Degrees of separation for handling communications
First Claim
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1. A method for handling a communication from a sender to an intended recipient, the method comprising:
- receiving a communication from a sender, wherein the communication is directed to an intended recipient;
identifying the sender of the communication;
identifying the intended recipient of the communication;
accessing a contact list of the intended recipient, the contact list of the intended recipient being maintained in association with a different form of communication than the communication from the sender to the intended recipient and including at least a first user identifier associated with the different form of communication;
accessing a contact list of the first user identifier, the contact list of the first user identifier including at least a second user identifier;
determining, based in part on the accessed first contact list and the accessed second contact list, whether the sender and the intended recipient are linked by less than a threshold number of degrees of separation; and
determining whether the communication is a spam communication based at least in part on whether the sender and the intended recipient are linked by less than the threshold number of degrees of separation.
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Abstract
A sender'"'"'s degrees of separation from a recipient may be used to aid in spam filtering or to otherwise handle a communication. The “degrees of separation” represent a metric used to quantify whether/how the recipient is linked to the sender through intermediary people or other entities. A level of “trust” or “legitimacy” about a sender'"'"'s communication can be inferred by looking at whether the sender is linked to an intended recipient. Typically, user contact lists (e.g., address book, buddy list, and/or white list) are evaluated to determine the number of degrees (or hops) are required to link or relate two users.
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Citations
66 Claims
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1. A method for handling a communication from a sender to an intended recipient, the method comprising:
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receiving a communication from a sender, wherein the communication is directed to an intended recipient; identifying the sender of the communication; identifying the intended recipient of the communication; accessing a contact list of the intended recipient, the contact list of the intended recipient being maintained in association with a different form of communication than the communication from the sender to the intended recipient and including at least a first user identifier associated with the different form of communication; accessing a contact list of the first user identifier, the contact list of the first user identifier including at least a second user identifier; determining, based in part on the accessed first contact list and the accessed second contact list, whether the sender and the intended recipient are linked by less than a threshold number of degrees of separation; and determining whether the communication is a spam communication based at least in part on whether the sender and the intended recipient are linked by less than the threshold number of degrees of separation. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
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15. A non-transitory computer-usable medium storing a computer program for handling a communication from a sender to an intended recipient, the computer program comprising instructions for causing a computer to:
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receive a communication from a sender, wherein the communication is directed to an intended recipient; identify the sender of the communication; identify the intended recipient of the communication; access a contact list of the intended recipient, the contact list of the intended recipient being maintained in association with a different form of communication than the communication from the sender to the intended recipient and including at least a first user identifier associated with the different form of communication; access a contact list of the first user identifier, the contact list of the first user identifier including at least a second user identifier; determine, based in part on the accessed first contact list and the accessed second contact list, whether the sender and intended recipient are linked by less than a threshold number of degrees of separation; and determine whether the communication is a spam communication based at least in part on whether the sender and intended recipient are linked by less than a threshold number of degrees of separation. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28)
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29. A method for handling a communication from a sender to an intended recipient, the method comprising:
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receiving a communication from a sender, wherein the communication is directed to an intended recipient; identifying the sender of the communication; identifying the intended recipient of the communication; accessing a contact list of the intended recipient, the contact list of the intended recipient being maintained in association with a different form of communication than the communication from the sender to the intended recipient and including at least a first user identifier associated with the different form of communication; accessing a contact list of the first user identifier, the contact list of the first user identifier including at least a second user identifier; determining, based in part on the accessed first contact list and the accessed second contact list, whether the sender and the intended recipient are linked by less than a threshold number of degrees of separation; and handling the communication based on whether the sender and the intended recipient are linked by less than the threshold number of degrees of separation. - View Dependent Claims (30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47)
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48. A non-transitory computer-usable medium storing a computer program for handling a communication from a sender to an intended recipient, the computer program comprising instructions for causing a computer to:
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receive a communication from a sender, wherein the communication is directed to an intended recipient; identify the sender of the communication; identify the intended recipient of the communication; access a contact list of the intended recipient that contain communication identifiers the contact list of the intended recipient being maintained in association with a different form of communication than the communication from the sender to the intended recipient and including at least a first user identifier associated with the different form of communication; access a contact list of the first user identifier, the contact list of the first user identifier including at least a second user identifier; determine, based in part on the accessed first contact list and the accessed second contact list, whether the sender and the intended recipient are linked by less than a threshold number of degrees of separation; and handle the communication based on whether the sender and the intended recipient are linked by less than the threshold number of degrees of separation. - View Dependent Claims (49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66)
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Specification