Dynamically updating privacy settings in a social network

• US 8,713,055 B2
• Filed: 09/08/2008
• Issued: 04/29/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 09/07/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Inventors: Wang, James H., Callahan, Ezra, Vera, Nicolas
• Primary Examiner(s): ROBINSON, GRETA LEE
• Application Number:
  US12/206,556
• Publication Number:
  US 20090070334A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,059 Days
• Field of Search: 707/783, 707/784, 707/785, 707/999.009, 707/999.09, 707/711, 707/715, 707/739, 707/740, 707/741, 707/748, 707/752, 707/758, 707/769, 707/773, 707/774, 707/775, 707/786, 707/787, 707/788, 715/741, 715/758, 715/772, 715/971, 709/204, 709/224, 705/319
• US Class Current: 707/785
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/604 Tools and structures for managing or administering access control systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/62 Protecting access to data via a platform, e.g. using keys or access control rules
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6245 Protecting personal data, e.g. for financial or medical purposes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6263 during internet communication, e.g. revealing personal data from cookies
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2115 Third party
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2119 Authenticating web pages, e.g. with suspicious links
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2141 Access rights, e.g. capability lists, access control lists, access tables, access matrices
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/102 Entity profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles

Abstract

A social network allows its members to regulate what data is accessible to other members using one or more privacy settings. A particular member of the social network can modify the one or privacy settings to grant or deny different users access to different data. When a member modifies a privacy setting, the social network determines which information pathways communicating data between members are affected. The affected information pathways are then modified responsive to the privacy setting to communicate data identified by the modified privacy setting and enforce the new privacy restrictions.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

maintaining a profile for a plurality of users of a social networking system, each profile identifying one or more items of user data associated with a user;

monitoring actions taken by the users of the social networking system, one of the actions comprising a change in a privacy setting by the user that denies a particular user access to the one or more items of user data, the user and the particular user being indirectly connected within the social networking system;

responsive to the change in the privacy setting,

determining one or more information pathways of the social networking system that are affected by the change in the privacy setting, and

propagating the change to at least one of the information pathways; and

determining that a search of the social networking system has been conducted by the particular user via a search engine external to the social networking system to generate a search result, the search result including data associated with the user for display to the particular user via the at least one of the information pathways; and

generating, by a computer processor, a modified search result by removing the data associated with the user from the search result responsive to the changed privacy setting.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the social networking system comprises a social networking website.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating for the one or more information pathways a message that communicates a monitored action, wherein the generating incorporates the one or more items of user data of one or more users into the message subject to the privacy settings; and

communicating the message in the one or more information pathways to one or more users of the social networking system other than the users for whom one or more items of user data are incorporated in the message; and

modifying the one or more information pathways affected by the changed privacy setting to adjust the data communicated via the information pathway responsive to the changed privacy setting, wherein responsive to the changed privacy setting indicating data is not communicated using an information pathway the modifying comprises, removing the information pathway.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating for the one or more information pathways a message that communicates a monitored action, wherein the generating incorporates the one or more items of user data of one or more users into the message subject to the privacy settings; and

communicating the message in the one or more information pathways to one or more users of the social networking system other than the users for whom one or more items of user data are incorporated in the message; and

modifying the one or more information pathways affected by the changed privacy setting to adjust the data communicated via the information pathway responsive to the changed privacy setting, wherein responsive to the changed privacy setting indicating data is not communicated using an information pathway, the modifying comprises establishing a new information pathway.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating for the one or more information pathways a message that communicates a monitored action, wherein the generating incorporates the one or more items of user data of one or more users into the message subject to the privacy settings; and

communicating the message in the one or more information pathways to one or more users of the social networking system other than the users for whom one or more items of user data are incorporated in the message; and

wherein an information pathway comprises a newsfeed story received by the user, a newsfeed story received a friends of the user, viewing a picture associated with the user, viewing a video associated with the user, an event the user receives data about, a group the user joins or a search engine result including data associated with the user.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein one or more privacy settings of the user allow a subset of users to access the one or more items of user data.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the actions taken by the users of the social networking system comprise an action selected from a group consisting of:

sending a message to another user of the social networking system, adding a connection to another user of the social networking system, modifying one or more privacy settings.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

analyzing results of a search of the social networking system;

determining that an internal search of the social networking system has been conducted by the particular user via a search engine internal to the social networking system to generate an internal search result, the internal search result including data associated with the user for display to the particular user via the at least one of the information pathways; and

generating a modified internal search result by removing the data associated with the user from the internal search result responsive to the changed privacy setting.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein an action changing the privacy setting associated with the user comprises restricting a second user from accessing an item of user data associated with the user, granting another user access to a items of user data associated with the user or modifying the frequency at which the user communicates data to additional users.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing the modified search result to the external search engine for display to the particular user.

11. A system comprising:

a computer processor;

a user profile store for maintaining a profile for a plurality of users of the social networking system, each profile identifying one or more items of user data associated with a user;

a plurality of information pathways, each information pathway for communicating data about a user to one or more additional users;

a privacy engine communicatively coupled to the user profile store to;

monitor actions taken by users of the social networking system, one of the actions comprising a change in a privacy setting by the user that denies a particular user access to the one or more items of user data, the user and the particular user being indirectly connected within the social networking system;

responsive to the change in the privacy setting,

determine one or more information pathways, of the plurality of information pathways, of the social networking system that are affected by the change in the privacy setting, and

propagate the change to at least one of the information pathways; and

determine that a search of the social networking system has been conducted by the particular user via a search engine external to the social networking system to generate a search result, the search result including data associated with the user for display to the particular user via the at least one of the information pathways; and

generate by the computer processor, a modified search result by removing the data associated with the user from the search result responsive to the changed privacy setting.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the social networking system comprises a social networking website.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the privacy engine is further configured to:

generate for the one or more information pathways a message that communicates a monitored action, wherein the generating incorporates the one or more items of user data of one or more users into the message subject to the privacy settings;

communicate the message in the one or more information pathways to one or more users of the social networking system other than the users for whom the one or more items of user data are incorporated in the message; and

modify the one or more information pathways affected by the changed privacy setting to adjust the data communicated via the information pathway responsive to the changed privacy setting, wherein responsive to the changed privacy setting indicating data is not communicated using an information pathway the modifying comprises, removing the information pathway.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the privacy engine is further configured to:

determine that an internal search of the social networking system has been conducted by the particular user via a search engine internal to the social networking system to generate an internal search result, the internal search result including data associated with the user for display to the particular user via the at least one of the information pathways; and

generate a modified internal search result by removing the data associated with the user from the internal search result responsive to the changed privacy setting.

15. The system of claim 11, wherein the privacy engine is further configured to:

generate for the one or more information pathways a message that communicates a monitored action, wherein the generating incorporates the one or more items of user data of one or more users into the message subject to the privacy settings;

communicate the message in the one or more information pathways to one or more users of the social networking system other than the users for whom the one or more items of user data are incorporated in the message; and

modify the one or more information pathways affected by the changed privacy setting to adjust the data communicated via the information pathway responsive to the changed privacy setting, wherein responsive to the changed privacy setting indicating data is not communicated using an information pathway, the modifying comprises establishing a new information pathway.

16. The system of claim 11, wherein the privacy engine is further configured to:

generate for the one or more information pathways a message that communicates a monitored action, wherein the generating incorporates the one or more items of user data of one or more users into the message subject to the privacy settings;

communicate the message in the one or more information pathways to one or more users of the social networking system other than the users for whom the one or more items of user data are incorporated in the message; and

wherein an information pathway comprises a newsfeed story received by the user, a newsfeed story received a friends of the user, viewing a picture associated with the user, viewing a video associated with the user, an event the user receives data about, a group the user joins or a search engine result including data associated with the user.

17. The system of claim 11, wherein one or more privacy settings of the user allow a subset of users to access the one or more items of user data.

18. The system of claim 11, wherein the actions taken by the users of the social networking system comprise an action selected from a group consisting of:

sending a message to another user of the social networking system, adding a connection to another user of the social networking system, modifying one or more privacy settings.

19. The system of claim 11, wherein an action changing the privacy setting associated with the user comprises restricting a second user from accessing an item of user data associated with the user, granting another user access to a items of user data associated with the user or modifying the frequency at which the user communicates data to additional users.

20. The system of claim 11, wherein the privacy engine is further configured to:

provide the modified search result to the external search engine for display to the particular user.

21. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions to be executed by a computer processor of computer system to carry out the steps of:

maintaining a profile for a plurality of users of a social networking system, each profile identifying one or more items of user data associated with a user;

monitoring actions taken by the users of the social networking system, one of the actions comprising a change in a privacy setting by the user that denies a particular user access to the one or more items of user data, the user and the particular user being indirectly connected within the social networking system;

responsive to the change in the privacy setting,

determining one or more information pathways of the social networking system that are affected by the change in the privacy setting, and

propagating the change to at least one of the information pathways; and

determining that a search of the social networking system has been conducted by the particular user via a search engine external to the social networking system to generate a search result, the search result including data associated with the user for display to the particular user via the at least one of the information pathways; and

generating, by a computer processor, a modified search result by removing the data associated with the user from the search result responsive to the changed privacy setting.