System and method for detecting and acting upon a violation of terms of service

Abstract

Aspects of the subject disclosure may include, for example, determining whether a past throughput of past traffic communicated between a communication device and a communication network meets a first threshold value, resulting in a first determination; responsive to the first determination being that the past throughput meets the first threshold, transmitting an instruction to the communication device to restrict a first subsequent throughput of first subsequent traffic to no greater than a second threshold value; determining whether the first subsequent throughput has been restricted, resulting in a second determination; and responsive to the second determination being that the first subsequent throughput has not been restricted, taking one or more actions to enforce a second subsequent throughput of second subsequent traffic to no greater than a third threshold value, wherein the third threshold value is lower than the second threshold value. Other embodiments are disclosed.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A device comprising:
 a processing system including a processor; and   a memory that stores executable instructions that, when executed by the processing system, facilitate performance of operations, the operations comprising:   determining whether a communication device has provided traffic via tethering to one or more other communication devices;   responsive to a determination that the communication device has provided traffic via the tethering to the one or more other communication devices, sending an instruction to restrict the communication device from transmitting particular types of content to a tethered device;   after the sending, identifying whether the tethering has been restricted as specified in the instruction; and   responsive to identifying that the tethering has not been restricted as specified in the instruction, performing one or more actions to limit a total throughput of communication between the communication device and a communication network to no greater than a threshold value.   
     
     
         2 . The device of  claim 1 , wherein the instruction further restricts the communication device from receiving the particular types of content from the tethered device. 
     
     
         3 . The device of  claim 1 , wherein the particular types of content comprise video data. 
     
     
         4 . The device of  claim 1 , wherein the threshold value is less than a threshold value set in an agreement. 
     
     
         5 . The device of  claim 4 , wherein the agreement comprises a service agreement between an operator of the communication network and a responsible party associated with the communication device. 
     
     
         6 . The device of  claim 5 , wherein the responsible party is an owner of the communication device. 
     
     
         7 . The device of  claim 1 , wherein the identifying is performed after a threshold amount of time has elapsed since the sending of the instruction. 
     
     
         8 . The device of  claim 7 , wherein the threshold amount of time is selected from a group of: one minute, one hour, one day, one week, and one month. 
     
     
         9 . The device of  claim 1 , wherein the device is part of the communication network, and wherein the device comprises one or more servers. 
     
     
         10 . The device of  claim 1 , wherein the communication device comprises a mobile communication device. 
     
     
         11 . The device of  claim 10 , wherein the instruction is presented to a user of the mobile communication device on a display of the mobile communication device. 
     
     
         12 . The device of  claim 10 , wherein the mobile communication device comprises a cell phone, a smartphone, a tablet, or any combination thereof. 
     
     
         13 . A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium comprising executable instructions that, when executed by a processing system including a processor, facilitate performance of operations, the operations comprising:
 determining whether a communication device has initiated tethering for one or more other communication devices;   responsive to a determination that the communication device has initiated the tethering for the one or more other communication devices, transmitting an instruction to restrict the communication device from receiving particular types of content from a tethered device;   after the transmitting, identifying whether the tethering has been restricted as specified in the instruction; and   responsive to identifying that the tethering has not been restricted as specified in the instruction, performing one or more actions to limit a total throughput of communication between the communication device and a communication network to no greater than a threshold value.   
     
     
         14 . The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of  claim 13 , wherein the identifying is performed after a threshold amount of time has elapsed since the transmitting of the instruction. 
     
     
         15 . The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of  claim 13 , wherein the instruction further restricts the communication device from transmitting the particular types of content to the tethered device. 
     
     
         16 . The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of  claim 13 , wherein the particular types of content comprise video data. 
     
     
         17 . A method comprising:
 determining, by a processing system including a processor, whether a communication device has initiated tethering for one or more other communication devices;   responsive to a determination that the communication device has initiated the tethering for the one or more other communication devices, sending, by the processing system, an instruction to restrict the communication device from transmitting particular types of content to a tethered device, receiving particular types of content from the tethered device, or a combination thereof;   after the sending, identifying, by the processing system, whether the tethering has been restricted as specified in the instruction; and   responsive to identifying that the tethering has not been restricted as specified in the instruction, performing, by the processing system, one or more actions to limit a total throughput of communication between the communication device and a communication network to no greater than a threshold value.   
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 17 , wherein the particular types of content comprise video data. 
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 17 , wherein the threshold value is less than a threshold value set in a service agreement between an operator of the communication network and a responsible party associated with the communication device. 
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 17 , wherein the identifying is performed after a threshold period time has elapsed since the sending of the instruction.