Privacy model for shared collections of content on a social networking system

• US 9,514,331 B2
• Filed: 07/03/2013
• Issued: 12/06/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 07/03/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Inventors: Kanter, Jeffrey Andrew, Baldwin, Robert Michael, Carduner, Paul Francois, Li, Sai Wo, Tarjan, Paul, Zhao, Fred
• Primary Examiner(s): Homayounmehr, Farid
• Assistant Examiner(s): Ullah, Sharif E
• Application Number:
  US13/935,349
• Publication Number:
  US 20150013016A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,252 Days
• Field of Search: 726/2, 726/21, 726/28, 726/36, 713/150, 713/163, 713/181, 380/255, 380/264, 380/276
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6245 Protecting personal data, e.g. for financial or medical purposes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/10 for controlling access to devices or network resources
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/20 for managing network security; network security policies in general filtering policies H04L63/0227
• 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

A social networking system user creates an album including a shared collection of content (a “shared album”) and associates a privacy model with the shared album. The privacy model specifies additional users of the social networking system authorized to access content items in the shared album and specifies types of actions users authorized to access content items in the shared album are permitted to perform to content items in the shared album. Notifications describing actions associated with content items in a shared album may be presented to users authorized to access the shared album. The social networking system may prompt a user to create a shared album containing based on actions performed by the user or performed by connected to the user.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

maintaining a graph database that contains a plurality of users of a social networking system and a plurality of objects, where each of a plurality of edges in the graph database represent a connection between two or more users or objects in the graph database;

logging, by the social networking system, actions performed by one or more of the users on one or more of the objects in the graph database;

retrieving from the graph database a group of users of the social networking system who have a connection to each other in the graph database;

determining that a threshold number of the group of users have performed the same action on the same object;

responsive to the determining,

generating a prompt to create a shared collection accessible to the group of users including one or more content items based on the action performed by the threshold number of the group of users, and

providing a first user of the group of users with the prompt;

receiving a request from the first user identifying one or more content items for inclusion in the shared collection;

responsive to receiving the request, presenting the first user with a set of options including privacy settings associated with the shared collection;

receiving one or more selected options from the set of options, at least one selection specifying one or more privacy settings associated with the shared collection, the one or more privacy settings specifying, on a per-user basis, the plurality of users of the social networking system as having access to the shared collection and one or more actions that may be performed, on a per-user basis, on the one or more content items within the shared collection by the plurality of users;

receiving a selected option from the set of options that specifies a privacy setting associated with the shared collection, the privacy setting specifying that a second user, of the plurality of users, is authorized to perform a first action of the one or more actions, and that a third user, of the plurality of users, is not authorized by the privacy setting to perform the first action;

generating the shared collection based on the identified one or more content items and associating the one or more selected options with the shared collection;

presenting the shared collection to one or more users based on the one or more privacy settings associated with the shared collection;

responsive to a request from the second user, performing the first action on a content item within the shared collection in accordance with the one or more privacy settings associated with the shared collection; and

modifying the shared collection based on the first action performed on the content item.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein presenting the shared collection to one or more users of the social networking system based on the one or more privacy settings associated with the shared collection comprises:

presenting the shared collection to one or more users of the social networking system having a characteristic specified by the one or more privacy settings.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the characteristic specified by the one or more privacy settings is selected from a group consisting of:

a connection to a user identified by a privacy setting, a connection to the user, a type of connection to the user identified by the privacy setting, a type of connection to the user, and any combination thereof.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein a privacy setting associated with the shared collection specifies information identifying users authorized to viewing the shared collection.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein presenting the shared collection to one or more users based on the one or more privacy settings associated with the shared collection comprises:

presenting the shared collection to one or more users identified by the privacy setting and preventing presentation of the shared collection to users not identified by the privacy setting.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more privacy settings associated with the shared collection identify one or more types of actions the plurality of users identified by a privacy setting are authorized to perform.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the types of actions with the shared collection are selected from a group consisting of:

adding content maintained by the social networking system to the shared collection, removing content in the shared collection associated with another user of the social networking system, authorizing an additional user of the social networking system access to the shared collection, and any combination thereof.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating a notification identifying the shared collection; and

presenting the notification to other users of the social networking system based at least in part on the one or more privacy settings associated with the shared collection.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein an option in the set of options is selected from a group consisting of:

granting an additional user of the social networking system access to the shared collection, denying an additional user of the social networking system access to the shared collection, changing authorization of an additional user of the social networking system to access the shared collection, adding one or more content items maintained by the social networking system to the shared collection, removing a content item from the shared collection, modifying one or more content items included in the shared collection, specifying a layout of content items in the shared collection, changing the layout of content items the shared collection, inviting an additional user of the social networking system to access the shared collection, and any combination thereof.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more content items are selected from a group consisting of:

photographs, audio data, image data, video data, links to content, applications, pages, and any combination thereof.

22. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

presenting the modified shared collection to at least one user, of the plurality of users, of the social networking system.

23. The method of claim 1, wherein the request also includes metadata associated with the content items for inclusion in the shared collection.

11. A method comprising:

maintaining a graph database that contains a plurality of users of a social networking system and a plurality of objects, where each of a plurality of edges in the graph database represent a connection between two or more users or objects in the graph database;

logging, by the social networking system, actions performed by one or more of the users on one or more of the objects in the graph database;

retrieving from the graph database a group of users of the social networking system who have a connection to each other in the graph database;

determining that a threshold number of the group of users have performed the same action on the same object;

responsive to the determining, providing a first user of the group of users with a prompt to create a shared collection accessible to the group of users including one or more content items based on the action performed by the threshold number of the group of users;

receiving a request from the first user identifying one or more content items for inclusion in the shared collection;

responsive to receiving the request, presenting the first user with a set of options including privacy settings associated with the shared collection;

receiving one or more selected options from the set of options, at least one selection specifying one or more privacy settings associated with the shared collection, the one or more privacy settings specifying, on a per-user basis, the plurality of users of the social networking system as having access to the shared collection and one or more actions that may be performed, on a per-user basis, on the one or more content items within the shared collection by the plurality of users;

receiving a selected option from the set of options that specifies a privacy setting associated with the shared collection, the privacy setting specifying that a second user, of the plurality of users, is authorized to perform a first action of the one or more actions, and that a third user, of the plurality of users, is not authorized by the privacy setting to perform the first action;

generating the shared collection based on the identified one or more content items and associating the one or more selected options with the shared collection;

storing the shared collection and the associated one or more selected options;

responsive to a request from the second user, performing the first action on a content item within the shared collection in accordance with the one or more privacy settings associated with the shared collection; and

modifying the shared collection based on the first action performed on the content item.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the action is selected from a group consisting of:

a request to access a collection owned by the user, a request to upload content associated with a geographic location to the social networking system, a request to upload content associated with an event to the social networking system, a request to upload content identifying one or more users of the social networking system, and any combination thereof.

13. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

presenting the shared collection to one or more users of the social networking system based on the one or more privacy settings associated with the shared collection.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein presenting the shared collection to one or more users of the social networking system based on the one or more privacy settings associated with the shared collection comprises:

presenting the shared collection to one or more users of the social networking system having a characteristic specified by the one or more privacy settings.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the characteristic specified by the one or more privacy settings is selected from a group consisting of:

a connection to a user identified by a privacy setting, a connection to the user, a type of connection to the user identified by the privacy setting, a type of connection to the user, and any combination thereof.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein a privacy setting associated with the shared collection specifies information identifying users authorized to access the shared collection.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein presenting the shared collection to one or more users of the social networking system based on the one or more privacy settings associated with the shared collection comprises:

presenting the shared collection to one or more users identified by the privacy setting and preventing presentation of the shared collection to users not identified by the privacy setting.

18. The method of claim 11, wherein the one or more privacy settings associated with the shared collection identify one or more types of actions the plurality of users identified by a privacy setting are authorized to perform.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the types of actions with the shared collection are selected from a group consisting of:

adding content maintained by the social networking system to the shared collection, removing content in the shared collection associated with another user of the social networking system, authorizing an additional user of the social networking system access to the shared collection, and any combination thereof.

20. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

generating a notification identifying the shared collection; and

presenting the notification to other users of the social networking system based at least in part on the one or more privacy settings associated with the shared collection.

21. The method of claim 11, wherein an option in the set of options is selected from a group consisting of:

granting an additional user of the social networking system access to the shared collection, an additional user of the social networking system access to the shared collection, changing authorization of an additional user of the social networking system to access the shared collection, adding one or more content items maintained by the social networking system to the shared collection, removing a content item from the shared collection, modifying one or more content items included in the shared collection, specifying a layout of content items in the shared collection, changing the layout of content items the shared collection, inviting an additional user of the social networking system to access the shared collection, and any combination thereof.