System and method for social network trust assessment

• US 7,886,334 B1
• Filed: 12/11/2006
• Issued: 02/08/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/11/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qurio Holdings Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Qurio Holdings Incorporated
• Inventors: Amidon, Christopher, Walsh, Richard, Issa, Alfredo
• Primary Examiner(s): Korzuch, William R
• Assistant Examiner(s): DOAN, TRANG T
• Application Number:
  US11/636,910
• Time in Patent Office: 1,520 Days
• Field of Search: 726/1, 713/166
• US Class Current: 726/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/00 Administration; Management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/20 for managing network security; network security policies in general filtering policies H04L63/0227
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/14 Session management for real-time applications in data packet communications networks H04L65/1066
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/148 Migration or transfer of sessions

Abstract

A first user'"'"'s trust level with regard to a second user can be determined by providing questions to the second user, with the questions based on a previously-collected knowledge base including information about the first user. The information about the first user may be partitioned into levels of trust, and the second user'"'"'s responses to the questions may be evaluated to determine which level of trust the second user is entitled to. The knowledge base may be assembled by prompting the first user for information and/or by scanning or otherwise collecting already-existing data about the first user. The knowledge base and/or trust assessment may be distributed across a network, and in some embodiments the knowledge base or parts thereof is distributed to other users according to the trust level of those users.

Claims

1. A system for determining trust, the system comprising:

a non-transitory computer-readable media having a first knowledge base and a second knowledge based different from the first knowledge base stored thereon;

a computing device having a processor in communication with the knowledge base, the computing device adapted to;

receive a request to assess a target user'"'"'s trust level of a second user, the request identifying a relationship between the target user and the second user;

access trust assessment data including data associated with the target user based on the relationship between the target user and the second user and a plurality of data items where each data item is associated with a trust level, wherein the trust assessment data is selected from either the first knowledge base or the second knowledge base according to the relationship;

interrogate the second user, including presenting, to the second user, a plurality of trust assessment questions including at least one trust assessment question based on the trust assessment data where the at least one trust assessment question is based on the relationship between the target user and the second user;

receive response data from the second user during the interrogation;

score the second user'"'"'s response to each of the plurality of questions by comparing the response for each question to the trust assessment data corresponding to that question;

aggregate the scores;

assign a trust level to the second user based on the aggregated scores;

generate trust assessment result data based on the interrogation results, wherein the computing device is adapted to score, aggregate, and assign a trust level during generation of the trust assessment result data; and

store the trust assessment result data.

2. The system as set forth in claim 1,

wherein the trust assessment data includes a plurality of data items, each data item associated with a trust level;

wherein interrogating comprises receiving response data from the second user;

wherein generating trust assessment result data comprises determining the extent to which the response data matches at least one data item; and

assigning a trust level to the second user based on a highest trust level associated with the at least one matched data item.

3. The system as set forth in claim 1, wherein the computing device is adapted to generate at least one trust assessment question upon receipt of the request to assess the target user'"'"'s trust level.

4. The system as set forth in claim 1, wherein the computing device is further adapted to:

access a plurality of stored trust assessment questions;

select at least some of the plurality of trust assessment questions; and

present the selected questions to the second user where the computing device accesses, selects, and presents the selected questions during interrogation.

5. The system as set forth in claim 4, wherein the computing device is further adapted to classify the second user where at least some of the plurality of questions are selected based on the classification of the second user.

6. The system as set forth in claim 5, wherein the second user is classified based at least in part on determining a relationship between the second user and the target user;

and wherein determining the relationship includes accessing data defining a social network including the second user and the target user.

7. The system as set forth in claim 5, wherein the second user is classified based at least in part on data identifying at least one prior trust assessment session including the second user.

8. The system as set forth in claim 5, wherein the second user is classified based at least in part on data identifying a resource the second user is attempting to access.

9. The system as set forth in claim 1, wherein the trust assessment data includes data associated with a pseudo-target user and wherein the computing device is further adapted to present at least one question based on data associated with the pseudo-target user.

10. The system as set forth in claim 9, wherein the computing device is further adapted to access data defining a social network including the target user and the pseudo-target user while generating trust assessment data.

11. The system as set forth in claim 1, wherein the computing device is further adapted to send at least one message to the target user after the interrogation of the second user has commenced.

12. The system as set forth in claim 11, wherein the computing device is further adapted to modify the target user'"'"'s trust level of the second user based on data received from the target user in response to the at least one message.

13. The system as set forth in claim 1, wherein the request includes at least one result address and one or more exit criteria and the computing device is further adapted to:

determine whether the exit criteria are satisfied during generation of the trust assessment result data; and

send data including the trust assessment result data to the at least one result address.

14. The system as set forth in claim 13, wherein the exit criteria include an interrogation response time limit and the exit criteria are not satisfied unless response data is received within the time limit.

15. The system method as set forth in claim 13, wherein the exit criteria include an exit trust level and the exit criteria are satisfied once the computed trust level meets or exceeds the exit trust level.

16. A trust assessment system comprising:

a first knowledge base and a second knowledge base different from the first knowledge base stored in one or more non-transitory computer readable media;

wherein each knowledge base includes a plurality of data items associated with a particular target user, and wherein each data item is associated with a trust level;

at least one computing device including a network interface, the at least one computing device configured to access one or more computer-readable media and execute instructions directing the computing device to perform actions including;

receive a trust assessment request;

determine a target user and a second user;

determine a relationship between the specified target user and the second user;

access a plurality of data items associated with the specified target user based on the relationship between the target user and the second user, wherein the accessed data items are selected from either the first knowledge base or the second knowledge base according to the relationship where each data item of the plurality of data items are associated with a trust level;

interrogate the second user using the accessed data items where the interrogation is based on the relationship between the target user and the second user;

receive response data from the second user;

determine the extent to which the second user'"'"'s response data matches at least one data item; and

assign a trust level to the second user based on the trust level associated with the at least one matched data item and the interrogating results.