Secure social network
Systems and methods for facilitating and securing the exchange of digital information between individuals within the social network of a person or group of people who are subject to security or law enforcement limitations or otherwise reside within a controlled or correctional facility. All submitted information requires administrative approval, either by a human administrator or an automated process, before it can be viewed by other members of the social network.
1. A method of facilitating the controlled exchange of information between users of a social network utilizing a stored policy pertaining to individual users that includes at least two facility resident users subject to limitations of a controlled facility, the method comprising:
adding and deleting of members to the social network by an administrator using a membership module, wherein the membership module is configured to store a policy pertaining to individual social network users that specifies authorized and unauthorized contacts for a given user, unauthorized content for a given user, and key words assigned to a given user that are used for flagging submitted content for investigation;
receiving content submitted by a social network user in an electronic form using a data reception module, the received content for display to the users of the social network wherein the users of the social network includes at least the at least two facility resident users when the content is from a non-facility resident user of the social network, and wherein the users of the social network includes at least two non-facility resident users of the social network, outside of the controlled facility, when the content is from a facility resident user;
semi-automatically evaluating the received content using an evaluation module to determine if it is appropriate for display to the users of the social network wherein the semi-automatically evaluating includes automatically determining the received content to be appropriate when pre-defined parameters are met based on the policy for the user stored in the membership module, wherein the pre-defined parameters include authenticating user identity, determining whether submitting user and recipient are within the controlled facility, determining whether exchange of information with recipient is authorized, determining whether subject matter of submitted content is authorized, and flagging key words in the submitted content for investigation,
wherein when it is determined that the received content does not meet the pre-defined parameters, the evaluation module automatically redacts unauthorized subject matter and optionally flags the received content that does not meet pre-defined parameters for further review or editing by a human administrator using a computer or other digital-enabled device;
providing the received content that is evaluated as appropriate to be viewed by the users of the social network using a content dissemination module; and
recording data relative to at least one of receiving the content, evaluating the content, or providing the content to be viewed using a data recording module.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the content includes one or more of text, image, video or audio data.
3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
verifying an identity of a user transmitting the content prior to receiving the content using a verification module.
4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the verifying the identity includes collecting one or more of a user name, a password, a facial image, an identifying body mark or features image, a voice sample, a retinal scan or a palm or fingerprint.
5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the collected data is compared to stored information to verify the user's identity.
6. The method of claim 4 , wherein the user is required to periodically update one or more of the user name, the password, facial image, identifying body mark or feature image, voice sample, retinal scan or palm or fingerprint to ensure the stored information is current.
7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the content that is evaluated as appropriate is displayed to the one or more members of the social network in an arrangement that is sorted by one of chronological order, alphabetical order, content submitter, or content type.
8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising charging-individual users a fee for receiving, submitting, reviewing or storing content using a payment module.
9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the fee is determined based on one or more of a flat rate, the quantity of information submitted, received, viewed or stored, the type of information, the time of day, the day of the week, the number of connections, the length of time of a connection, the type of device used, the member type, or the status of the user within or as a member of a controlled environment.
10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the evaluating the content further comprises:
displaying the received content to an administrator in a list that is sorted by one of chronological order, alphabetical order, content submitter, or content types; and
inputting an indication of the appropriateness of the content.
11. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving search criteria using a search module; and
generating a report based on the recorded data and the received search criteria.
12. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving one or more member characteristic criteria using a membership module; and
displaying a list of members matching the member characteristic criteria.
13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the member characteristic criteria are configured to facilitate dating, professional networking, pen-pal matching or common interest matching.
14. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving input from an administrator; and
adding, deleting, suspending, blocking, punishing or penalizing members from the social network based on the received input.
15. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein the one or more member-specific parameters comprises at least one of user identity potentially accessing the received content, if a user is a resident facility user, submitted content user identity in relation to the user identity potentially accessing the received content and a type of content in relation to the user identity potentially accessing the received content.