Privacy model

• US 20050251675A1
• Filed: 04/26/2004
• Published: 11/10/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 04/26/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Cheng, Lili, Marcjan, Cezary
• Granted Patent: US 8,234,374 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 713/100
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/34 Recording or statistical evaluation of computer activity, e.g. of down time, of input/output operation ; Recording or statistical evaluation of user activity, e.g. usability assessment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6218 to a system of files or objects, e.g. local or distributed file system or database

Abstract

Disclosed are systems and/or methods that mitigate overexposure of shared content and that facilitate improving security of content in a computing environment. In particular, the systems and methods involves monitoring resource activities such as user interactions (between users and/or between users and resources), email activity, share space activity, shared content activity, distribution lists, contact lists, personnel or organization structures, and the like. Data can be collected as one or more resource activities are monitored and then analyzed to determine where, if any, changes have taken place. For example, if a user has been removed from a distribution list or a user has not accessed the shared content within a time period, a recommendation can be formulated to suggest an adjustment to the affected access rights. Furthermore, the systems and/or methods can be integrated with other applications such as an email client, whereby an out-of-office indicator can leave access rights as they are.

Claims

1. A system that enhances privacy and security of shared content comprising:

a monitoring component that monitors one or more resources or one or more user interactions in connection with the resources;

an analysis component that cross-checks against various data collected during the monitoring to determine whether to adjust one or more access rights; and

a suggestion component that suggests to make at least one adjustment to a user'"'"'s access rights based at least in part upon the data collected.

2. The system of claim 1, the one or more resources comprise at least one of distribution lists, email recipient lists, contact lists, personnel structures, database activity, email activity, share access activity, and/or content access activity.

3. The system of claim 1, the data collected comprises information regarding a user'"'"'s sharing and/or publishing activities in connection with the resources and information indicating at least one change in user interactions.

4. The system of claim 1, the at least one adjustment comprises any one of increasing or decreasing the user'"'"'s access rights with respect to the shared content.

5. The system of claim 1 further comprising a database to store at least a portion of the data as it is collected.

6. The system of claim 1, the suggestion component makes suggestions to modify user access rights to an owner of the shared content.

7. The system of claim 1, the suggestion component makes suggestions based in part on a lack of activity corresponding to one or more users having shared access to the shared content or a lack of activity with respect to the shared content.

8. The system of claim 1, further comprising a data collection component that gathers the data from a plurality of resources as the resources are monitored.

9. The system of claim 1, the monitoring component monitors the resources at substantially the same time.

26. A computer readable medium having stored thereon the system of claim 1.

10. A method that mitigates overexposure of shared content comprising:

monitoring a plurality of resources in a computing environment;

analyzing data collected from the plurality of resources; and

providing a suggestion to adjust at least a portion of user access rights to the shared content based at least in part upon an analysis of the data to facilitate maintaining consistency in delineating access rights.

11. The method of claim 10, the suggestion is provided to an owner or manager of the shared content.

12. The method of claim 10, further comprising adjusting the user access rights with respect to the shared content.

13. The method of claim 10, the plurality of resources comprising at least one of the following:

user sharing activity;

user publishing activity;

messaging activity;

distribution list activity;

contact list activity;

personnel structure activity;

content activity;

share activity;

database activity;

access activity;

access restrictions that are time-dependent; and

user activity.

14. The method of claim 10, monitoring the plurality of resource activity comprises at least one of the following:

monitoring interactions between one or more users and the shared content;

monitoring one or more users'"'"' inactivity;

monitoring inactivity of shared content; and

monitoring interactions between one or more users and a distribution or contact list that is associated with the shared content.

15. The method of claim 10, analyzing the data collected from the plurality of resources comprises cross-referencing the data from the plurality of resources to detect changes in any one of the resources.

16. The method of claim 10, analyzing the data comprises at least one of the following:

comparing a period of user inactivity with a first time threshold to determine whether an adjustment to the user access rights should be suggested;

comparing a period of shared content inactivity with a second time threshold to determine whether an adjustment to the user access rights should be suggested;

analyzing user access rights and the respective shared content included within any one share space to determine whether to suggest splitting the share space; and

comparing previously collected data with newly collected data to determine that a change in at least one activity has occurred to thereby provoke the suggestion component to recommend a corresponding adjustment to access rights;

17. The method of claim 10, providing a suggestion to adjust user access rights comprises determining from the analysis that a change has occurred with respect to at least one resource activity that warrants a corresponding change to the user access rights.

18. The method of claim 17, the change comprises at least one of a removal or addition of one or more users as indicated by a corresponding contact name, username, nickname, or email address.

19. The method of claim 10, the suggestion comprising any one of the following:

restrict access rights;

remove access rights;

add access rights;

split access rights;

suspend access rights; and

maintain access rights.

20. The method of claim 19, the access rights are maintained when user indicates a period of temporary inactivity.

21. The method of claim 19, the access rights are added when a new user is added to any one of a share, a contact list, a distribution list, a personnel structure, and an email.

22. The method of claim 19, the access rights are split in part by splitting a share space to mitigate overexposure of shared content to users whose access rights should be specific to content included in the share space rather than to the share space in general.

23. The method of claim 19, the access rights are removed when a corresponding user has been disassociated from the shared content.

24. A system that mitigates overexposure of shared content comprising:

means for monitoring a plurality of resource activity in a computing environment;

means for analyzing data collected while monitoring; and

means for providing a suggestion to adjust at least a portion of user access rights to the shared content based at least in part upon an analysis of the data.

25. A data packet adapted to be transmitted between two or more computer processes facilitating improved control and management of user access rights to optimize security of a computing environment, the data packet comprising:

information associated with recommending adjustments to respective access rights based at least in part upon an analysis of data collected while monitoring user interactions and/or resource activities in the computing environment.