Methods of providing access to messages based on degrees of separation

• US 9,736,255 B2
• Filed: 09/13/2012
• Issued: 08/15/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 03/26/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Inventors: Ben-Yoseph, Roy
• Primary Examiner(s): Roumi, Mahran Abu
• Application Number:
  US13/615,126
• Publication Number:
  US 20130066990A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,797 Days
• Field of Search: 709216, 709206
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/043 using or handling presence information
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/212 using filtering or selective blocking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/54 Presence management, e.g. monitoring or registration for receipt of user log-on information, or the connection status of the users
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/75 Indicating network or usage conditions on the user display

Abstract

The people a user is presumed to know or be associated with may be determined using a number of techniques. This information about people that the user knows is used in relation to the user'"'"'s communications. For example access to a user'"'"'s online presence may be restricted based on the known people such that access to presence is provided only to those people that the user knows.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving an electronic message from a user of a communications system;

receiving a user-specified number of degrees of separation and replacing a default number of degrees of separation with the user-specified number of degrees of separation;

determining, by at least one processor, co-users of the communications system having a degree of separation from the user that is less than or equal to the user-specified number of degrees of separation from the user based on actions performed by the user and the co-users using the communications system, wherein the degrees of separation indicate how users are linked within the communications system;

allowing the co-users determined to have the degree of separation less than or equal to the user-specified number of degrees of separation from the user to access the electronic message; and

preventing co-users having a degree of separation from the user that is greater than the user-specified number of degrees of separation from accessing the electronic message.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the degree of separation is a number of hops required to link two users.

3. The method as recited in claim 2, wherein the actions comprise one or more of:

the user adding at least one co-user to a list of contacts of the user;

or

the co-users adding at least one co-user to a list of contacts of the co-users.

4. The method as recited in claim 3, wherein the list of contacts of the user comprises one of an address book, a buddy list, an instant message contact list, or a white list.

5. The method as recited in claim 2, further comprising, providing, to the user, an interface that allows the user to set the user-specified number of degrees of separation.

6. The method as recited in claim 4, wherein:

a first subset of co-users that are in the list of contacts of the user have a first degree of separation from the user; and

a second subset of co-users that are in lists of contacts of the first subset of co-users, and that are not in the list of contacts of the user, have a second degree of separation from the user.

7. The method as recited in claim 2, further comprising determining a status of the user on the communications system.

8. The method as recited in claim 7, further comprising providing the status of the user to the co-users determined to have the degree of separation from the user that is less than or equal to the user-specified number of degrees of separation from the user.

9. The method as recited in claim 8, further comprising restricting the co-users having the degree of separation from the user that is greater than the user-specified number of degrees of separation from perceiving the status of the user.

10. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the electronic message comprises an instant message.

11. A system comprising:

at least one server;

a non-transitory storage medium comprising instructions, that when executed by the at least one server, cause the system to;

receive an electronic message from a user of the system;

receiving a user-specified number of degrees of separation and replacing a default number of degrees of separation with the user-specified number of degrees of separation;

determine co-users of the system having a degree of separation from the user that is less than or equal to Hall the user-specified number of degrees of separation from the user based on actions performed by the user and the co-users using the communications system, wherein the degrees of separation indicate how users are linked within the communications system; and

allow access to the electronic message to the co-users determined to have the degree of separation from the user that is less than or equal to the user-specified number of degrees of separation from the user; and

prevent co-users having a degree of separation from the user that is greater than the user-specified number of degrees of separation from accessing the electronic message.

12. The system as recited in claim 11, wherein the degree of separation is a number of hops required to link two users.

13. The system as recited in claim 12, further comprising instructions, that when executed by the at least one server, cause the system to store a list of the co-users determined to have the degree of separation from the user that is less than or equal to the user-specified number of degrees of separation from the user in the non-transitory storage medium.

14. The system as recited in claim 13, wherein:

the non-transitory storage medium further stores the user-specified number of degrees of separation;

and the instructions, when executed by the at least one server, cause the system to access the user-specified number of degrees of separation in order to determine the co-users of the system having the degree of separation from the user that is less than or equal to the user-specified number of degrees of separation from the user.

15. The system as recited in claim 11, wherein the actions comprise one or more of:

the user adding at least one co-user to a list of contacts of the user;

or

the co-users adding at least one co-user to a list of contacts of the co-users.

16. The system as recited in claim 15, wherein the instructions, when executed by the at least one server, cause the system to:

provide, to the user, an interface that allows the user to adjust the user-specified number of degrees of separation; and

update the user-specified number of degrees of separation in accordance with adjustments by the user via the interface.

17. The system as recited in claim 16, wherein the list of contacts of the user comprises one of an address book, a buddy list, an instant message contact list, or a white list.

18. The system as recited in claim 11, wherein the instructions, when executed by the at least one server, cause the system to determine a status of the user.

19. The system as recited in claim 18, wherein the instructions, when executed by the at least one server, cause the system to provide the status of the user to the co-users determined to have the degree of separation less than or equal to the user-specified number of degrees of separation from the user.

20. The system as recited in claim 19, wherein the instructions, when executed by the at least one server, cause the system to restrict the co-users having the degree of separation from the user that is greater than the user-specified number of degrees of separation from perceiving the status of the user.

21. The system as recited in claim 11, wherein:

a first subset of co-users that are in the list of contacts of the user have a first degree of separation from the user; and

a second subset of co-users that are in lists of contacts of the first subset of co-users, and that are not in the list of contacts of the user, have a second degree of separation from the user.

22. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions thereon, that when executed by at least one processor, cause a computing device to perform steps comprising:

receiving an electronic message from a user of a communications system;

receiving a user-specified number of degrees of separation and replacing a default number of degrees of separation with the user-specified number of degrees of separation;

determining co-users of the communications system having a degree of separation from the user that is less than or equal to the user-specified number of degrees of separation from the user based on actions performed by the user and the co-users using the communications system, wherein the degrees of separation indicate how users are linked within the communications system;

allowing the co-users determined to have the degree of separation less than or equal to the user-specified number of degrees of separation from the user to access the electronic message; and

preventing co-users having a degree of separation from the user that is greater than the user-specified number of degrees of separation from accessing the electronic message.

23. The non-transitory computer-readable medium as recited in claim 22, wherein the actions comprise one or more of:

the user adding at least one co-user to a list of contacts of the user;

or the co-users adding at least one co-user to a list of contacts of the co-users.

24. The non-transitory computer-readable medium as recited in claim 23, wherein the list of contacts of the user comprises one of an address book, a buddy list, an instant message contact list, or a white list.

25. The non-transitory computer-readable medium as recited in claim 24, wherein:

a first subset of co-users that are in the list of contacts of the user have a first degree of separation from the user; and

a second subset of co-users that are in lists of contacts of the first subset of co-users, and that are not in the list of contacts of the user, have a second degree of separation from the user.

26. The non-transitory computer-readable medium as recited in claim 22, further comprising:

providing, to the user, an interface that allows the user to adjust the user-specified number of degrees of separation; and

update the user-specified number of degrees of separation in accordance with adjustments by the user.

27. The non-transitory computer-readable medium as recited in claim 26, wherein the user-specified number of degrees of separation is one.

28. The non-transitory computer-readable medium as recited in claim 22, wherein the steps further comprise determining a status of one or more of the co-users within the user-specified number of degrees of separation from the user.

29. The non-transitory computer-readable medium as recited in claim 28, wherein the steps further comprise providing the user with the status of the co-users determined to have the degree of separation that is less than or equal to the user-specified number of degrees of separation from the user.

30. The non-transitory computer-readable medium as recited in claim 29, wherein the steps further comprise restricting the user from perceiving a status of the co-users having the degree of separation from the user that is greater than the user-specified number of degrees of separation.

31. The non-transitory computer-readable medium as recited in claim 22, wherein the electronic message comprises an instant message.