Deleted account handling for hosted services

• US 8,015,067 B2
• Filed: 02/13/2007
• Issued: 09/06/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 02/13/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Parham, Derek, Hannon, Stephanie Katherine
• Primary Examiner(s): ZURITA, JAMES H
• Application Number:
  US11/706,168
• Publication Number:
  US 20070198662A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,666 Days
• Field of Search: 705/26, 705/37, 705/27
• US Class Current: 705/26.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/955 using information identifiers, e.g. uniform resource locators [URL]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04842 Selection of displayed objects or displayed text elements G06F3/0482 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0641 Shopping interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/22 comprising specially adapted graphical user interfaces [GUI]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5054 Automatic deployment of services triggered by the service manager, e.g. service implementation by automatic configuration of network components
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5064 Customer relationship management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/00 User-to-user messaging in packet-switching networks, transmitted according to store-and-forward or real-time protocols, e.g. e-mail
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/23 Reliability checks, e.g. acknowledgments or fault reporting
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/30 Managing network names, e.g. use of aliases or nicknames name-to-address mapping H04L61/45
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/4511 using domain name system [DNS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/102 Entity profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/1441 Countermeasures against malicious traffic countermeasures against attacks on cryptographic mechanisms H04L9/002
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/01 Protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services

Abstract

An application service server provides hosted services to clients. Upon receiving a request to delete a user account associated with a user of the hosted services, the server deactivates the user account to prevent the user from accessing the user account for a predefined probation time period. If the server receives an account revival request before the predefined probation time period is over, the server then undoes the deactivation and transfers the user account'"'"'s status from “inactive” to “active”. If no account revival request is received at the end of the probation time period, the server then deletes the user account from the client-server environment.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

at a server having one or more processors and memory storing one or more programs for execution by the one or more processors so as to perform the method;

receiving a request to delete a user account associated with a user of one or more hosted services;

deactivating the user account to prevent the user from accessing the user account for a predefined probation time period;

undoing the deactivation of the user account upon receipt of an account revival request; and

in accordance with a determination that no account revival request has been received by the end of the probation time period, deleting the user account as a matter of course.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein deactivating the user account includes changing an original username of the user account to an alternative username while maintaining data associated with the user account under the alternative username.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein deactivating the user account includes preventing the original username from being used by another user during the probation time period.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the alternative username is deemed as an invalid username by the hosted services.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein deactivating the user account includes recording a deletion timestamp identifying when the user account is deactivated.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the deletion timestamp is associated with the alternative username.

7. The method of claim 2, wherein the alternative username is derived from the original username.

8. The method of claim 2, wherein undoing the deactivation of the user account includes restoring the user account by changing the alternative username back to the original username.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the hosted services include a communication service, a digital content management services, a web management service, and an e-commerce service.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the hosted services is associated with a user-specified domain name.

11. A computer system, comprising:

memory;

at least one processor; and

at least one program stored in the memory and executed by the at least one processor, the at least one program including instructions for;

receiving a request to delete a user account associated with a user of one or more hosted services;

deactivating the user account to prevent the user from accessing the user account for a predefined probation time period;

undoing the deactivation of the user account upon receipt of an account revival request; and

in accordance with a determination that no account revival request has been received by the end of the probation time period, deleting the user account as a matter of course.

12. The computer system of claim 11, further comprising:

instructions for changing an original username of the user account to an alternative username; and

instructions for maintaining data associated with the user account under the alternative username.

13. The computer system of claim 12, further comprising:

instructions for restoring the user account by changing the alternative username back to the original username.

14. The computer system of claim 12, further comprising:

instructions for preventing the original username from being used by another user during the probation time period.

15. The computer system of claim 12, further comprising:

instructions for recording a deletion timestamp identifying when the user account is deactivated.

16. The computer system of claim 15, wherein the deletion timestamp is associated with the alternative username.

17. The computer system of claim 12, wherein the alternative username is deemed as an invalid username by the hosted services.

18. The computer system of claim 12, wherein the alternative username is derived from the original username.

19. The computer system of claim 11, wherein the hosted services include a communication service, a digital content management services, a web management service, and an e-commerce service.

20. The computer system of claim 11, wherein at least one of the hosted services is associated with a user-specified domain name.

21. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium and one or more computer programs embedded therein, the one or more computer programs comprising instructions, which when executed by a computer system, cause the computer system to:

receive a request to delete a user account associated with a user of one or more hosted services;

deactivate the user account to prevent the user from accessing the user account for a predefined probation time period;

undo the deactivation of the user account upon receipt of an account revival request; and

in accordance with a determination that no account revival request has been received by the end of the probation time period, deleting the user account as a matter of course.

22. A system for authenticating a client device, comprising:

memory;

a processor;

means for receiving a request to delete a user account associated with a user of one or more hosted services;

means for deactivating the user account to prevent the user from accessing the user account for a predefined probation time period;

means for undoing the deactivation of the user account upon receipt of an account revival request; and

means for in accordance with a determination that no account revival request has been received by the end of the probation time period, deleting the user account as a matter of course.