Systems and methods for providing privacy settings for third-party applications

• US 9,129,134 B2
• Filed: 08/15/2014
• Issued: 09/08/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 05/24/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Inventors: Vera, Nicolas, Wang, James H., Steinberg, Arieh, Kelly, Christopher, D'Angelo, Adam
• Primary Examiner(s): SHEHNI, GHAZAL B
• Application Number:
  US14/461,364
• Publication Number:
  US 20140359783A1
• Time in Patent Office: 389 Days
• Field of Search: 726 27- 30
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/102 Entity profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/105 Multiple levels of security
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/02 Protecting privacy or anonymity, e.g. protecting personally identifiable information [PII]

Abstract

Systems and methods for providing privacy settings for applications associated with a user profile are provided. Exemplary methods include receiving a request from a member of a web-based social network to access a third-party application, providing privacy settings selections to control access to data associated with the installed application, receiving a privacy settings selection from the member, and providing to the third party application information about the user subject to the received privacy settings selections.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving from a user of a social networking system a request to access a third party application external to the social networking system;

providing to the user a plurality of privacy settings for the third party application, each privacy setting corresponding to a portion of user data for sharing with the third party application subject to selection of the setting;

receiving, from the user selection of one or more of the plurality of privacy settings for sharing with the third party application; and

providing to the third party application the portion of the user data associated with the selected one or more privacy settings.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the privacy settings selections indicate whether one or more categories of user information are shareable with the third party application.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein:

providing the user the plurality of privacy settings selections comprises providing a set of privacy setting selections associated with the third party application; and

receiving the user selection of the one or more of the plurality of privacy settings selections comprises editing the set of privacy setting selections.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein providing the user the requested access to the third party application logs the user into the third party application.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein a separate log in is required for the requested access.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the third party application is available via a product directory.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing for display a summary of the privacy settings selections for the third party application.

8. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing one or more programs, the one or more programs comprising instructions which when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform a method comprising:

receiving from a user of a social networking system a request to access a third party application external to the social networking system;

providing to the user a plurality of privacy settings for the third party application, each privacy setting corresponding to a portion of user data for sharing with the third party application subject to selection of the setting;

receiving, from the user selection of one or more of the plurality of privacy settings for sharing with the third party application; and

providing to the third party application the portion of the user data associated with the selected one or more privacy settings.

9. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 8, wherein the privacy settings selections indicate whether one or more categories of user information are shareable with the third party application.

10. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 8, wherein:

providing the user the plurality of privacy settings selections comprises providing a set of privacy setting selections associated with the third party application; and

receiving the user selection of the one or more of the plurality of privacy settings selections comprises editing the set of privacy setting selections.

11. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 8, wherein providing the user the requested access to the third party application logs the user into the third party application.

12. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 11, wherein a separate log in is required for the requested access.

13. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 8, wherein the third party application is available via a product directory.

14. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 8, further comprising providing for display a summary of the privacy settings selections for the third party application.

15. A system, comprising:

a computer processor;

a communications interface for receiving from a user of a social networking system a request to access a third party application external to the social networking system; and

a memory comprising;

a privacy settings module for providing to the user a plurality of privacy settings for the third party application, each privacy setting corresponding to a portion of user data for sharing with the third party application subject to selection of the setting;

the privacy settings module further configured for receiving, from the user selection of one or more of the plurality of privacy settings for sharing with the third party application; and

the communications interface further configured for providing to the third party application the portion of the user data associated with the selected one or more privacy settings.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the privacy settings selections indicate whether one or more categories of user information are shareable with the third party application.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein providing the user the requested access to the third party application logs the user into the third party application.

18. The system of claim 15, wherein a separate log in is required for the requested access.