MANAGING ACCESS TO USER INFORMATION BY APPLICATIONS OPERATING IN AN ONLINE SYSTEM ENVIRONMENT

• US 20160050287A1
• Filed: 08/12/2014
• Published: 02/18/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 08/12/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Inventors: Golub, Benjamin, Rudolph, Arthur George, Vishwanath, Tirunelveli R.
• Granted Patent: US 10,187,483 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/53 using third party service providers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34

Abstract

An online system regulates access to information about a user by associating an online system user identifier with a unique application-specific user identifier used by an application to identify the user. Each application communicating with the online system and installed by the user is associated with a unique application-specific user identifier that is associated with the user'"'"'s online system user identifier. For example, information identifying an installed application and an application-specific user identifier are associated with the user'"'"'s online system user identifier when the user installs the application. When communicating about a user with an installed application associated with the user, the online system identifies the user via the application-specific identifier associated with the installed application and may provide limited information associated with the online system user identifier associated with the application-specific identifier.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

maintaining a plurality of online system user identifiers, each online system user identifier associated with a user of an online system;

generating one or more application-specific user identifiers associated with the user, each application-specific user identifier associated with an application installed on a client device by the user and identifying the user to the application;

storing an association between an online system user identifier associated with the user and each of the generated one or more application-specific user identifiers;

receiving a request for information associated with the user from an entity associated with a specified application installed on the client device by the user;

determining an application-specific identifier associated with the specified application from the request;

retrieving the online system user identifier associated with the determined application-specific identifier based on the stored association; and

communicating information associated with the online system user identifier associated with the determined application-specific identifier to the entity.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein storing the association between the online system user identifier associated with the user and each of the generated one or more application-specific user identifiers comprises:

storing an application identifier associated with each of the one or more applications installed on the client device;

storing the application-specific user identifier in association with the application identifier associated with the application installed on the client device; and

associating the online system user identifier with the application-specific user identifier and the application identifier.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein determining the application-specific identifier associated with the specified application from the generated one or more application-specific identifiers comprises:

determining an application identifier associated with the specified application;

retrieving an application-specific user identifier associated with the determined application identifier; and

retrieving the online system user identifier associated with the retrieved application-specific user identifier.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the application identifier comprises an application name.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a request for information associated with the user from a requesting entity associated with an identified application installed on the client device by the user and associated with an additional application installed on the client device by the user;

determining application-specific user identifiers associated with the identified application and with the additional application from the generated one or more application-specific identifiers;

retrieving the online system user identifier associated with the determined application-specific user identifiers based on the stored associations; and

communicating information associated with the online system user identifier associated with the determined application-specific user identifiers to the requesting entity.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the indication that the user of the online system installed the application on the client device includes one or more selected from a group consisting of:

an identifier of the client device, a type of the client device, a time when the application was installed, and any combination thereof.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

communicating the determined application-specific identifier to the entity associated with the specified application.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the online system is a social networking system.

9. A method comprising:

maintaining an online system user identifier associated with a user of an online system;

maintaining information associated with the user in association with the online system user identifier;

receiving an indication that one or more applications were installed on a client device associated with the user;

storing information identifying each of the installed applications in association with an application-specific user identifier associated with each of the installed applications, the application-specific user identifier associated with information identifying an application used by the application to identify the user;

receiving a request from an entity associated with a specified application installed on the client device associated with the user for information about the user, the request including an application-specific user identifier associated with the specified application;

determining the online system user identifier associated with the user based at least in part on the application-specific user identifier associated with the specified application; and

communicating a subset of information associated with the online system user identifier to the entity associated with the specified application.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein storing information identifying each of the installed applications in association with an application-specific user identifier associated with each of the installed applications comprises:

associating the online system user identifier with the information identifying the application and the application specific-user identifier associated with the information identifying the application.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein determining the online system user identifier associated with the user based at least in part on the application-specific user identifier associated with the specified application comprises:

retrieving the application identifier associated with the specified application from the request; and

retrieving the online system user identifier associated with the retrieved application-specific user identifier from the stored information.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein the information identifying the application comprises an application name.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein the entity is associated with multiple applications installed on the client device associated with the user and wherein the method further comprises:

retrieving information from the online system associating a set of applications installed on the client device with the entity;

determining information identifying a plurality of applications form the set of applications;

determining application-specific user identifiers associated each of the plurality of applications;

retrieving the online system user identifier associated with the determined application-specific user identifiers; and

communicating information associated with the online system user identifier associated with the determined application-specific user identifiers to the requesting entity.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the communicated information associated with the online system user identifier associated with the determined application-specific user identifiers to the requesting entity includes the determined application-specific user identifiers.

15. The method of claim 9, wherein the online system is a social networking system.

16. A computer program product comprising a computer-readable storage medium having instructions encoded thereon, that when executed by a processor, cause the processor to:

maintain an online system user identifier associated with a user of an online system;

maintain information associated with the user in association with the online system user identifier;

receive an indication that one or more applications were installed on a client device associated with the user;

store information identifying each of the installed applications in association with an application-specific user identifier associated with each of the installed applications, the application-specific user identifier associated with information identifying an application used by the application to identify the user;

receive a request from an entity associated with a specified application installed on the client device associated with the user for information about the user, the request including an application-specific user identifier associated with the specified application;

determine the online system user identifier associated with the user based at least in part on the application-specific user identifier associated with the specified application; and

communicate a subset of information associated with the online system user identifier to the entity associated with the specified application.

17. The computer program product of claim 16, wherein store information identifying each of the installed applications in association with an application-specific user identifier associated with each of the installed applications comprises:

associate the online system user identifier with the information identifying the application and the application specific-user identifier associated with the information identifying the application.

18. The computer program product of claim 16, wherein determine the online system user identifier associated with the user based at least in part on the application-specific user identifier associated with the specified application comprises:

retrieve the application identifier associated with the specified application from the request; and

retrieve the online system user identifier associated with the retrieved application-specific user identifier from the stored information.

19. The computer program product of claim 16, wherein the information identifying the application comprises an application name.

20. The computer program product of claim 16, wherein the entity is associated with multiple applications installed on the client device associated with the user and wherein the computer-readable storage medium further includes instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to:

retrieve information from the online system associating a set of applications installed on the client device with the entity;

determine information identifying a plurality of applications form the set of applications;

determine application-specific user identifiers associated each of the plurality of applications;

retrieve the online system user identifier associated with the determined application-specific user identifiers; and

communicate information associated with the online system user identifier associated with the determined application-specific user identifiers to the requesting entity.