Patent ID: 7797529

Claim:
A method comprising: providing security screening of an upload message from a wireless carrier network and destined to an account on a server-associated with a user, the security screening provided by a network other than the wireless carrier network, the other network is the network that is hosting the server, the other network's security screening being provided by blocking the upload message before the upload message reaches the server based on the internet protocol (IP) address of a gateway in the wireless carrier network, wherein the upload message is received by the network hosting the server from the gateway, and wherein the gateway is selected from the group consisting of a simple mail transfer protocol (SMTP) gateway, a multimedia messaging service (MMS) gateway, and a short message service (SMS) gateway; where the upload message is not blocked by the network's security screening, the server determines whether to block or allow the upload of content from the upload message based on opt-in parameters predetermined by the user for the account that the upload message is destined, the server: identifying, in the server, a mobile device used by a sender of the upload message, in response to the server receiving the upload message from the mobile device via the network that performed the security screening and the wireless carrier network; accessing, in the server, opt-in parameters predetermined by the user, the opt-in parameters including the identity of mobile devices that are authorized by the user to upload data to the account on the server associated with the user; wherein the opt-in parameters further include a user-authorized limit number of upload messages for receipt by the user during a given period of time; determining to allow upload of content from the upload message to the account associated with the user where the identity of the mobile device used by the sender is included in the predetermined opt-in parameters and the user-authorized limit number of upload messages for receipt by the user during a given period is not exceeded by the upload; and determining to block the upload of content from the upload message to the account associated with the user where the predetermined opt-in parameters do not include the identity of the mobile device used by the sender or the user-authorized limit number of upload messages for receipt by the user during a given period is exceeded by the upload message such that it is not permitted by the user.