ALEXANDRIA, Va., April 21 -- United States Patent no. 12,609,021, issued on April 21.

"Mobile collection of sensitive information including tracking system and method" was invented by John Delaney (Ashburn, Va.), Reed Smith (Leesburg, Va.) and Michael Marino (Glenwood, Va.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A method of tracking an entity includes generating data relevant to the entity at a first location, storing the data at a server, and accessing at least a portion of the data at the first location or at a second location. The data can include location information, time information, image data, text, and/or biometric data. The data can be encrypted, organized, categorized, updated, accumulated ...