USER SEARCH BASED ON PRIVATE INFORMATION

• US 20160034716A1
• Filed: 10/09/2015
• Published: 02/04/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 10/15/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Inventors: Virochsiri, Kittipat, Sankar, Sriram
• Granted Patent: US 10,032,047 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9536 Search customisation based on social or collaborative filtering
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9538 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6227 where protection concerns the structure of data, e.g. records, types, queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6254 by anonymising data, e.g. decorrelating personal data from the owner's identification
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6263 during internet communication, e.g. revealing personal data from cookies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/403 Arrangements for multi-party communication, e.g. for conferences data switching systems for conference H04L12/18; arrangements for connecting several subscribers to a common circuit, i.e. affording conference facilities H04M3/56; television conferencing systems H04N7/15
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/21 for social networking applications

Abstract

In one embodiment, a method includes receiving, from a first user, a query specifying one or more criteria; accessing a data store comprising information associated with one or more users of a social-networking system; identifying a second user from a plurality of users of the social-networking system based on private information stored in the data store and the one or more criteria, wherein the private information is not viewable by the first user; and sending, to the first user, substitute information associated with the second user in place of the private information, the substitute information being information that is viewable by the first user.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving, at a social-networking system, a query from a client device of a first user specifying one or more criteria;

accessing, by the social-networking system, a data store comprising information associated with one or more users of the social-networking system;

identifying, by the social-networking system, a second user from a plurality of users of the social-networking system based on private information stored in the data store and the one or more criteria, wherein the private information is not viewable by the first user; and

sending, to the client device of the first user, substitute information associated with the second user in place of the private information, the substitute information being information that is viewable by the first user.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

accessing a social graph comprising a plurality of nodes and a plurality of edges connecting the nodes, each of the edges between two of the nodes representing a single degree of separation between them, the nodes comprising;

a first node corresponding to the first user; and

a plurality of user nodes corresponding to the plurality of users of the online social network, respectively.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the substitute information is public information.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the private information comprises a relationship between the second user and a third user and the substitute information is a more generic relationship between the second user and the third user.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the private information is deemed private based on a privacy setting specified by the second user, the privacy setting specifying that the private information is not viewable by the first user.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the private information is deemed private based on a privacy setting specified by the second user, the privacy setting specifying that the private information is viewable only by a group of users, the group of users not including the first user.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the private information comprises a relationship between the second user and a third user, the private information being deemed private based on a privacy setting specified by the third user, the privacy setting specifying that the private information is not viewable by the first user.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the private information comprises a relationship between the second user and a third user, the private information being deemed private based on a privacy setting specified by the second user, the privacy setting specifying that the private information is not viewable by the first user.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying the second user comprises:

selecting a user from the plurality of users; and

determining whether the selected user satisfies one or more of the criteria based on the private information.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising identifying an additional user who does not satisfy the search criteria, the additional user being a connection of the second user.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising identifying an additional user based on public information stored in the data store and the one or more criteria, wherein the public information is information that is viewable by the general public.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising identifying an additional user based on non-private information stored in the data store and the one or more criteria, wherein the non-private information is information that is viewable by the first user.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein, for each of the plurality of users, the information of the user comprises one or more family connections of the user, one or more friend connections of the user, one or more demographic data of the user, or one or more one or more background data of the user.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein, for each of the plurality of users, the one or more family connections of the user comprise one or more of parent, sibling, child, or spouse.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein, for each of the plurality of users, the one or more demographic data of the user comprise one or more of birth date, birth place, age, gender, or marital status.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein, for each of the plurality of users, the one or more background data of the user comprise one or more of education, employment, or residence.

17. One or more computer-readable non-transitory storage media embodying software that is operable when executed to:

receive a query from a client device of a first user specifying one or more criteria;

access a data store comprising information associated with one or more users of the social-networking system;

identify a second user from a plurality of users of the social-networking system based on private information stored in the data store and the one or more criteria, wherein the private information is not viewable by the first user; and

send substitute information associated with the second user in place of the private information, the substitute information being information that is viewable by the first user.

18. A system comprising:

one or more processors; and

a non-transitory memory coupled to the processors comprising instructions executable by the processors, the processors operable when executing the instructions to;

receive a query from a client device of a first user specifying one or more criteria;

access a data store comprising information associated with one or more users of the social-networking system;

identify a second user from a plurality of users of the social-networking system based on private information stored in the data store and the one or more criteria, wherein the private information is not viewable by the first user; and

send substitute information associated with the second user in place of the private information, the substitute information being information that is viewable by the first user.