Patent ID: 8631236

Claim:
A system for uploading and synchronizing data, comprising: a data server device in an Internet service provider (“ISP”) network; and a residential gateway device that is in communication with the data server device over the ISP network, the residential gateway device comprising at least one universal serial bus (“USB”) port configured to receive a USB memory drive, wherein the residential gateway device is configured to establish a connection between the ISP network and a residential network, and to upload data stored on the USB memory drive to the data server device; wherein the data server device is configured to synchronize data on the data server device with the data stored on the USB memory drive; wherein the data stored on the USB memory drive includes at least one of public data, semi-private data, and private data, wherein public data is data that is accessible by anyone, semi-private data is data that is accessible by a single access key that is shared with at least one user, and private data is data that is only accessible by one or more customer keys each of which correspond to only a single user; and wherein when the USB port uploads data to the data server device that is not currently stored on the data server device, the data server device is configured to: determine whether the data stored on the USB memory drive is public data, semi-private data, or private data; create at least one public folder on the data server device based on a determination that the data includes public data; create at least one semi-private folder on the data server device based on a determination that the data includes semi-private data, wherein the at least one semi-private folder is accessible by the single access key; and create at least one private folder on the data server device based on a determination that the data includes private data, wherein the at least one private folder is accessible by the one or more customer keys.