Collaborative Electronic Mail Filtering
A method is provided for collaboratively maintaining a filter program for a device. The method comprises the following steps. The filter program is registered with a remote program in order to receive spam e-mail filter updates. Notification messages are then received from the remote program. The notification messages comprise spam e-mail filter updates defining at least one filter expression received at the remote program from a third party. The filter expression is applied at the filter program for identifying spam e-mail messages and the spam e-mail messages to the device are filtered. A computer readable medium comprising instructions for executing the method and a computing device configured to implement the method are also provided.
1 . A method for collaboratively maintaining a filter program for a device, the method comprising the steps of:
registering the filter program with a remote program to receive spam e-mail filter updates;
receiving notification messages from the remote program, the notification messages comprising spam e-mail filter updates defining at least one filter expression received at the remote program from a third party;
applying the filter expression at the filter program for identifying spam e-mail messages; and
filtering the spam e-mail messages to the device.
2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the remote program is a spam web service.
3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the filter program is executing on a mobile data server.
4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the filter program is executing on the device.
5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of filtering the spam e-mail messages comprises inhibiting the spam e-mail messages from being transmitted from the device.
6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of filtering the spam e-mail messages comprises adding an identifier to the spam e-mail message for display on the device.
7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of registering the filter program with the remote program comprises identifying predefined specific criteria for the filter expression in order to receive the notification message.
8 . A computer readable medium comprising instructions, which, when executed on a computing device configured to collaboratively maintain a filter program for a mobile communication device, cause the computing device to implement the steps of:
registering the filter program with a remote program to receive spam e-mail filter updates;
receiving notification messages from the remote program, the notification messages comprising spam e-mail filter updates defining at least one filter expression received at the remote program from a third party;
applying the filter expression at the filter program for identifying spam e-mail messages; and
filtering the spam e-mail messages to the device.
9 . The computer readable medium of claim 8 , wherein the computing device is a mobile data server.
10 . The computer readable medium of claim 8 , wherein the computing device is the mobile communication device.
11 . A computing device for collaboratively maintaining a filter program for a mobile communication device, the computing device comprising:
a communication device configured to communicate with a remote program;
storage for storing at least one filter expression; and
a processor configured to:
register the filter program with the remote program via the communication device in order to receive spam e-mail filter updates;
receiving notification messages from the remote program via the communication device, the notification messages comprising spam e-mail filter updates defining at least one filter expression received at the remote program from a third party;
applying the filter expression at the filter program for identifying spam e-mail messages; and
filtering the spam e-mail messages to the device.
12 . The computing device of claim 11 , wherein the remote program is a spam web service.
13 . The computing device of claim 11 , wherein the computing device is the mobile data server.
14 . The computing device of claim 11 , wherein the computing device is the mobile communication device.
15 . The computing device of claim 11 , wherein processor is configured to filter the spam e-mail messages by inhibiting the spam e-mail messages from being transmitted from the device.
16 . The computing device of claim 11 , wherein processor is configured to filter the spam e-mail messages by adding an identifier to the spam e-mail message from display on the device.
17 . The computing device of claim 11 , wherein the processor is configured to register the filter program with the remote program by identifying predefined specific criteria for the filter expression in order to receive the notification message.