# US 11,445,043 B2 · Ephemeral and private beacon network > Agents: this data is available as JSON from the patentgrep API and MCP server — see https://patentgrep.com/llms.txt - Number: US 11,445,043 B2 - Document ID: US11445043B2 - Status: Granted - Kind: B2 - Application number: 16/669,723 - Filed: 2019-10-31 - Published: 2020-04-30 - Granted: 2022-09-13 - Earliest claimed: 2018-10-31 - Assignees: Fwd Inc. - Applicants: Fwd Inc. - Inventors: Sean P. Connelly; Ion Marusic; Jeffrey Synnestvedt - Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US11445043B2 ## CPC - G06Q 10/40: Business processes related to social networking or social networking services - H04L 63/0428: {wherein the data content is protected, e.g. by encrypting or encapsulating the payload} - H04L 67/104: Peer-to-peer [P2P] networks - H04L 67/12: specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks - H04L 67/146: Markers for unambiguous identification of a particular session, e.g. session cookie or URL-encoding - H04L 67/52: specially adapted for the location of the user terminal - H04L 67/54: Presence management, e.g. monitoring or registration for receipt of user log-on information, or the connection status of the users - H04L 67/55: Push-based network services - H04W 4/021: Services related to particular areas, e.g. point of interest [POI] services, venue services or geofences - H04W 4/023: {using mutual or relative location information between multiple location based services [LBS] targets or of distance thresholds} - H04W 4/025: {using location based information parameters} - H04W 4/029: Location-based management or tracking services - H04W 12/02: Protecting privacy or anonymity, e.g. protecting personally identifiable information [PII] - H04L 67/02: based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP] - G06Q: INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR - H04L: TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION (arrangements common to telegraphic and telephonic communication H04M) - H04W: WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS (broadcast communication H04H; communication systems using wireless links for non-selective communication, e.g. wireless extensions H04M1/72) ## Abstract A peer to peer service, toolkit, and data feed standard that broadcasts real-time geolocations, provides proximity alerts, records and shares messages that include audio, video, and images through an encrypted technology platform that offers user-initiated privacy controls. ## Claims ### Claim 1 An ephemeral Proximity as a Service (ePaaS) system comprises: at least two user devices connected to a network, wherein the user devices are able to communicate with each other in two directions, wherein the user devices establish communication channels with the network using a session identifier; location services in communication with user devices that allow user devices to communicate location information to one another; wherein the communication is stored and/or shared for a predetermined time as determined by the user device's location, activity, or predetermined setting, wherein the predetermined settings comprise at least a customizable safety bubble within which the user devices can communicate with one another using alerts and/or messages when users of the ePaaS system enter the safety bubble; and wherein the communications are data that a user can share by setting a data state on the user device, wherein the state is selected from one of: (1) an Encrypted Verified User Info state that enables the user to share a user history through a connected cloud service and stores a user history along with personal account information; (2) an Ephemeral and Anonymous state that allows a user to be anonymous on the network through the use of a randomly generated session identifier and after a communications channel is closed, the session identifier is deleted; (3) a Local Stored Privately state that allows a user to store user data locally on the user device; (4) a Shared Limited Access state that allows a user share user data with select users; and (5) a Public Freely Available state in which the user shares user data with all other users. ### Claim 2 (depends on 1) The ephemeral Proximity as a Service (ePaaS) system of claim 1, wherein the system assists in networked travel of users through sharing real-time geolocations, providing proximity alerts, recording and sharing messages that include audio, video, images, or text through an encrypted technology platform that offers user-initiated privacy controls. ### Claim 3 (depends on 1) The ephemeral Proximity as a Service (ePaaS) system of claim 1, wherein the users are performing certain activity types and the system determines the activity type automatically. ### Claim 4 (depends on 1) The ephemeral Proximity as a Service (ePaaS) system of claim 1, wherein the communications include beacons, alerts, and/or messages. ### Claim 5 (depends on 4) The ephemeral Proximity as a Service (ePaaS) system of claim 4, wherein the beacons include ongoing one-way communications to users of the network. ### Claim 6 (depends on 4) The ephemeral Proximity as a Service (ePaaS) system of claim 4, wherein the alerts are notices received and created by users. ### Claim 7 (depends on 6) The ephemeral Proximity as a Service (ePaaS) system of claim 6, wherein the alerts are activated when a user enters a geographic proximity of the safety bubble defined as a proximity to a user. ### Claim 8 (depends on 1) The ephemeral Proximity as a Service (ePaaS) system of claim 1, wherein the safety bubble is activity-type specific and changes shape and size based on the location, current speed, and direction of a user activity. ### Claim 9 (depends on 1) The ephemeral Proximity as a Service (ePaaS) system of claim 1, wherein the at least two user devices communicate metadata including text, images, audio and videos. ### Claim 10 (depends on 1) The ephemeral Proximity as a Service (ePaaS) system of claim 1, wherein the user devices communicate with services in two directions. ### Claim 11 (depends on 10) The ephemeral Proximity as a Service (ePaaS) system of claim 10, wherein the services comprise activity trackers. ### Claim 12 (depends on 10) The ephemeral Proximity as a Service (ePaaS) system of claim 10, wherein the services comprise API services. ### Claim 13 (depends on 1) The ephemeral Proximity as a Service (ePaaS) system of claim 1, wherein a user must be authenticated to set the data state on the user device. ### Claim 14 (depends on 1) The ephemeral Proximity as a Service (ePaaS) system of claim 1, wherein messages shared with a user on the network are not stored on the network. ### Claim 15 (depends on 1) The ephemeral Proximity as a Service (ePaaS) system of claim 1, wherein the location information includes latitude and longitude information.