System and method for preventing screen-scrapers from extracting user screen names

• US 20050198580A1
• Filed: 03/05/2004
• Published: 09/08/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 03/05/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AOL LLC (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Rawat, Jai, Hua, Morgan
• Granted Patent: US 7,430,720 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/753
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6263 during internet communication, e.g. revealing personal data from cookies
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2133 Verifying human interaction, e.g., Captcha
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/212 using filtering or selective blocking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/48 Message addressing, e.g. address format or anonymous messages, aliases

Abstract

Graphic screen names are used instead of using text screen names in a Web chat room or an instant messaging system so that screen scrapers cannot generate an e-mail list for spam by extracting the screen names from the Web chat room or instant messaging system.

Claims

1. An Internet based messaging system wherein a number of logged-in users communicate with each other by displaying messages on a communication screen from which any of the users'"'"' screen identification and displayed messages can be read by the other users, said system comprising:

means for automatically converting a user'"'"'s screen identification into a graphic form from which a person can recognize the user'"'"'s screen identification, said graphic being displayed on said screen whenever and wherever the user'"'"'s screen identification is to be displayed.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein a user may choose to disable said automatic conversion.

3. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

means for setting a style of said graphic.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein a user may choose a style of said graphic from a variety of predefined formats.

5. The system of claim 3, wherein a user may customize a style for said graphic by setting any of:

background image;

font of characters for screen identification; and

font size.

6. The system of claim 5, further comprising:

means for preventing visual confusion caused by mixing any of said characters with said background image.

7. A method for preventing an automated process from extracting users'"'"' screen identifications from a communication screen wherein a number of users logged into an Internet based network communicate with each other by displaying messages, said method comprising the steps of:

automatically converting a user'"'"'s screen identification into a graphic form from which a person can recognize the user'"'"'s screen identification; and

displaying said graphic on said screen whenever and wherever the user'"'"'s screen identification is s to be displayed.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein a user may choose to disable said automatic conversion.

9. The method of claim 7, further comprising the step of:

setting a style of said graphic by the user.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein a user may choose a style of said graphic from a variety of predefined formats.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein a user may customize a style for said graphic by setting any of:

background image;

font of characters for screen identification; and

font size.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising the step of:

setting parameters for preventing visual confusion caused by mixing any of said characters with said background image.