Patent Publication Number: US-9407759-B2

Title: Telephonic communication redirection and compliance processing

Description:
CROSS REFERENCE TO OTHER APPLICATIONS 
     This application is a continuation of co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/174,288, entitled TELEPHONIC COMMUNICATION REDIRECTION AND COMPLIANCE PROCESSING filed Jun. 30, 2005 which is incorporated herein by reference for all purposes. 
    
    
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     In many contexts, an enterprise or other stakeholder may be required and/or may desire to keep track of and/or exercise control over network or other communications, e.g., communications among employees of a corporation and/or between such employees and third parties, such as the corporation&#39;s customers and/or members of the general public. The requirements of the Securities and Exchange Commission, National Association of Securities Dealers, HIPAA, Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, and various anti-harassment and anti-discrimination laws are among the many legal and regulatory requirements that may give rise to a need on the part of a corporation or other entity to be able to monitor, record, archive, index, retrieve, analyze, and/or control employee (or other user) communications. 
     The task of monitoring and controlling voice communications has been challenging. Not only has voice communication processing technology been traditionally limited, voice communication typically involves the use of communication devices and/or infrastructure beyond the control of the responsible entity. Therefore, there is a need for an effective way to monitor and/or control voice and other communications, including without limitation communications made using telephonic technology. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       Various embodiments of the invention are disclosed in the following detailed description and the accompanying drawings. 
         FIG. 1  is a block diagram illustrating an embodiment of a system for redirection compliance processing. 
         FIG. 2A  is a flow chart illustrating an embodiment of a process for redirecting a call made to a monitored call participant. 
         FIG. 2B  is a flow chart illustrating an embodiment of a process for redirecting a call made from a monitored call participant. 
         FIG. 2C  is a flow chart illustrating an embodiment of a process for determining an identification number to be used in connection with a monitored call. 
         FIG. 2D  is a flow chart illustrating an embodiment of a process for establishing a call to a destination call number. 
         FIG. 2E  is a flow chart illustrating an embodiment of a process for blocking a caller. 
         FIG. 3  is a block diagram illustrating an embodiment of a system for compliance processing. 
         FIG. 4A  is a flow chart illustrating an embodiment of a process for establishing a call. 
         FIG. 4B  is a flow chart illustrating an embodiment of a process for blocking a call. 
         FIG. 4C  is a flow chart illustrating an embodiment of a process for receiving a call on a device associated with a monitored call participant. 
         FIG. 5A  is a block diagram illustrating an embodiment of a system for compliance processing in a PBX environment. 
         FIG. 5B  is a block diagram illustrating an embodiment of a system for compliance processing in a PBX environment, including line monitors. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     The invention can be implemented in numerous ways, including as a process, an apparatus, a system, a composition of matter, a computer readable medium such as a computer readable storage medium or a computer network wherein program instructions are sent over optical or electronic communication links. In this specification, these implementations, or any other form that the invention may take, may be referred to as techniques. A component such as a processor or a memory described as being configured to perform a task includes both a general component that is temporarily configured to perform the task at a given time or a specific component that is manufactured to perform the task. In general, the order of the steps of disclosed processes may be altered within the scope of the invention. 
     A detailed description of one or more embodiments of the invention is provided below along with accompanying figures that illustrate the principles of the invention. The invention is described in connection with such embodiments, but the invention is not limited to any embodiment. The scope of the invention is limited only by the claims and the invention encompasses numerous alternatives, modifications and equivalents. Numerous specific details are set forth in the following description in order to provide a thorough understanding of the invention. These details are provided for the purpose of example and the invention may be practiced according to the claims without some or all of these specific details. For the purpose of clarity, technical material that is known in the technical fields related to the invention has not been described in detail so that the invention is not unnecessarily obscured. 
     Telephonic communication compliance processing is disclosed. In some embodiments, compliance processing includes redirecting and monitoring one or more telephonic communications of interest. Calls to and/or from one or more communication participants of interest are redirected through a compliance system accessible via a telephonic network, e.g., a telephone/cellular service provider network. A communication participant includes any users, systems, and/or devices involved in a communication. In some embodiments, a compliance system is configured to serve as a redirection point for calls associated with a communication participant of interest, thereby enabling various routing and compliance processing to be performed without necessarily involving a change in a third party telecommunications service provider&#39;s network or equipment. 
       FIG. 1  is a block diagram illustrating an embodiment of a system for redirection compliance processing. In the example shown, compliance system  102  performs routing and compliance processing. Storage  104  contains data associated with the compliance system. The data in storage  104  may include call archive data, recorded call data, and any information associated with calls. Configuration and policy data and/or settings may also be stored in storage  104 . Monitored call participant  106  is one of one or more communication participants associated with compliance system  102 . In some embodiments, all calls to and from monitored call participant  106  are redirected through compliance system  102 . Call participant  106  in one embodiment comprises a communication device associated with an employee of a company desiring to perform compliance processing of telephonic communication of its employees. External call participant  108  is one of one or more communication participants that may communicate with monitored call participant  106 . More than two call participants can exists, e.g., a conference call with 3 or more call participants, and more than one monitored call participant may participate in the same call. In the example shown, the external call participant  108  is external to the compliance system since the call participant is not directly associated with the compliance system, e.g., the communication participant does not belong to the company desiring to perform compliance processing of monitored call participant  106 . Only calls involving at least one monitored call participant are processed by compliance system  102 . In some embodiments, monitored call participant  106  may communicate with another monitored call participant associated with compliance system  102 . The communication information path lines shown in the figure are merely schematic. Not all information paths have been shown to clearly illustrate the embodiment. Information may travel through any path or network and travel through any intermediary node. 
     In the example shown, monitored call participant  106  has a public call number and a non-public call number. The call numbers are used as identifiers of call participants. A call number may be a telephone number, extension number, IP address, and any numeric, alphabetic, alphanumeric or other identifier. In some embodiments, the public call number associated with monitored call participant  106  would be provided to one or more external calling parties or users, such as external call participant  108 , to be used to place a call to the monitored call participant  106 . In some embodiments, dialing the public call number associated with monitored call participant  106  results in a call being placed to compliance system  102 , which is configured to recognize the call as being associated with monitored call participant  106  and establish a three way connection between the calling party (e.g., external call participant  108 ), the monitored call participant  106 , and the compliance system  102 , e.g., by using the non-public call number associated with monitored call participant  106  to conference monitored call participant  106  in to the call terminated between external call participant  108  and compliance system  102 , thereby enabling the compliance system  102  to monitor and/or control the communications between external call participant  108  and monitored call participant  106 . 
     In some embodiments, dialing the public call number associated with the monitored call participant  106  results in a call placed directly to call participant  106 . Compliance processing is performed either in a compliance processing module of call participant  106  or an external compliance system associated with call participant  106 . In some embodiments, call participant  106 , upon receiving an incoming call, e.g., from an external call participant, first conferences in an associated compliance system prior to connecting a user associated with call participant  106  to the call, e.g., by providing a “ring” signal or indication to the user. 
     In some embodiments, the user of a device associated with monitored call participant  106  is not made aware of the non-public call number. In some embodiments, the user associated with monitored call participant  106  believes the public call number is the only call number associated with monitored call participant  106 . 
     In some embodiments, when monitored call participant  106  dials an outgoing destination call number, a call is established with compliance system  102  and the outgoing destination call number is passed to the compliance system. The compliance system terminates a new call to the passed destination number and conferences the monitored call participant  106  with the terminated new call to the passed destination number. In some embodiments, telecommunication equipment associated with monitored call participant  106 , e.g., a mobile or desktop telephone, is configured to only receive calls to the non-public number from compliance system  102  and make direct calls only to compliance system  102 . In some embodiments, hardware, firmware, or software may be used to limit equipment associated with monitored call participant  106  to placing calls directly to and/or receiving calls at the non-public number from compliance system  102 . 
     In some embodiments, call requester identifier data (i.e., Caller-ID data) is modified to allow the call participants to be unaware of the call redirections, e.g., by sending Caller ID data associated with external call participant  108  to equipment associated with monitored call participant  106  in connection with the call terminated by compliance system  102  to monitored call participant  106 , e.g., using the non-public call number associated with monitored call participant  106 , to conference monitored call participant  106  in to the call original terminated between external call participant  108  and compliance system  102 , e.g., as a result of external call participant  108  dialing the public call number associated with monitored call participant  106 . 
     Since compliance system  102  redirects all incoming and outgoing calls for monitored call participant  106 , the compliance system is able to perform compliance processing on all calls associated with monitored call participant  106 . 
     Any telephonic equipment may be associated with the call participants. For example, the call participants may be associated with mobile phones, telephones, computers, and/or any devices able to send and receive telephonic data. Any one or a combination of telecommunications networks may be used to transmit communication between the compliance system and the call participants, including without limitation, a direct or indirect physical connection, telephone service provider network, mobile communication network, public switched telephone network (PSTN), Blackberry network, PBX (Private Branch Exchange, i.e., a private telephone network within an enterprise) phone network, Voice-over-IP network, Internet, intranet, LAN, WAN, and/or any other forms of connecting two or more systems together. The telephone service provider network includes mobile communication network, public switched telephone network (PSTN), Blackberry network, Voice-over-IP network and/or any other forms of telecommunication network infrastructure. In some embodiments, monitored call participant  106  is configured to communicate with compliance system  102  by modifying or otherwise configuring firmware associated with monitored call participant  106  to perform such communication. In one embodiment, a communication policy, i.e. a policy regarding how to establish communication with other call participants, may be established and/or implemented by hardware design or modification of telecommunications equipment associated with monitored call participant  106 . In one embodiment, the communication policy may be determined by software running on a processor associated with monitored call participant  106 . Any suitable technique for enabling, determining, configuring, and/or enforcing may be used. 
     In some embodiments, compliance system  102  includes any component necessary to perform redirection and/or compliance processing. One or more telephonic identifiers, including telephone numbers, extension numbers, IP numbers, and numeric, alphabetic or alphanumeric identifier, may be associated with compliance system  102 . Storage  104  may be a part of the compliance system or connected to the compliance system together through a connection or a network. The compliance system and a device associated with a monitored call participant may together comprise a single device, i.e., in one embodiment a telephone associated with the monitored call participant includes built-in compliance system processing inside the device. 
     Compliance processing may include processing based on at least a portion of the information transferred in the call. Information transferred in the call may include voice data (including conversation content and tone/character/accent/gender of voice), background call noise, any audible data, any binary data, data associated with devices of with call participants, data associated with communication service providers, data associated with routing devices, and/or data associated with other devices associated with the compliance system. Based at least in part on the information being processed, the calls may be monitored, recorded, indexed, retrieved, analyzed, controlled, blocked, redacted, modified, archived, and/or any other processing can be performed. In some embodiments, a call is blocked according to a call blocking policy, e.g., a call is blocked if one of the call participants is not on a list of allowed call participants, does not belong to a group of allowed call participants, is an external call participant, is on a list of non-allowed call participants, or belongs to a group of non-allowed call participants. A call may be blocked or modified during a call. For example, in one embodiment a call is terminated if information that violates a policy is discussed, as detected during the call by processing voice data communicated during the call, e.g., by detecting a key word or phrase. The blocked or modified call can be archived and reported to appropriate authorities. Audio data processing is described in greater detail in a U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/884,453 entitled METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR PROCESSING AUDITORY COMMUNICATIONS filed Jul. 1, 2004. 
     In some embodiments, all or a portion of information transferred during a call may be archived. The determination of which transferred information portion to archive may be based at least in part on a preconfigured and/or dynamically configured archive policy. The policy may be based at least in part on any of the transferred information. Archiving includes saving transferred information to any storage medium, including hard drives, optical storage, data tape, audio tape, backup server, and networked storage (e.g., Storage Area Network, Network Attached Storage). Information may be converted (i.e. audio digitalization, voice to text translation, encoding format conversion, data filtering), compressed, and/or encrypted before being archived. Other compliance processing besides blocking, modifying, archiving may be performed by the compliance system. 
       FIG. 2A  is a flow chart illustrating an embodiment of a process for redirecting a call made to a monitored call participant. The process may be implemented on compliance system  102  of  FIG. 1 . At  202 , a call associated with a public number of a monitored call participant associated with a compliance system is received. In some embodiments, the call is received at a compliance system on a line associated with the public number, e.g., calls made to the public number ring at and/or otherwise are connected by a telephone service provider to the compliance system. At  204 , a non-public number that can be used to terminate the call to the monitored call participant is determined. At  206 , the non-public number is used to conference the monitored call participant into the call received at  202 , which in some embodiments results in a three way call being established between a calling station that initiated the call received at  202 , the compliance system, and the monitored call participant. At  208 , compliance processing is performed on the information transferred between the caller and the monitored call participant either during the communication or after the communication session. 
       FIG. 2B  is a flow chart illustrating an embodiment of a process for redirecting a call made from a monitored call participant. The process may be implemented on compliance system  102  of  FIG. 1 . At  209 , a call request from a monitored call participant is received. For example, the monitored call participant may call the compliance system to establish a call between them. One or more dedicated call numbers for incoming call requests from monitored call participants may be associated with the compliance system. In some embodiments, the monitored call participant may dial a number associated with the compliance system. In some embodiments, the monitored call participant may use a telephone configured to connect to the compliance system regardless of the number dialed and then pass the dialed digits to the compliance system for further processing, e.g., conferencing the dialed number into the call and monitoring the information exchanged between the monitored call participant and the destination associated with the dialed number. At  210 , the destination call participant number (i.e. number dialed by the monitored call participant) is received from the monitored call participant. The call number may be passed as a single or a combination of data encodings, including rotary pulse, DTMF (Dual-Tone Multi-Frequency), and binary data. A connection between the monitored call participant and the compliance system may be established at or shortly after the time the number is dialed or a connection between them may already exist. In some embodiments, a handshake protocol is used to establish communication. At  212 , it is determined whether the dialed number is a public number associated with a monitored call participant associated with the compliance system. If dialed number is not a public number associated with a monitored participant, at  214  the dialed number is used to conference the destination call participant into the call received at  209 . If it is determined at  212  that the received destination number is a public number associated with a monitored participant, at  216  the destination public number is mapped to a non-public number of the call participant associated with the destination number. At  218 , the non-public number of the call participant associated with the destination number is used to conference the call participant associated with the destination number into the call received at  209 . 
       FIG. 2C  is a flow chart illustrating an embodiment of a process for determining an identification number to be used in connection with a monitored call. In some embodiments, identification number is a Caller ID number to be provided to a destination equipment to identify a call requester. The process may be implemented on a compliance system. At  220 , a call and associated caller identification data are received. If at  222  it is determined that the caller identification number received at  220  matches a monitored call participant&#39;s non-public number, at  226  the caller identification number is mapped to a public number associated with the same monitored call participant and the public number is used to identify the originator of the call received at  220 , e.g., by providing the public number as a caller identification number in place of the caller identification number received at  220 . If at  222  it is determined that the received caller identification number does not match a monitored call participant&#39;s non-public number, at  224  the caller identification number received at  220  is passed as the caller identification number. 
       FIG. 2D  is a flow chart illustrating an embodiment of a process for establishing a call to a destination call number. The process may be implemented on a device associated with monitored call participant  106  of  FIG. 1 . At  228 , the destination number is received. In some embodiments, the destination number may be received from a user associated with a monitored call participant, e.g., a number entered by the user using a keypad. At  230 , a connection is established to the compliance system. In some embodiments, a call is made to the compliance system using a number associated with the compliance system. In some embodiments, the call to the compliance system is made transparently to a user associated with the monitored call participant. At  232 , the destination number received at  228  is passed to the compliance system. At  234 , the process waits for a called participant associated with the destination number to be conferenced in to the call. Once the called call participant has been conferenced in, the call initiator&#39;s call to the destination call number has been established and information can be exchanged between the initiator and the called call participant. 
       FIG. 2E  is a flow chart illustrating an embodiment of a process for blocking a caller. The process may be implemented on a compliance system or a communication equipment associated with a monitored call participant. At  236 , a call is received. At  238 , the call participants are determined. The calling participants are both the call initiator and the requested destination call participant. The call participants may be determined using caller identification data, requested destination call number, the line on which the call was received, and/or other data associated with the call. If at  240  it is determined that the calling participants are not allowed to communicate with each other, the call is blocked at  242 . In some embodiment, the decision at  240  is governed by a blocking policy, including a list of allowed and/or blocked call participants. A call participant may be placed on the list if the call participant had previously violated a communication policy. For example, if during a call a communication participant communicates keywords that violate the communication policy, the call is terminated and the communication participant is placed on a blocked list. Call participants may be added or removed from one or more lists by a user with modification privileges. Blocking a call may include one or more of the following: disconnecting the call, logging data associated with the blocked call request, and generating a notification of the blocked call. If at  240  it is determined that the calling participants are allowed to communicate with each other, at  244  the call is permitted. 
       FIG. 3  is a block diagram illustrating an embodiment of a system for compliance processing. Compliance system  302  performs compliance processing. Storage  304  contains data associated with the compliance system. Monitored call participant  306  is one of one or more communication participants associated with compliance system  302 . Information associated with calls to and from monitored call participant  306  is provided to compliance system  302  for processing. External call participant  308  is one of one or more communication participants that may communicate with monitored call participant  306 . More than two call participants can exist, e.g., a conference call involving 3 or more call participants. The external call participant is external to the compliance system since the call participant is not directly associated with the compliance system. In some embodiments, only information associated with calls involving at least one monitored call participant is processed by compliance system  302 . In some embodiments, monitored call participant  306  may communicate with another monitored call participant associated with compliance system  302 . The communication information path lines shown in the figure are merely schematic. Information may travel through any path or network and travel through any intermediary node. 
     For example, when a call either is made to or from monitored call participant  306 , compliance system  302  is notified of the call. If a connection does not already exist between monitored call participant  306  and compliance system  302 , a connection is established between them before a user associated with monitored call participant  306  is able to communicate with another call participant. In some embodiments, a call is made to the compliance system before any user communication is allowed, and the compliance system call is conferenced with both the incoming or outgoing call of a monitored call participant. This allows compliance system  302  to potentially process all information communicated between the call participants. In some embodiments, compliance system  302  has control over monitored call participant  306 . For example, compliance system  302  may filter or block communication desired by monitored call participant  306 . 
       FIG. 4A  is a flow chart illustrating an embodiment of a process for establishing a call. The process may be implemented on a device, e.g., telephone equipment, associated with monitored call participant  306  of  FIG. 3 . At  402 , a called number is received. For example, the call number of a destination call participant may be dialed by a user associated with a monitored call participant. At  404 , the compliance system is called. At  406 , a new call associated with the called number is conferenced in to the call with the compliance system, allowing the compliance system to monitor communication between the call participants. 
       FIG. 4B  is a flow chart illustrating an embodiment of a process for blocking a call. The process may be implemented on a device associated with monitored call participant  306  of  FIG. 3 . At  408 , a call number of a call participant is received. The call number may be associated with a destination number of an initiated call request or can be associated with an incoming call requester&#39;s call number. At  410 , the compliance system is called and the received call number is passed to the compliance system. At  412 , the call authorization is determined. In various embodiments, authorization determination may be performed on the compliance system or on a device associated with the monitored call participant. Call authorization includes verifying that the call participants are allowed to communicate with one another according to a communication policy that can be preconfigured and/or dynamically configured. The authorization determination can be made in part by verifying the received call number as authorized. In some embodiments, the authorization determination is made at a remote compliance system and  412  includes receiving from the remote compliance system an indication whether the call is authorized. If at  412  it is determined that the call is not authorized, the call is blocked at  414 . If at  412  it is determined that the call is authorized, at  416  the received call number is conferenced in to the call placed to the compliance system at  410 , allowing the compliance system to monitor communication between the call participants. 
       FIG. 4C  is a flow chart illustrating an embodiment of a process for receiving a call on a device associated with a monitored call participant. The process may be implemented on a device associated with monitored call participant  306  of  FIG. 3 . At  418 , a call is received on a device associated with a monitored call participant. If at  420  it is determined that the call is originating from a compliance system, at  424  the user associated with a monitored call participant is notified of the call. In some embodiments, the compliance system may call the device to conference another call participant together with the device. If at  420  it is determined that the call is not originating from a compliance system, at  422  a connection with the compliance system is established. In some embodiments, connecting to the compliance system includes calling the compliance system. In some embodiments, connecting to the compliance system includes conferencing the compliance system in to the call received at  418 . In some embodiments, connecting to the compliance system includes passing a calling party number to the compliance system and receiving an indication whether the call is authorized, as in the process of  FIG. 4B . At  424 , the user associated with the monitored call participant is notified of the call. 
       FIG. 5A  is a block diagram illustrating an embodiment of a system for compliance processing in a PBX environment. Compliance system  502 , call station  1  ( 506 ), and call station  2  ( 508 ) are connected to PBX system  504 . Call stations can be any terminal that can be used to communicate with another communication participant. Any number of call stations may exist. PBX  504  handles all call routing for all call stations associated with the PBX. Calls within call stations associated with the PBX may be routed and handled by the PBX. PBX can also route calls to an external network connection, e.g., public telephone network. Since the PBX handles all calls for the call stations, compliance system  502  can monitor and perform compliance processing on all calls by monitoring call information routed and handled by the PBX. For example, if an unauthorized call is detected by compliance system  502 , compliance system  502  can instruct PBX  504  to not allow the call. In some embodiments, PBX  504  is configured to conference the compliance system in to all (or selected) calls initiated by or placed to call station  1  ( 506 ) and/or call station  2  ( 508 ). In some embodiments, PBX  504  operates as a normal PBX configured to route a call placed using a public number associated with one of the monitored call stations  1  or  2  to the compliance system  502 , which then provides a non-public call number (e.g., internal extension) to PBX  504  to conference in the associated monitored call participant ( 506  or  508 , as applicable, in the example shown). In some embodiments, PBX  504  operates as a normal PBX and a local telephone equipment associated with station  1  or  2  ( 506  and  508 ), as applicable, is configured to use PBX  504  to conference compliance system  502  in to any (or selected) calls initiated or received by the associated monitored call station. In some embodiments, calls between monitored call stations  506  and  508  are placed using public internal extension that are associated on PBX  504 , which is configured to route all such calls to compliance system  502 , which then uses a non-public extension associated with the dialed public extension to conference in the intended call recipient. By utilizing an already existing enterprise controlled equipment, implementing compliance processing is simplified and does not necessarily require that special equipment or services to be obtained from an external service provider such as a local, regional, mobile, or other telephone service provider. 
       FIG. 5B  is a block diagram illustrating an embodiment of a system for compliance processing in a PBX environment, including line monitors. Compliance system  514 , call station  1  ( 516 ), and call station  2  ( 518 ) are connected to PBX  520 . PBX  520  is connected to an external telephone network  524  through line monitors  522 . External telephone network can be any telephone network including mobile phone network, public switched telephone network, telephone network, and/or Voice-over-IP network. Any number of connections to one or more external telephone networks may exist, and in some embodiments each such connection may one or more line monitors associated with it. Compliance system  514  is configured in some embodiments to monitor and process all (or selected) calls to and from any call station associated with the PBX by monitoring call information passing through the PBX. In some embodiments, line monitors are physically remote from the compliance system. Data is exchanged between the line monitors and the compliance system through a connection between them. For example, line monitors may relay line state and ANI information to the compliance system. In the event of either line monitor or compliance system cannot provide monitoring service, line monitors can interrupt telephony service by being set to fail open or alternatively to fail closed if interruption of telephony service is not desired. Line monitors  522  can be controlled by compliance system  514 . Line monitors can block, filter, and monitor any information on the communication line connection. For example, if a call not authorized by the compliance system is detected by the line monitors (e.g., when a communication line is “hot” due to a malicious attempt to bypass compliance processing), the unauthorized call information can be blocked by the line monitors. 
     Although the foregoing embodiments have been described in some detail for purposes of clarity of understanding, the invention is not limited to the details provided. There are many alternative ways of implementing the invention. The disclosed embodiments are illustrative and not restrictive.