Method for Automatically Unsubscribing an Address from a Subscription

Abstract

An improved method for detecting and unsubscribing one or more addresses from a series of subscriptions by examining the emails in the mailbox of the address and determining if they are from a subscription/automated/list server by examining the header contents, the sender's address, the subject, and comparing each message to other messages to identify patterns, then, examining each message to identify methods of unsubscribing from the Subscription. Finally, unsubscribing from the subscriptions either automatically, or in a semi-manual method and optionally deleting all messages associated with the subscription.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method of processing subscriptions comprising:
 identifying one or more email accounts;   accessing the mailboxes associated with the email accounts;   processing, at least a subset of the email messages in the mailboxes to identify those originating with a subscription list;   processing, at least one email message associated with a subscription list to identify methods of unsubscribing from the subscription;   wherein identifying methods of unsubscribing from the subscriptions further comprises:
 identifying list-unsubscribe headers in a message header; or presenting to the user the subscriptions previously identified; and 
 unsubscribing from, at least a single subscription in response to user requests; 
   wherein identifying unsubscribe headers in a message header further comprises:
 disregarding misdirection designators comprising:
 carbon copy (CC) designations; 
 blind carbon copy (BCC) designations; or 
 forward (FW), (RE) or (FWD) designations. 
 
   
     
     
         2 . A method, as described in  claim 1  wherein identifying methods of unsubscribing from the subscriptions further comprises:
 collecting unsubscribe hyperlinks from the message header; and
 identifying those hyperlinks as potential unsubscription methods. 
 
 
     
     
         3 . A method, as described in  claim 1  wherein unsubscribing further comprises:
 performing multiple unsubscriptions when multiple unsubscribe methods are presented in a single message. 
 
     
     
         4 . A method, as described in  claim 1  wherein unsubscribing further comprises:
 determining an original recipient account for a forwarded message; and 
 performing unsubscribe on behalf of the original recipient. 
 
     
     
         5 . A method, as described in  claim 1  wherein presenting to the user the subscriptions previously identified further comprises:
 sorting the subscriptions by message frequency when repeated messages are identified as arriving daily, weekly, or monthly. 
 
     
     
         6 . A method, as described in  claim 1  wherein presenting to the user the subscriptions previously identified further comprises:
 sorting the subscriptions by sender frequency when multiple messages are identified from a common source. 
 
     
     
         7 . A method, as described in  claim 1  wherein presenting to the user the subscriptions previously identified further comprises:
 sorting the subscriptions by sender domain. 
 
     
     
         8 . A method, as described in  claim 1  wherein processing, at least one email message associated with a subscription list further comprises:
 confirming opt-in to one or more senders as safe senders. 
 
     
     
         9 . A method, as described in  claim 8  wherein confirming opt-in further comprises:
 recording safe senders to prevent future identification as a subscription list. 
 
     
     
         10 . A method, as described in  claim 1  wherein processing, at least a subset of the email messages in the mailboxes further comprises:
 identifying to the user groupings of messages within the mailboxes; 
 allowing a user to designate one or more groupings for further processing. 
 
     
     
         11 . A method, as described in  claim 1  wherein processing, at least a subset of the email messages in the mailboxes further comprises:
 automatically processing the messages in response to an event monitor without individual initiation by the user. 
 
     
     
         12 . A method, as described in  claim 9  wherein processing, at least a subset of the email messages in the mailboxes further comprises:
 pushing an alert to the user identifying results when automatic processing requires user interaction to proceed.