Sharing Account Data Between Different Interfaces to a Service

• US 20150350106A1
• Filed: 05/28/2014
• Published: 12/03/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 05/28/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Whalley, Andrew R., Bradley, Bob, McLeod, Kenneth C.
• Granted Patent: US 10,313,264 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/803 Application aware
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/53 using third party service providers
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/08 Access security
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/086 using security domains
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/12 Detection or prevention of fraud
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/00 Services specially adapted for wireless communication networks; Facilities therefor

Abstract

Some embodiments provide a method for an electronic device. The method stores user data associated with a web-based third party service based on user interaction with a web domain for the third party service through a web browser. The method receives a request from a service-specific application to utilize the user data stored for the third party service. The method provides the user data to the application only when the application is verified by the web domain for receiving user data associated with the third party service.

Claims

1. For an electronic device, a method comprising:

storing user data associated with a web-based third party service based on user interaction with a web domain for the third party service through a web browser;

receiving a request from a service-specific application to utilize the user data stored for the third party service; and

providing the user data to the application only when the application is verified by the web domain for receiving user data associated with the third party service.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the user data comprises a password for logging in to the third party web service.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the user data comprises data indicating content accessed on the website and progress through the content.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the application uses the user data to continue accessing the content at a point in the content based on the progress data.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the stored data is tagged with information indicating the web domain.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising, prior to receiving the request from the service-specific application:

upon installation of the service-specific application, identifying a list of web domains stored with the application, the list including the web domain for the third party service;

sending a request to the web domain for a list of applications allowed to access user data for the third party service,

only when the list of applications received from the web domain includes the service-specific application, verifying the application for receiving user data associated with the third-party web service.

7. The method of claim 6 further comprising storing a record in a database to indicate the verification of the application and the web domain to share user data.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the electronic device is a mobile device.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the electronic device is a first electronic device, wherein the user interaction with the web domain occurs on a second, different electronic device.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the first electronic device and second electronic device share user data through a cloud services account.

11. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

storing user data associated with the web-based third party service based on user interaction with the third party service through the service-specific application;

receiving a request from the web browser to utilize the user data stored for the third party service; and

providing the user data to the web browser only when the web domain is verified by the application for receiving user data associated with the third party service.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the web domain and service-specific application verify each other.

13. A machine readable medium storing a program for execution by at least one processing unit of an electronic device, the program comprising sets of instructions for:

from a first interface to a third-party web service, receiving a request to utilize data stored on the electronic device relating to user interaction with the third-party web service through a second interface to the third-party web service;

determining whether the first and second interfaces to the third-party web service are verified to share user data relating to the third-party web service; and

only when the first and second interfaces are verified to share the user data, allowing the first interface to access and utilize the stored user data.

14. The machine readable medium of claim 13, wherein the program is a daemon that operates in the background of the electronic device as part of an operating system of the electronic device.

15. The machine readable medium of claim 13, wherein the set of instructions for determining whether the first and second interfaces are verified to share the user data comprises a set of instructions for querying a database for a 3-tuple of the first interface, the second interface, and a type of data requested.

16. The machine readable medium of claim 13, wherein the request is received through an API exposed to the first interface.

17. The machine readable medium of claim 13, wherein the first interface is an application specific to the third-party web service and the second interface is a web page of the third-party web service accessed through a web browser.

18. The machine readable medium of claim 13, wherein the first and second interfaces are first and second web pages of the third-party web service accessed through a web browser, wherein the first and second web pages are accessed at different web domains.

19. For a mobile device, a method comprising:

from a particular application installed on the mobile device, retrieving a list of web domains stored with the particular application;

for a particular web domain in the list, retrieving a list of applications allowed access to user interaction data for the web domain;

when the particular application is on the list of applications retrieved from the particular web domain, storing a verified relationship between the particular application and the particular web domain.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein each web domain in the retrieved list of web domains is paired with a type of user interaction data and each application in the list of applications is paired with a type of user interaction data.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the verified relationship is only stored between the particular application and the particular web domain when a particular type of user interaction data is paired with both the particular application and the particular web domain.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the verified relationship is stored as a record in the database that indicates the particular application, particular web domain, and the particular type of user interaction data.

23. The method of claim 20, wherein at least one web domain is listed more than once in the list of web domains and paired with several types of user interaction data.

24. The method of claim 19 further comprising:

receiving a request from the particular application to utilize user interaction data stored on the mobile device based on interaction with the web domain;

based on the stored verified relationship, granting the particular application access to the requested user interaction data.