Reciprocal public trust relationship

• US 8,065,421 B2
• Filed: 02/15/2011
• Issued: 11/22/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 06/20/2005
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Bansod, Aditya, Little, Charles Reeves, Walter, Jason D.
• Primary Examiner(s): NGUYEN, THU HA T
• Application Number:
  US13/027,701
• Publication Number:
  US 20110138062A1
• Time in Patent Office: 280 Days
• Field of Search: 709/227, 709/249, 713/193, 370/232, 370/259
• US Class Current: 709/227
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/061 for key exchange, e.g. in peer-to-peer networks cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for key agreement H04L9/0838
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]

Abstract

Publicly accessible linking information is to establish a trusted relationship between reciprocally linked entities controlling web resources, such as websites or web logs. A method of establishing a trust relationship between two entities identifying a user-installed link to a second web resource in a first web resource. Next, the method determines when a reciprocal link is made in the second web resource directed to the first web resource and creates a trust relationship between the entities based on the reciprocal link.

Claims

1. One or more processor readable storage devices having encoded thereon instructions for causing one or more processors to perform a method of establishing a trust relationship between entities each controlling a respective web resource, the method comprising:

receiving a first unique identifier associated with a first entity controlling a first web resource from a first web service upon the first entity establishing a link to a second web resource in the first web resource, the second web resource having public content and private content, the private content viewable only by users who have been authorized by an owner of the second web resource;

determining when a reciprocal link is made in the second web resource directed to the first web resource, wherein the reciprocal link is made by a second entity controlling the second web resource;

creating a trust relationship between the first and second entities based on the reciprocal link by transmitting the first unique identifier associated with the first entity to the second web resource;

receiving a second unique identifier associated with the second entity from the second web resource;

transmitting the second unique identifier associated with the second entity to the first web resource; and

verifying that the trust relationship has been established between the first entity and the second entity based on the identifiers; and

providing permission to the first entity controlling the first web resource to view the private content on the second web resource upon verifying that the trust relationship has been established between the first and second entities.

2. The one or more processor readable storage devices of claim 1 wherein the first web resource or the second web resource is a website.

3. The one or more processor readable storage devices of claim 1 wherein the first web resource or the second web resource is a web log.

4. The one or more processor readable storage devices of claim 3 wherein the method further comprises identifying an entry in a blog roll.

5. The one or more processor readable storage devices of claim 1 wherein the method further comprises providing the first unique identifier from the first web resource to the second web resource.

6. The one or more processor readable storage devices of claim 5 wherein the first unique identifier comprises a unique URL for the first web resource.

7. The one or more processor readable storage devices of claim 5 wherein the method further comprises providing a first unique key and a second unique key between the first and the second resources with the first unique identifier and the second unique identifier.

8. The one or more processor readable storage devices of claim 5 wherein the step of determining includes receiving a second unique identifier from the second web resource.

9. The one or more processor readable storage devices of claim 7 wherein the method further comprises receiving the second unique key from the second web resource.

10. The one or more processor readable storage devices of claim 1 wherein the method further comprises providing the first unique identifier and a first key received from the first web resource to the second web resource;

the step of creating includes receiving the second unique identifier and a second key from the second web resource, and

the method further comprises encrypting web communications for transmission between the first web resource and the second web resource.

11. The one or more processor readable storage devices of claim 1 further comprising updating the trust relationship based on new identifiers for the first and second web resources.

12. The one or more processor readable storage devices of claim 1 further comprising the step of revoking the trust relationship by removing the reciprocal link.

13. The one or more processor readable storage devices of claim 1 wherein the entity is a user.

14. The one or more processor readable storage devices of claim 1 wherein the entity is a group.

15. The one or more processor readable storage devices of claim 1, wherein the step of providing permission to the first entity comprises the steps of:

receiving from the first entity controlling the first web resource the second unique identifier associated with the second entity that was delivered to the first entity in establishing the trust relationship and the first unique identifier associated with the first entity;

verifying that the second unique identifier associated with the second entity received from the first entity matches the second unique identifier associated with the second entity; and

verifying that the second entity controlling the second web resource delivered the second unique identifier associated with the second entity to the first entity.

16. One or more processor readable storage devices having encoded thereon instructions for causing one or more processors to perform a method of establishing a trust relationship between two entities, the method comprising:

(a) identifying a publication of a first user'"'"'s blog in a second user'"'"'s blogroll, wherein the second user'"'"'s blogroll is a list of third-party blogs that the second user reads;

(b) transmitting a second unique identifier associated with the second user'"'"'s blog to the first user'"'"'s blog;

(c) receiving a notification of a publication of the second user'"'"'s blog in the first user'"'"'s blogroll, the notification includes a first unique identifier associated with the first user'"'"'s blog, wherein the first user'"'"'s blogroll is a list of third-party blogs that the first user reads;

(d) receiving a request from the first user to read private content in the second user'"'"'s blog that requires permission to view, wherein the request includes the first unique identifier associated with the first user'"'"'s blog and the second unique identifier associated with the second user'"'"'s blog;

(e) establishing a trust relationship between the first user'"'"'s blog and the second user'"'"'s blog based on the first and second unique identifiers by recording the second unique identifier associated with the second user'"'"'s blog for the first user'"'"'s blog and recording the first unique identifier associated with the first user'"'"'s blog for the second user'"'"'s blog; and

verifying that the trust relationship has been established between the first user'"'"'s blog and the second user'"'"'s blog based on the identifiers; and

(f) providing permission to the first user to view private content on the second user'"'"'s blog upon verifying that the first unique identifier associated with the first user'"'"'s blog received in step (d) matches the first unique identifier associated with the first user'"'"'s blog received in step (c) and the second unique identifier associated with the second user'"'"'s blog received in step (d) matches the second unique identifier associated with the second user'"'"'s blogroll transmitted in step (b).

17. The one or more processor readable storage devices of claim 16 wherein the step (b) includes transmitting a Uniform Resource Locator associated with the second user'"'"'s blog to the first user'"'"'s biog.

18. The one or more processor readable storage devices of claim 17 wherein the step (d) includes receiving a Uniform Resource Locator associated with the first user'"'"'s biog.

19. A system of establishing a trust relationship between entities each controlling a respective web resource, comprising:

a memory for storing software; and

a processor accessible to the memory and communicatively coupled to the Internet, the processor executing under the control of software receiving and storing in the memory a first unique identifier associated with a first entity controlling a first web resource from a first web service upon the first entity establishing a link to a second web resource in the first web resource, the second web resource having public content and private content, the private content viewable only by users who have been authorized by an owner of the second web resource,

the processor executing under the control of software determining when a reciprocal link is made in the second web resource directed to the first web resource, wherein the reciprocal link is made by a second entity controlling the second web resource, and

the processor executing under the control of software creating a trust relationship between the first and second entities based on the reciprocal link by

transmitting the first unique identifier associated with the first entity to the second web resource,

receiving a second unique identifier associated with the second entity from the second web resource,

transmitting the second unique identifier associated with the second entity to the first web resource, and

verifying that the trust relationship has been established between the first entity and the second entity based on the identifiers, and

the processor executing under the control of software providing permission to the first entity controlling the first web resource to view the private content on the second web resource upon verifying that the trust relationship has been established between the first and second entities.

20. The system of claim 19 further comprising providing a first unique key and a second unique key between the first and the second resources with the first unique identifier and the second unique identifier.