Privacy model that grants access rights and provides security to shared content

• US 8,234,374 B2
• Filed: 04/26/2004
• Issued: 07/31/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 04/26/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Marcjan, Cezary, Cheng, Lili
• Primary Examiner(s): NICKERSON, JEFFREY L
• Application Number:
  US10/832,158
• Publication Number:
  US 20050251675A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,018 Days
• Field of Search: 706/45, 709/224, 709/225, 709/205, 726/3
• US Class Current: 709/225
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/34 Recording or statistical evaluation of computer activity, e.g. of down time, of input/output operation ; Recording or statistical evaluation of user activity, e.g. usability assessment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6218 to a system of files or objects, e.g. local or distributed file system or database

Abstract

Systems and/or methods that mitigate overexposure of shared content and that facilitate improving security of content in a computing environment are provided. In particular, the systems and methods involves monitoring resource activities such as user interactions (between users and/or between users and resources), email activity, share space activity, shared content activity, distribution lists, contact lists, personnel or organization structures, and the like. Data can be collected as one or more resource activities are monitored and then analyzed to determine where, if any, changes have taken place. For example, if a user has been removed from a distribution list or a user has not accessed the shared content within a time period, a recommendation can be formulated to suggest an adjustment to the affected access rights. Furthermore, the systems and/or methods can be integrated with other applications such as an email client, whereby an out-of-office indicator can leave access rights as they are.

Claims

1. A method of mitigating overexposure of shared content, the method comprising:

employing one or more processors that execute computer-executable instructions retained in one or more memories, the computer-executable instructions when executed by the one or more processors implement actions comprising;

monitoring a plurality of resources and one or more user interactions with one or more of the plurality of resources and the shared content included within a share space in a computing environment;

collecting data from the monitored plurality of resources and one or more user interactions with the one or more of the plurality of resources, the data comprising personnel structure information and activities that change the personnel structure information;

analyzing data collected from the plurality of resources, the analyzing comprising analyzing user access rights in connection with the shared content included within the share space to determine whether to suggest splitting the share space such that a first portion of the shared content is available for access in a split share space resulting from splitting the share space and a second portion of the shared content is unavailable for access in the split share space resulting from splitting the share space;

automatically providing a suggestion to a user to adjust at least a portion of user access rights to the shared content based at least in part upon an analysis of the data to facilitate maintaining consistency in delineating the user access rights; and

suspending all access rights to the shared content except those of the user'"'"'s when the user is unresponsive to the suggestion during a predefined time period.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the user is an owner or manager of the shared content.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising adjusting the user access rights with respect to the shared content.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of resources comprising at least one of the following:

user sharing activity;

user publishing activity;

messaging activity;

distribution list activity;

contact list activity;

content activity;

share activity;

database activity;

access activity;

access restrictions that are time-dependent;

or

user activity.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the monitoring the plurality of resource activity comprises at least one of the following:

monitoring interactions between one or more users and the shared content;

monitoring one or more users'"'"' inactivity;

monitoring inactivity of shared content;

or

monitoring interactions between one or more users and a distribution or contact list that is associated with the shared content.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the analyzing the data collected from the plurality of resources comprises cross-referencing the data from the plurality of resources to detect changes in any one of the resources.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the analyzing the data comprises at least one of the following:

comparing a period of user inactivity with a first time threshold to determine whether an adjustment to the user access rights should be suggested;

comparing a period of shared content inactivity with a second time threshold to determine whether an adjustment to the user access rights should be suggested;

analyzing user access rights and the respective shared content included within any one share space to determine whether to suggest splitting the share space;

or

comparing previously collected data with newly collected data to determine that a change in at least one activity has occurred to thereby provoke the suggestion component to recommend a corresponding adjustment to access rights.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the providing the suggestion to adjust the user access rights comprises determining from the analysis that a change has occurred with respect to at least one resource activity that warrants a corresponding change to the user access rights.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the change comprises at least one of a removal or addition of one or more users as indicated by a corresponding contact name, username, nickname, or email address.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the suggestion comprises any one of the following actions to at least a portion of the user access rights:

restrict access rights;

remove access rights;

add access rights;

split access rights;

suspend access rights;

or

maintain access rights.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the user access rights are maintained when the user indicates a period of inactivity.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the user access rights are added or removed when a new user is respectively added to or removed from any one of a share, a contact list, a distribution list, a personnel structure, or an email.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein the user access rights are split in part by splitting the share space to mitigate overexposure of the shared content to one or more users whose user access rights should be specific to content included in the share space rather than to the share space in general.

14. The method of claim 1, the method further comprising resuming the suspended access rights when the user explicitly reactivates the suspended access rights.

15. One or more memories comprising computer-executable instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, configure the one or more processors to perform the following actions:

monitoring a plurality of resources and one or more user interactions with one or more of the plurality of resources and the shared content included within a share space in a computing environment;

collecting data from the monitored plurality of resources and one or more user interactions with the one or more of the plurality of resources, the data comprising personnel structure information and activities that change the personnel structure information;

analyzing data collected from the plurality of resources, the analyzing comprising analyzing user access rights in connection with the shared content included within the share space to determine whether to suggest splitting the share space such that a first portion of the shared content is available for access in a split share space resulting from splitting the share space and a second portion of the shared content is unavailable for access in the split share space resulting from splitting the share space;

automatically providing a suggestion to a user to adjust at least a portion of user access rights to the shared content based at least in part upon an analysis of the data to facilitate maintaining consistency in delineating the user access rights; and

suspending all access rights to the shared content except those of the user'"'"'s when the user is unresponsive to the suggestion during a predefined time period.

16. The one or more memories of claim 15, wherein the user is an owner or manager of the shared content.

17. The one or more memories of claim 15, wherein the actions further comprise adjusting the user access rights with respect to the shared content.

18. The one or more memories of claim 15, wherein the plurality of resources comprising at least one of the following:

user sharing activity;

user publishing activity;

messaging activity;

distribution list activity;

contact list activity;

content activity;

share activity;

database activity;

access activity;

access restrictions that are time-dependent;

or

user activity.

19. The one or more memories of claim 15, wherein the analyzing the data collected from the plurality of resources comprises cross-referencing the data from the plurality of resources to detect changes in any one of the resources.

20. The one or more memories of claim 15, wherein the analyzing the data comprises at least one of the following:

comparing a period of user inactivity with a first time threshold to determine whether an adjustment to the user access rights should be suggested;

comparing a period of shared content inactivity with a second time threshold to determine whether an adjustment to the user access rights should be suggested;

analyzing user access rights and the respective shared content included within any one share space to determine whether to suggest splitting the share space;

or

comparing previously collected data with newly collected data to determine that a change in at least one activity has occurred to thereby provoke the suggestion component to recommend a corresponding adjustment to access rights.

21. The one or more memories of claim 15, wherein the providing a suggestion to adjust user access rights comprises determining from the analysis that a change has occurred with respect to at least one resource activity that warrants a corresponding change to the user access rights.

22. The one or more memories of claim 15, wherein the change comprises at least one of a removal or addition of one or more users as indicated by a corresponding contact name, username, nickname, or email address.

23. The one or more memories of claim 15, wherein the suggestion comprises any one of following actions to at least a portion of the user access rights:

restrict access rights;

remove access rights;

add access rights;

split access rights;

suspend access rights;

or

maintain access rights.

24. The one or more memories of claim 23, wherein the user access rights are added or removed when a new user is respectively added to or removed from any one of a share, a contact list, a distribution list, a personnel structure, or an email.

25. The one or more memories of claim 23, wherein the user access rights are split in part by splitting the share space to mitigate overexposure of shared content to one or more users whose access rights should be specific to content included in the share space rather than to the share space in general.

26. A system comprising:

one or more processors; and

memory, communicatively coupled to the one or more processors, storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, configure the one or more processors to perform actions comprising;

monitoring a plurality of resources and one or more user interactions with one or more of the plurality of resources and the shared content included within a share space in a computing environment;

collecting data from the monitored plurality of resources and one or more user interactions with the one or more of the plurality of resources, the data comprising personnel structure information and activities that change the personnel structure information;

analyzing data collected from the plurality of resources, the analyzing comprising analyzing user access rights in connection with the shared content included within the share space to determine whether to suggest splitting the share space such that a first portion of the shared content is available for access in a split share space resulting from splitting the share space and a second portion of the shared content is unavailable for access in the split share space resulting from splitting the share space;

automatically providing a suggestion to a user to adjust at least a portion of user access rights to the shared content based at least in part upon an analysis of the data to facilitate maintaining consistency in delineating the user access rights; and

suspending all access rights to the shared content except those of the user'"'"'s when the user is unresponsive to the suggestion during a predefined time period.