Instant personalization security

• US 9,483,659 B2
• Filed: 09/02/2014
• Issued: 11/01/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 03/14/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Inventors: Bao, Ling, Yang, Andrew Chi-An, Prabhu, Pratap, Rice, Alex, Tyson, Joey, Shah, Naitik
• Primary Examiner(s): Rahman, Mahfuzur
• Application Number:
  US14/475,324
• Publication Number:
  US 20140373174A1
• Time in Patent Office: 791 Days
• Field of Search: 726/4
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/31 User authentication
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/316 by observing the pattern of computer usage, e.g. typical user behaviour
• 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: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46

Abstract

Some embodiments involve methods and systems for instant personalization security. For example, a social networking system can provide a platform for a user to open applications and/or access external websites. In some cases, an application does not have access to the user'"'"'s fully identifying profile (e.g., UID or other public information). Instead, the application has access to a pseudonymous profile corresponding to a hashed ID that is generated by the platform and provided to the application. Access to the pseudonymous profile enables the application or an external website to personalize its environment without breaching the security of the platform.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

providing a social networking interface of a social networking system for a user account via a user device to access one or more third-party applications or external websites to the social networking system, wherein the user device is logged into the social networking system as the user account, wherein the user account is identified in the social networking system via a user account identifier (UID), wherein the UID is associated with a fully identifying profile of the user account in the social networking system;

generating a hashed identifier (hashed ID) according to a hash function based on at least the UID, wherein the hashed ID is different from the UID, is unique to the user account, and associated with at least a third-party system amongst the third-party applications or external websites;

associating the hashed ID with a pseudonymous profile of the user account, wherein the pseudonymous profile includes a subset of information in the fully identifying profile corresponding to a level of privacy to provide to the third-party system, wherein the hashed ID is configured to provide the third-party system access to the pseudonymous profile from the social networking system; and

providing, to the third-party system, the hashed ID to identify profile information in the pseudonymous profile for instant personalization targeting the user account.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein generating the hashed ID includes combining at least the UID and an application identifier of the third-party system into a combined string;

and encrypting the combined string into the hashed ID via the hash function.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising adding a sequence of bytes to the combined string before passing the combined string through the hash function;

and wherein the sequence of bytes are a fixed sequence of bytes, a variable sequence of bytes, a randomly generated sequence of bytes, or any combination thereof.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein generating the hashed ID includes combining at least the UID, the application identifier of the third-party system, and a profile attribute of the UID into the combined string;

and encrypting the combined string into the hashed ID via the hash function.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 4, wherein the profile attribute associated with the UID is the birthday of the user account.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising providing at least a portion of the pseudonymous profile in response to a request identifying the hashed ID.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising providing one or more options for the user account to authorize or reject the third-party system to access the fully identifying profile.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 7, further comprising, in response to receiving an authorization for the third-party system to access the fully identifying profile, providing the third-party system an access token to access at least a subset of the fully identifying profile in the social networking system.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 7, further comprising:

receiving a user request from the user account to rescind a prior authorization for or to disable the third-party system; and

in response to the user request, requesting a provider of the third-party system to delete the fully identifying profile.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 7, wherein the options includes providing a pop-up box on the social networking system for the user account to authorize or reject the third-party system to access the fully identifying profile.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating a banner in the social networking interface for the user account to authorize or reject the third-party system to access the fully identifying profile; and

wherein generating the banner includes determining a display attribute of the banner on the social networking interface based on an application attribute of the third-party system.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, wherein the display attribute is size, text size, text color, or a location of the banner.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, wherein determining the display attribute is further based on a user preference.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

analyzing one or more user activities on the social networking system regarding the third-party system to determine whether the user activities are equivalent to an election to share the fully identifying profile with the third-party system; and

providing the third-party system an access token to access at least a subset of the fully identifying profile in the social networking system in response to determining the user activities are equivalent to the election.

15. A computer readable memory storing instructions, comprising:

instructions for providing, by a social networking system, a social networking interface for a user account via a user device to access a third-party application or an external website to the social networking system, wherein the user device is logged into the social networking system as the user account;

instructions for generating, by the social networking system, a hashed identifier (hashed ID) according to a hash function based on at least an identifier of the user account (UID) and an attribute of the third-party application or the external website, the UID associated with a fully identifying profile of the user account in the social networking system, wherein the hashed ID is different from the UID and is unique to the user account;

instructions for associating, by the social networking system, the hashed ID with a pseudonymous profile of the user account, wherein the pseudonymous profile includes a subset of information in the fully identifying profile, wherein the subset of information corresponds to a level of privacy to provide to the third-party application or the external website, wherein the hashed ID is configured to provide the third-party application or the external website access to the pseudonymous profile from the social networking system; and

instructions for providing, from the social networking system to the third-party application or the external website, the hashed ID to identify profile information in the pseudonymous profile for instant personalization targeting the user account.

16. The computer readable memory of claim 15, further comprising instructions for combining at least the UID and an identifier of the third-party application or the external website into a combined string;

and encrypting the combined string into the hashed ID via the hash function.

17. The computer readable memory of claim 15, further comprising instructions for combining at least the UID with a sequence of bytes into a combined string;

and encrypting the combined string into the hash ID via the hash function.

18. The computer readable memory of claim 17, wherein the sequence of bytes are a fixed sequence of bytes, a variable sequence of bytes, a randomly generated sequence of bytes, or any combination thereof.

19. The computer readable memory of claim 17, wherein the hashed ID is generated based on at least the UID and a profile attribute associated with the UID.

20. A social networking system comprising:

a memory having executable instructions;

a processor configured by the executable instructions to;

provide a social networking interface of the social networking system for a user account via a user device to access a third-party application or an external website to the social networking system, wherein the user device is logged into the social networking system as the user account;

generate a hashed identifier (hashed ID) according to a hash function based on at least an identifier of the user account (UID), the UID associated with a fully identifying profile of the user account in the social networking system, wherein the hashed ID is different from the UID and is unique to the user account;

associate the hashed ID with a pseudonymous profile of the user account, wherein the pseudonymous profile includes a subset of information in the fully identifying profile, wherein the subset of information corresponds to a level of privacy to provide to the third-party application or the external website, wherein the hashed ID is configured to provide the third-party application or the external website access to the pseudonymous profile from the social networking system; and

provide, to the third-party application or the external website, the hashed ID to identify profile information in the pseudonymous profile for instant personalization targeting the user account.