System and method for activity monitoring and alerting

Abstract

An Internet activity monitoring and alerting capability operating within a Service Provider (SP) provides value-added services to Service Users (SUs, e.g., users of Wireless Devices). Through the optional use of a Messaging Inter-Carrier Vendor a SP may reach a broad universe of SUs. As a SP monitors activity it looks for the occurrence of a SU-defined event. When a SU-defined event is identified a SU is alerted to the event occurrence through, for example, one or more Short Message Service or Multimedia Message Service messages. A SU may optionally elect to have certain events blocked automatically. Additionally, a SU may optionally elect to manually block certain events (on an event-by-event basis).

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates various of the exchanges or interactions that are possible during the Registration aspects of the present invention.

FIG. 2 illustrates various of the exchanges or interactions that are possible during the Monitoring and Alerting aspects of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagrammatic presentation of aspects of an exemplary SP Application Server (AS).

Claims

1. A method for monitoring Internet activity, comprising: receiving at a Service Provider an indication of an occurrence of an event, said event having been previously defined by a Service User;processing said indication and determining whether to raise an alert in view of a type of the event;generating a notification message indicative of said type of event; anddispatching said notification message to a Wireless Device of said Service User.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said indication arises under a Local Monitoring process.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said indication arises under a Remote Monitoring process.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein said event is defined by a Service User during a Registration process.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein said Registration process is Web-based.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein said Registration process includes a billing component.

7. The method of claim 4, wherein information gathered during said Registration process are preserved through a User Profile.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein said event encompasses a Personal Computer accessing a Web site.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein said event encompasses a Personal Computer participating in an on-line forum.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein said event encompasses a Personal Computer interacting with a file sharing facility.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein said event encompasses a Personal Computer interacting with a social networking facility.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein said notification message is an SMS messages.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein said notification messages is an MMS messages.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein said notification message contains advertising and/or promotional material.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising: conditionally automatically blocking said event.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein said blocking is accomplished consistent with a Local Monitoring process.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein said blocking is accomplished consistent with a Remote Monitoring process.

18. The method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving a reply from said Service User;processing said reply; andconditionally blocking said event in response to said reply.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein said blocking is accomplished consistent with a Local Monitoring process.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein said blocking is accomplished consistent with a Remote Monitoring process.

21. A method of monitoring computer activity and providing an alert concerning said activity, the method comprising: monitoring computer activity for a predetermined event;upon detection of the predetermined event, confirming that the predetermined event matches a previously supplied constraint;when the predetermined event matches the previously supplied constraint, sending a notification message to a wireless device indicative of the predetermined event; andawaiting a response from the wireless device indicating whether to permit continued activity associated with the predetermined event.