Evaluating access control list data for a social network

• US 9,069,856 B1
• Filed: 11/02/2012
• Issued: 06/30/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 11/04/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Lilot, Jean-Christophe Emmanuel, Thakkar, Nishant Antul
• Primary Examiner(s): Perveen, Rehana
• Assistant Examiner(s): May, Robert F
• Application Number:
  US13/668,166
• Time in Patent Office: 970 Days
• Field of Search: 707/722, 705/319
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6227 where protection concerns the structure of data, e.g. records, types, queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6245 Protecting personal data, e.g. for financial or medical purposes

Abstract

Methods, systems, and computer programs are presented for processing data to control display of followers of an entity to viewers of an entity page of the entity in a social network. One method includes detecting a request to view the entity page by a viewer. Fetching a first row of data associated with the social network. The method processes the first row of data to read a set of bits to determine whether certain ones of the users that are following the entity are to be displayed as following the entity in the entity page. The method also fetches a second row of data to determine whether the viewer is in one of the groups of the users that are following the entity and not displaying the users that follow the entity to the viewer when the viewer is not in one of the groups.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, by a processor, a request to view an entity page of an entity by a viewer, the viewer having a user account in a social network and the entity having an entity account in the social network;

fetching, by the processor, a first data associated with the entity, the first data including first edge (FE) data that identify a first plurality of users of the social network that have added the entity to one of their following groups, the first data further including second edge (SE) data that identify a second plurality of users that the entity has added to one of its following groups, wherein the FE data include a first indicator relating to visibility and a second indicator relating to being public;

establishing, by the processor based on the first and second indicators, a first determination as to whether certain ones of the first plurality of users are to be displayed as following the entity in the entity page, wherein the first determination decides whether the certain ones of the first plurality of users are visible and whether the certain ones of the first plurality of users are public, to cause users that are not identified as visible not to be displayed in the entity page to the viewer;

fetching, by the processor, a second data associated with the viewer,

establishing a second determination as to whether the viewer is in one of the groups of the second plurality of users, wherein whether to present users that are identified as visible but not as public depends on the second determination; and

presenting, by the processor, for display users that are following the entity to the viewer when the users pass one of the first determination or the first and second determinations.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first data and the second data are obtained from a data structure.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the first indicator is provided by a first bit and the second indicator is provided by a second bit.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the second determination identifies FE data of the second data associated with the viewer to determine if an access control list (ACL) bit validates that the viewer is in one of the groups of the first plurality of users.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the first and second indicators are defined by the first plurality of users.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the first and second indicators in the FE are updatable based on changes made by the first plurality of users, the changes including at least one of deleting the entity from a following group, or moving the entity to a following group having different settings for the first and second indicators.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the second determination identifies if the viewer is not in one of the following groups of the users that follow the entity, and not displaying the users that follow the entity to the viewer when the viewer is not in one of the following groups.

8. The method of claim 4, wherein the ACL bit is stored in the second data and is set associated with all FE in the second data of the viewer, the first and second indicators being associated with corresponding second edges in the second data.

9. The method of claim 4, wherein the ACL bit is obtained based on settings of the following groups of each user, such that the entity adheres to the settings defined by each user so that viewers only view those followers that allow the entity to display their status as following the entity to viewers of the entity page.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the first determination and the second determination are performed by analysis of the first data and the second data fetched from a database.

11. The method of claim 4, wherein each user that follows the entity passes the first and second indicators to the entity in a first edge so that the first determination can be made directly from the first data of the entity.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein whether to present certain ones of the users that follow the entity to the viewer is determined based on incoming edges in the second data of the viewer.

13. A method, comprising:

detecting, by a processor, a request to view, by a viewer, an entity page of an entity in a social network, the entity having users that follow the entity;

fetching, by the processor, a first row of data from a database associated with the social network, the first row being of the entity and the first row of data including a set of bits from the users that follow the entity;

establishing, by the processor, a first determination as to whether certain ones of the users that are following the entity are to be displayed as following the entity in the entity page based on the set of bits;

fetching, by the processor, a second row of data from the database, the second row of data associated with the viewer,

establishing, by the processor, a second determination as to whether the viewer is in one of groups of the users that are following the entity; and

displaying, by the processor, users that are following the entity to the viewer when the users pass one of the first determination or the first and second determination,

wherein the second determination is to validate whether the viewer is in one of the groups of the users that are following the entity based on an access control list (ACL) bit in the second row of data.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the first row of data including first edge (FE) data that identify a first plurality of users of the social network that have added the entity to one of their following groups, the first row of data further including second edge (SE) data that identify a second plurality of users that the entity has added to one of its following groups, wherein the FE data include the set of bits, the set of bits including a visible bit and a public bit.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the set of bits in the FE of users are updatable based on changes made by the first plurality of users, the changes including at least one of deleting the entity from the following groups or moving the entity to a following group having different settings for the set of bits.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein each user that follows the entity passes the set of bits to the entity in a first edge so that the first determination is made from the first row of data of the entity.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein whether to display certain ones of the users that follow the entity to the viewer is determined based on first edges in the second row of data of the viewer.

18. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon program instructions that when execute, causing a processor to perform operations comprising:

detecting a request to view, by a viewer, an entity page of an entity in a social network, the entity having users that follow the entity;

fetching a first row of data from a database associated with the social network, the first row being of the entity and the first row of data including a set of bits from users that follow the entity;

establishing a first determination as to whether certain ones of the users that are following the entity are to be displayed as following the entity in the entity page based on the set of bits;

fetching a second row of data from the database, the second row of data associated with the viewer,

establishing, by the processor, a second determination as to whether the viewer is in one of groups of the users that are following the entity; and

displaying users that are following the entity to the viewer when the users pass one of the first determination or the first and second determination,

wherein the second determination is to validate whether the viewer is in one of the groups of the users that are following the entity based on an access control list (ACL) bit in the second row of data.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein the first row of data including first edge (FE) data that identify a first plurality of users of the social network that have added the entity to one of their following groups, the first row of data further including second edge (SE) data that identify a second plurality of users that the entity has added to one of its following groups, wherein the FE data include the set of bits, the set of bits including a visible bit and a public bit.

20. A system comprising:

a memory; and

a processing device, coupled to the memory, to;

receive a request to view an entity page of an entity by a viewer, the viewer having a user

account in a social network and the entity having an entity account in the social network;

fetch a first data associated with the entity, the first data including first edge (FE) data that identify a first plurality of users of the social network that have added the entity to one of their following groups, the first data further including second edge (SE) data that identify a second plurality of users that the entity has added to one of its following groups, wherein the FE data include a first indicator relating to visibility and a second indicator relating to being public;

establish, based on the first and second indicators, a first determination as to whether certain ones of the first plurality of users are to be displayed as following the entity in the entity page, wherein the first determination decides whether the certain ones of the first plurality of users are visible and whether the certain ones of the first plurality of users are public, to cause

users that are not identified as visible not to be displayed in the entity page to the viewer;

fetch a second data associated with the viewer, establish a second determination as to whether the viewer is in one of the groups of the second plurality of users, wherein whether to present users that are identified as visible but not as public depends on the second determination; and

present for display users that are following the entity to the viewer when the users pass one of the first determination or the first and second determinations.