limited in this context. 
     As shown, the logic flow  800  begins at block  805 , where the server  120  receives a URL comprising encrypted data from a web browser  115  executing on a mobile device  110 . The URL with encrypted data may be generated by the applet  103  of the contactless card  101  based at least in part on the private key assigned to the contactless card  101 . At block  810 , the server  120  may decrypt the encrypted data based on an instance of the private key maintained by the server  120 . At block  815 , the server  120  determines a type of the contactless card  101 . For example, a unique identifier of the contactless card  101  may be stored in the account data  124  and/or the card data  126 . The unique identifier may be used to determine a type of the card, e.g., in the card data  126 . The card data  126  may specify the type of the card, a date the card was issued, and any related terms  127  for the card. At block  820 , the server  120  determines the plurality of terms for the card and/or terms based on user attributes, such as age, residence, credit limits, etc. 
     At block  825 , the server  120  may optionally identify any changed terms for the card, e.g., when the card is a replacement for a previous card held by the account holder. The server  120  may modify the changed terms (e.g., highlight, bold, increase font size, etc.) of the changed terms to improve readability on the user&#39;s device. At block  830 , the server  120  transmits an indication to the web browser  115  that the server  120  decrypted the encrypted data, thereby verifying the encrypted data. The server  120  may further transmit the terms determined at block  820 , which may be outputted for display by the web browser  115 . At block  835 , the server  120  receives an indication from the web browser  115  specifying that the user accepted the terms. At block  840 , the server  120  stores an indication (e.g., in the account data  124 ) indicating that the card has been activated for use based on the acceptance of the terms and the decryption of the encrypted data. At block  845 , the server  120  transmits an indication to the web browser  115  indicating the card has been activated. The web browser  115  may display the indication on a display. 
       FIG.  9    illustrates an embodiment of a logic flow  900 . The logic flow  900  may be representative of some or all of the operations executed by one or more embodiments described herein. For example, the logic flow  900  may include some or all of the operations to activate a contactless card  101  using terms specific to the contactless card and the account holder. Embodiments are not limited in this context. 
     As shown, the logic flow  900  begins at block  905 , where the server  120  receives encrypted data from an account application  113  executing on a mobile device  110 . The encrypted data may be generated by the applet  103  of the contactless card  101  based at least in part on the private key assigned to the contactless card  101 . In some embodiments, the applet  103  includes the encrypted data as a parameter of a URL with encrypted data. At block  910 , the server  120  may decrypt the encrypted data based on an instance of the private key maintained by the server  120 . At block  915 , the server  120  determines a type of the contactless card  101 . For example, a unique identifier of the contactless card  101  may be stored in the account data  124  and/or the card data  126 . The unique identifier may be used to determine a type of the card, e.g., in the card data  126 . The card data  126  may specify the type of the card, a date the card was issued, and any related terms  127  for the card. At block  920 , the server  120  determines the plurality of terms for the card and/or terms based on user attributes, such as age, residence, credit limits, etc. 
     At block  925 , the server  120  may optionally identify any changed terms for the card, e.g., when the card is a replacement for a previous card held by the account holder. The server  120  may modify the changed terms (e.g., highlight, bold, increase font size, etc.) of the changed terms to improve readability on the user&#39;s device. At block  930 , the server  120  transmits an indication to the account application  113  that the server  120  decrypted the encrypted data, thereby verifying the encrypted data. The server  120  may further transmit the terms determined at block  920 , which may be outputted for display by the account application  113 . At block  935 , the server  120  receives an indication from the account application  113  specifying that the user accepted the terms. At block  940 , the server  120  stores an indication (e.g., in the account data  124 ) indicating that the card has been activated for use based on the acceptance of the terms and the decryption of the encrypted data. At block  945 , the server  120  transmits an indication to the account application  113  indicating the card has been activated. The account application  113  may display the indication on a display. 
       FIG.  10    illustrates an embodiment of an exemplary computing architecture  1000  comprising a computing system  1002  that may be suitable for implementing various embodiments as previously described. In various embodiments, the computing architecture  1000  may comprise or be implemented as part of an electronic device. In some embodiments, the computing architecture  1000  may be representative, for example, of a system that implements one or more components of the system  100 . In some embodiments, computing system  1002  may be representative, for example, of the contactless card  101 , mobile devices  110 , and authentication server  120  of the system  100 . The embodiments are not limited in this context. More generally, the computing architecture  1000  is configured to implement all logic, applications, systems, methods, apparatuses, and functionality described herein with reference to  FIGS.  1 - 9   . 
     As used in this application, the terms “system” and “component” and “module” are intended to refer to a computer-related entity, either hardware, a combination of hardware and software, software, or software in execution, examples of which are provided by the exemplary computing architecture  1000 . For example, a component can be, but is not limited to being, a process running on a computer processor, a computer processor, a hard disk drive, multiple storage drives (of optical and/or magnetic storage medium), an object, an executable, a thread of execution, a program, and/or a computer. By way of illustration, both an application running on a server and the server can be a component. One or more components can reside within a process and/or thread of execution, and a component can be localized on one computer and/or distributed between two or more computers. Further, components may be communicatively coupled to each other by various types of communications media to coordinate operations. The coordination may involve the uni-directional or bi-directional exchange of information. For instance, the components may communicate information in the form of signals communicated over the communications media. The information can be implemented as signals allocated to various signal lines. In such allocations, each message is a signal. Further embodiments, however, may alternatively employ data messages. Such data messages may be sent across various connections. Exemplary connections include parallel interfaces, serial interfaces, and bus interfaces. 
     The computing system  1002  includes various common computing elements, such as one or more processors, multi-core processors, co-processors, memory units, chipsets, controllers, peripherals, interfaces, oscillators, timing devices, video cards, audio cards, multimedia input/output (I/O) components, power supplies, and so forth. The embodiments, however, are not limited to implementation by the computing system  1002 . 
     As shown in  FIG.  10   , the computing system  1002  comprises a processor  1004 , a system memory  1006  and a system bus  1008 . The processor  1004  can be any of various commercially available computer processors, including without limitation an AMD® Athlon®, Duron® and Opteron® processors; ARM® application, embedded and secure processors; IBM® and Motorola® DragonBall® and PowerPC® processors; IBM and Sony® Cell processors; Intel® Celeron®, Core®, Core (2) Duo®, Itanium®, Pentium®, Xeon®, and XScale® processors; and similar processors. Dual microprocessors, multi-core processors, and other multi processor architectures may also be employed as the processor  1004 . 
     The system bus  1008  provides an interface for system components including, but not limited to, the system memory  1006  to the processor  1004 . The system bus  1008  can be any of several types of bus structure that may further interconnect to a memory bus (with or without a memory controller), a peripheral bus, and a local bus using any of a variety of commercially available bus architectures. Interface adapters may connect to the system bus  1008  via a slot architecture. Example slot architectures may include without limitation Accelerated Graphics Port (AGP), Card Bus, (Extended) Industry Standard Architecture ((E)ISA), Micro Channel Architecture (MCA), NuBus, Peripheral Component Interconnect (Extended) (PCI(X)), PCI Express, Personal Computer Memory Card International Association (PCMCIA), and the like. 
     The system memory  1006  may include various types of computer-readable storage media in the form of one or more higher speed memory units, such as read-only memory (ROM), random-access memory (RAM), dynamic RAM (DRAM), Double-Data-Rate DRAM (DDRAM), synchronous DRAM (SDRAM), static RAM (SRAM), programmable ROM (PROM), erasable programmable ROM (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable ROM (EEPROM), flash memory (e.g., one or more flash arrays), polymer memory such as ferroelectric polymer memory, ovonic memory, phase change or ferroelectric memory, silicon-oxide-nitride-oxide-silicon (SONO S) memory, magnetic or optical cards, an array of devices such as Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID) drives, solid state memory devices (e.g., USB memory, solid state drives (SSD) and any other type of storage media suitable for storing information. In the illustrated embodiment shown in  FIG.  10   , the system memory  1006  can include non-volatile memory  1010  and/or volatile memory  1012 . A basic input/output system (BIOS) can be stored in the non-volatile memory  1010 . 
     The computing system  1002  may include various types of computer-readable storage media in the form of one or more lower speed memory units, including an internal (or external) hard disk drive (HDD)  1014 , a magnetic floppy disk drive (FDD)  1016  to read from or write to a removable magnetic disk  1018 , and an optical disk drive  1020  to read from or write to a removable optical disk  1022  (e.g., a CD-ROM or DVD). The HDD  1014 , FDD  1016  and optical disk drive  1020  can be connected to the system bus  1008  by a HDD interface  1024 , an FDD interface  1026  and an optical drive interface  1028 , respectively. The HDD interface  1024  for external drive implementations can include at least one or both of Universal Serial Bus (USB) and IEEE 1394 interface technologies. The computing system  1002  is generally is configured to implement all logic, systems, methods, apparatuses, and functionality described herein with reference to  FIGS.  1 - 9   . 
     The drives and associated computer-readable media provide volatile and/or nonvolatile storage of data, data structures, computer-readable instructions, computer-executable instructions, and so forth. For example, a number of program modules can be stored in the drives and memory units  1010 ,  1012 , including an operating system  1030 , one or more application programs  1032 , other program modules  1034 , and program data  1036 . In one embodiment, the one or more application programs  1032 , other program modules  1034 , and program data  1036  can include, for example, the various applications and/or components of the system  100 , e.g., the applet  103 , counter  104 , private key  105 , diversified key  106 , customer ID  107 , operating system  112 , account application  113 , web browser  115 , the authentication application  123 , the account data  124 , the card data  126 , terms  127 , URL with encrypted data  108 , and/or the encrypted data  208 . 
     A user can enter commands and information into the computing system  1002  through one or more wire/wireless input devices, for example, a keyboard  1038  and a pointing device, such as a mouse  1040 . Other input devices may include microphones, infra-red (IR) remote controls, radio-frequency (RF) remote controls, game pads, stylus pens, card readers, dongles, finger print readers, gloves, graphics tablets, joysticks, keyboards, retina readers, touch screens (e.g., capacitive, resistive, etc.), trackballs, trackpads, sensors, styluses, and the like. These and other input devices are often connected to the processor  1004  through an input device interface  1042  that is coupled to the system bus  1008 , but can be connected by other interfaces such as a parallel port, IEEE 1394 serial port, a game port, a USB port, an IR interface, and so forth. 
     A monitor  1044  or other type of display device is also connected to the system bus  1008  via an interface, such as a video adaptor  1046 . The monitor  1044  may be internal or external to the computing system  1002 . In addition to the monitor  1044 , a computer typically includes other peripheral output devices, such as speakers, printers, and so forth. 
     The computing system  1002  may operate in a networked environment using logical connections via wire and/or wireless communications to one or more remote computers, such as a remote computer  1048 . The remote computer  1048  can be a workstation, a server computer, a router, a personal computer, portable computer, microprocessor-based entertainment appliance, a peer device or other common network node, and typically includes many or all of the elements described relative to the computing system  1002 , although, for purposes of brevity, only a memory/storage device  1050  is illustrated. The logical connections depicted include wire/wireless connectivity to a local area network (LAN)  1052  and/or larger networks, for example, a wide area network (WAN)  1054 . Such LAN and WAN networking environments are commonplace in offices and companies, and facilitate enterprise-wide computer networks, such as intranets, all of which may connect to a global communications network, for example, the Internet. In embodiments, the network  130  of  FIG.  1    is one or more of the LAN  1052  and the WAN 
     When used in a LAN networking environment, the computing system  1002  is connected to the LAN  1052  through a wire and/or wireless communication network interface or adaptor  1056 . The adaptor  1056  can facilitate wire and/or wireless communications to the LAN  1052 , which may also include a wireless access point disposed thereon for communicating with the wireless functionality of the adaptor  1056 . 
     When used in a WAN networking environment, the computing system  1002  can include a modem  1058 , or is connected to a communications server on the WAN  1054 , or has other means for establishing communications over the WAN  1054 , such as by way of the Internet. The modem  1058 , which can be internal or external and a wire and/or wireless device, connects to the system bus  1008  via the input device interface  1042 . In a networked environment, program modules depicted relative to the computing system  1002 , or portions thereof, can be stored in the remote memory/storage device  1050 . It will be appreciated that the network connections shown are exemplary and other means of establishing a communications link between the computers can be used. 
     The computing system  1002  is operable to communicate with wired and wireless devices or entities using the IEEE 802 family of standards, such as wireless devices operatively disposed in wireless communication (e.g., IEEE 802.16 over-the-air modulation techniques). This includes at least Wi-Fi (or Wireless Fidelity), WiMax, and Bluetooth™ wireless technologies, among others. Thus, the communication can be a predefined structure as with a conventional network or simply an ad hoc communication between at least two devices. Wi-Fi networks use radio technologies called IEEE 802.11x (a, b, g, n, etc.) to provide secure, reliable, fast wireless connectivity. A Wi-Fi network can be used to connect computers to each other, to the Internet, and to wire networks (which use IEEE 802.3-related media and functions). 
     Various embodiments may be implemented using hardware elements, software elements, or a combination of both. Examples of hardware elements may include processors, microprocessors, circuits, circuit elements (e.g., transistors, resistors, capacitors, inductors, and so forth), integrated circuits, application specific integrated circuits (ASIC), programmable logic devices (PLD), digital signal processors (DSP), field programmable gate array (FPGA), logic gates, registers, semiconductor device, chips, microchips, chip sets, and so forth. Examples of software may include software components, programs, applications, computer programs, application programs, system programs, machine programs, operating system software, middleware, firmware, software modules, routines, subroutines, functions, methods, procedures, software interfaces, application program interfaces (API), instruction sets, computing code, computer code, code segments, computer code segments, words, values, symbols, or any combination thereof. Determining whether an embodiment is implemented using hardware elements and/or software elements may vary in accordance with any number of factors, such as desired computational rate, power levels, heat tolerances, processing cycle budget, input data rates, output data rates, memory resources, data bus speeds and other design or performance constraints. 
     One or more aspects of at least one embodiment may be implemented by representative instructions stored on a machine-readable medium which represents various logic within the processor, which when read by a machine causes the machine to fabricate logic to perform the techniques described herein. Such representations, known as “IP cores” may be stored on a tangible, machine readable medium and supplied to various customers or manufacturing facilities to load into the fabrication machines that make the logic or processor. Some embodiments may be implemented, for example, using a machine-readable medium or article which may store an instruction or a set of instructions that, if executed by a machine, may cause the machine to perform a method and/or operations in accordance with the embodiments. Such a machine may include, for example, any suitable processing platform, computing platform, computing device, processing device, computing system, processing system, computer, processor, or the like, and may be implemented using any suitable combination of hardware and/or software. The machine-readable medium or article may include, for example, any suitable type of memory unit, memory device, memory article, memory medium, storage device, storage article, storage medium and/or storage unit, for example, memory, removable or non-removable media, erasable or non-erasable media, writeable or re-writeable media, digital or analog media, hard disk, floppy disk, Compact Disk Read Only Memory (CD-ROM), Compact Disk Recordable (CD-R), Compact Disk Rewriteable (CD-RW), optical disk, magnetic media, magneto-optical media, removable memory cards or disks, various types of Digital Versatile Disk (DVD), a tape, a cassette, or the like. The instructions may include any suitable type of code, such as source code, compiled code, interpreted code, executable code, static code, dynamic code, encrypted code, and the like, implemented using any suitable high-level, low-level, object-oriented, visual, compiled and/or interpreted programming language. 
     The foregoing description of example embodiments has been presented for the purposes of illustration and description. It is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the present disclosure to the precise forms disclosed. Many modifications and variations are possible in light of this disclosure. It is intended that the scope of the present disclosure be limited not by this detailed description, but rather by the claims appended hereto. Future filed applications claiming priority to this application may claim the disclosed subject matter in a different manner, and may generally include any set of one or more limitations as variously disclosed or otherwise demonstrated herein.