PRIVACY MODEL FOR SHARED COLLECTIONS OF CONTENT ON A SOCIAL NETWORKING SYSTEM

• US 20150013016A1
• Filed: 07/03/2013
• Published: 01/08/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 07/03/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Inventors: Kanter, Jeffrey Andrew, Baldwin, Robert Michael, Carduner, Paul Francois, Tarjan, Paul, Li, Sai Wo, Zhao, Fred
• Granted Patent: US 9,514,331 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 726/28
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6245 Protecting personal data, e.g. for financial or medical purposes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/10 for controlling access to devices or network resources
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/20 for managing network security; network security policies in general filtering policies H04L63/0227
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46

Abstract

A social networking system user creates an album including a shared collection of content (a “shared album”) and associates a privacy model with the shared album. The privacy model specifies additional users of the social networking system authorized to access content items in the shared album and specifies types of actions users authorized to access content items in the shared album are permitted to perform to content items in the shared album. Notifications describing actions associated with content items in a shared album may be presented to users authorized to access the shared album. The social networking system may prompt a user to create a shared album containing based on actions performed by the user or performed by connected to the user.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving a request from a user of a social networking system identifying one or more content items and associated metadata for inclusion in a shared album accessible to a group of additional users of the social networking system;

responsive to receiving the request, presenting the user with a set of options including privacy settings associated with the shared album;

receiving one or more selected options from the set of options, at least one selection specifying one or more privacy settings associated with the shared album;

generating the shared album based on the identified one or more content items and associating the one or more selected options with the shared album; and

presenting the shared album to one or more users of the social networking system based on the one or more privacy settings associated with the shared album.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein presenting the shared album to one or more users of the social networking system based on the one or more privacy settings associated with the shared album comprises:

presenting the shared album to one or more users of the social networking system having a characteristic specified by the one or more privacy settings.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the characteristic specified by the one or more privacy settings is selected from a group consisting of:

a connection to a user identified by a privacy setting, a connection to the user, a type of connection to the user identified by the privacy setting, a type of connection to the user, and any combination thereof.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein a privacy setting associated with the shared album specifies information identifying users authorized to viewing the shared album.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein presenting the shared album to one or more users of the social networking system based on the one or more privacy settings associated with the shared album comprises:

presenting the shared album to one or more users identified by the privacy setting and preventing presentation of the shared album to users not identified by the privacy setting.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more privacy settings associated with the shared album identify one or more types of actions with the shared album users identified by a privacy setting are authorized to perform.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the types of actions with the shared album are selected from a group consisting of:

adding content maintained by the social networking system to the shared album, removing content in the shared album associated with another user of the social networking system, authorizing an additional user of the social networking system access to the shared album, and any combination thereof.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating a notification identifying the shared album; and

presenting the notification to other users of the social networking system based at least in part on the one or more privacy settings associated with the shared album.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein an option in the set of options is selected from a group consisting of:

granting one or more additional users of the social networking system access to the shared album, denying one or more additional users of the social networking system access to the shared album, changing authorization of one or more additional users of the social networking system to access the shared album, adding one or more content items maintained by the social networking system to the shared album, removing a content item from the shared album, modifying one or more content items included in the shared album, specifying a layout of content items in the shared album, changing the layout of content items the shared album, inviting one or more additional users of the social networking system to access the shared album, and any combination thereof.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more content items are selected from a group consisting of:

photographs, audio data, image data, video data, links to content, applications, pages, and any combination thereof.

11. A method comprising:

receiving an action from a user of a social networking system;

providing the user with a prompt to create a shared album accessible to a group of additional users of the social networking system including one or more content items based on the received action;

receiving a request from a user of a social networking system identifying one or more content items and associated metadata for inclusion in the shared album;

responsive to receiving the request, presenting the user with a set of options including privacy settings associated with the shared album;

receiving one or more selected options from the set of options, at least one selection specifying one or more privacy settings associated with the shared album;

generating the shared album based on the identified one or more content items and associating the one or more selected options with the shared album; and

storing the shared album and the associated one or more selected options.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the action is selected from a group consisting of:

a request to access an album owned by the user, a request to upload content associated with a geographic location to the social networking system, a request to upload content associated with an event to the social networking system, a request to upload content identifying one or more users of the social networking system, and any combination thereof.

13. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

presenting the shared album to one or more users of the social networking system based on the one or more privacy settings associated with the shared album.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein presenting the shared album to one or more users of the social networking system based on the one or more privacy settings associated with the shared album comprises:

presenting the shared album to one or more users of the social networking system having a characteristic specified by the one or more privacy settings.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the characteristic specified by the one or more privacy settings is selected from a group consisting of:

a connection to a user identified by a privacy setting, a connection to the user, a type of connection to the user identified by the privacy setting, a type of connection to the user, and any combination thereof.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein a privacy setting associated with the shared album specifies information identifying users authorized to access the shared album.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein presenting the shared album to one or more users of the social networking system based on the one or more privacy settings associated with the shared album comprises:

presenting the shared album to one or more users identified by the privacy setting and preventing presentation of the shared album to users not identified by the privacy setting.

18. The method of claim 11, wherein the one or more privacy settings associated with the shared album identify one or more types of actions with the shared album users identified by a privacy setting are authorized to perform.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the types of actions with the shared album are selected from a group consisting of:

adding content maintained by the social networking system to the shared album, removing content in the shared album associated with another user of the social networking system, authorizing an additional user of the social networking system access to the shared album, and any combination thereof.

20. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

generating a notification identifying the shared album; and

presenting the notification to other users of the social networking system based at least in part on the one or more privacy settings associated with the shared album.

21. The method of claim 11, wherein an option in the set of options is selected from a group consisting of:

granting one or more additional users of the social networking system access to the shared album, denying one or more additional users of the social networking system access to the shared album, changing authorization of one or more additional users of the social networking system to access the shared album, adding one or more content items maintained by the social networking system to the shared album, removing a content item from the shared album, modifying one or more content items included in the shared album, specifying a layout of content items in the shared album, changing the layout of content items the shared album, inviting one or more additional users of the social networking system to access the shared album, and any combination thereof.