Supervised contact list for user accounts

• US 10,122,723 B1
• Filed: 11/05/2015
• Issued: 11/06/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 11/06/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Chang, Austin, De Oliveira, Eider Silva, Scott, Gregory, Gandhi, Amar, Sharma, Saurabh
• Primary Examiner(s): Lagor, Alexander
• Assistant Examiner(s): Tran, Vu V
• Application Number:
  US14/934,131
• Time in Patent Office: 1,097 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/604 Tools and structures for managing or administering access control systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/101 Access control lists [ACL]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/108 when the policy decisions are valid for a limited amount of time

Abstract

Implementations relate to a supervised contact list for user accounts. In some implementations, a method includes determining an activity related to a particular user is pending on a device operated by a supervised user associated with a supervised account. The method includes associating the particular user with a particular user identifier, and determining whether the particular user identifier is present on a supervised contact list associated with the supervised account, where the supervised contact list comprises identifiers for one or more users. The one or more users are selected by a supervisor user. The method includes determining that the activity related to the particular user to be performed should be disallowed, based on whether the particular user identifier is present on the supervised contact list, and terminating the activity related to the particular user.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

obtaining, at a supervised device, a plurality of user identifiers over a network from a device that implements a supervised account, wherein the plurality of user identifiers are provided in a supervised contact list associated with the supervised account;

detecting, at least partially by the supervised device operated by a supervised user associated with the supervised account, that an activity using the supervised device is pending on the supervised device, wherein the activity includes communication between the supervised device and a device of a particular user, wherein the activity is detected based on input received by the supervised device from at least one of;

the supervised user, or the device of the particular user;

associating the particular user with a particular user identifier;

determining whether the particular user identifier is absent from the supervised contact list;

determining whether the particular user corresponds to one or more indicated users that are indicated by the supervised device to have previously communicated with a supervisor device associated with a supervisor user;

in response to determining that the particular user is absent from the supervised contact list and in response to determining that the particular user does not correspond to the one or more indicated users, automatically disallowing, by the supervised device, the activity using the supervised device by disconnecting the communication between the supervised device and the device of the particular user; and

in response to determining that the particular user is absent from the supervised contact list and in response to determining that the particular user corresponds to at least one of the one or more indicated users, causing the particular user identifier to be automatically added to the supervised contact list without providing a request for approval of the activity from the supervisor user and without prior receipt of approval of the activity from the supervisor user.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the supervised account is included in a stored supervisory account structure comprising a plurality of user accounts that provide access to a server system by associated users, wherein a supervisor user is associated with a supervisor account included in the supervisory account structure, wherein the supervisory account structure includes a plurality of supervised accounts, and wherein the particular user is an external user that is associated with a user account external to the supervisory account structure, and further comprising:

in response to automatically disallowing the activity using the supervised device, causing the supervised device to display, on a display device, a status message that indicates that the activity has been disallowed.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein causing the particular user identifier to be added to the supervised contact list includes causing the particular user identifier to be temporarily added to the supervised contact list for a particular period of time, such that the particular user identifier is removed from the supervised contact list after the particular period of time has expired.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the activity using the supervised device includes at least one of:

communication between the supervised device and the device of the particular user in one of a voice call, a video call, and a text chat;

or

communication between the supervised device and the device of the particular user in a game initiated by the supervised device.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

obtaining a current geographical location of the particular user;

determining whether the current geographical location of the particular user corresponds to one or more predetermined geographic locations that have been associated with the supervised contact list; and

wherein the automatically disallowing is further in response to a first result of a comparison of the current geographical location of the particular user to the one or more predetermined geographical locations.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein causing the particular user identifier to be automatically added to the supervised contact list is performed such that the particular user identifier is present on the supervised contact list only for a predetermined number of activities on the supervised device, wherein each of the predetermined number of activities is a same type of activity as the activity using the supervised device.

7. The method of claim 2 wherein the supervised contact list is stored on a server device in association with the supervised account, and wherein an associated supervised contact list is stored in association with each supervised account of the supervisory account structure having one or more predefined attributes, wherein the supervised contact list is associated with the plurality of supervised accounts.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the supervised contact list is stored on a server device in association with the supervised account, wherein the supervised account is included in an account structure that is a family account structure including one or more supervisor accounts that are parent accounts associated with one or more parent users and a plurality of supervised accounts that are child accounts associated with a plurality of child users under a predetermined age and are each associated with a stored attribute in the family account structure that indicates the child users are under the predetermined age, and wherein the supervised contact list is stored in association with the plurality of child accounts, and

wherein determining whether the particular user identifier is absent from the supervised contact list is performed in response to determining that the supervised account is associated with the stored attribute.

9. The method of claim 1 further comprising, in response to determining that the particular user identifier is absent from the supervised contact list and that the particular user does not correspond to the one or more indicated users:

sending a request over the network to the supervisor device for approval of the particular user, and wherein the disallowing the activity using the supervised device is also based on a failure within a predetermined period of time to receive a response approval over the network originating from the supervisor device of the supervisor user.

10. The method of claim 1 further comprising, in response to determining that the particular user identifier is absent from the supervised contact list and determining that the particular user does not correspond to the one or more indicated users:

sending a request over the network to the supervisor device for approval of the particular user;

in response to receiving, over the network, a temporary approval originating from the supervisor device in response to the request, causing the automatic disallowing to be delayed until a disapproval originating from the supervisor device is received by the supervised device over the network; and

in response to receiving, over the network, a particular approval originating from the supervisor device in response to the request, causing the particular user identifier to be added to the supervised contact list.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the supervised account is associated with one or more stored designations of one or more types of device activities for the supervised account that require examining the supervised contact list, wherein the one or more types of device activities are selected from a set of activities including communication of the supervised device with a user device over the network, addition of an identification of the particular user or a user account of the particular user to a personal contact list, and participating in a game by the supervised device over the network, and further comprising:

checking a stored permissions framework as to whether the activity is included in the one or more types of device activities,

wherein determining whether the particular user identifier is absent from the supervised contact list is performed in response to the activity being included in the one or more types of device activities.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein the supervised account is associated with one or more designations of one or more types of activities, wherein the one or more types of activities are selected from a set of activities including communication of the supervised device with a user device over the network and addition of an identification of the particular user to a personal contact list of the supervised user, and further comprising:

checking whether the activity using the supervised device is included in the one or more types of activities; and

causing a request for permission to be sent over the network to the supervisor device in response to determining that the activity is included in the one or more types of activities and in response to determining that the particular user identifier is absent from the supervised contact list,

wherein disallowing the activity is performed in response to receiving a denial over the network from the supervisor device in response to the request for permission.

13. A system comprising:

a storage device; and

at least one processor accessing the storage device and configured to perform operations comprising;

obtaining, at a supervised device, a plurality of user identifiers and approval attributes for the plurality of user identifiers over a network from a device that implements a supervised account, wherein the plurality of user identifiers are provided in a supervised contact list;

detecting, at least partially by the supervised device operated by a supervised user associated with the supervised account, that an activity using the supervised device is related to a particular user and is pending on the supervised device, wherein the activity is detected based on input received by the supervised device from at least one of;

the supervised user, or a device of the particular user;

determining that the activity is of a type that requires examining the supervised contact list;

associating the particular user with a particular user identifier of the plurality of user identifiers;

determining whether the particular user identifier is present on the supervised contact list;

determining whether the particular user corresponds to one or more indicated users that are indicated by the supervised device to have previously communicated with a supervisor device associated with a supervisor user;

in response to determining that the particular user identifier is present on the supervised contact list and in response to determining that the particular user does not correspond to the one or more indicated users, automatically disallowing, by the supervised device, the activity using the supervised device; and

in response to determining that the particular user is present on the supervised contact list and in response to determining that the particular user corresponds to at least one of the one or more indicated users, causing the particular user identifier to be automatically added to the supervised contact list without providing a request for approval of the activity from the supervisor user and without prior receipt of approval of the activity from the supervisor user.

14. The system of claim 13 wherein the activity includes communication between the supervised device and a device of a particular user over the network, and wherein automatically disallowing the activity includes disconnecting the communication between the supervised device and the device of the particular user.

15. The system of claim 13 further comprising, in response to determining that the particular user identifier is present on the supervised contact list:

sending a request over the network to a supervisor device for approval of the particular user;

in response to receiving, over the network, a temporary approval originating from the supervisor device in response to the request, causing the automatic terminating to be delayed until a disapproval originating from the supervisor device is received by the supervised device over the network; and

in response to receiving, over the network, a particular approval originating from the supervisor device in response to the request, causing the particular user identifier to be added to the supervised contact list.

16. A non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon program instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform operations including:

obtaining, at a supervised device, a plurality of user identifiers over a network from a storage device that implements a supervised account, wherein the plurality of user identifiers are provided in a supervised contact list associated with the supervised account;

detecting, by a supervised device operated by a supervised user associated with the supervised account, that an activity using the supervised device is related to a particular user is pending on the supervised device, wherein the activity is detected based on input received by the supervised device from at least one of;

the supervised user, or a device of the particular user;

associating the particular user with a particular user identifier;

determining whether the particular user identifier is absent from the supervised contact list associated with the supervised account;

in response to determining that the particular user is absent from the supervised contact list and in response to determining that the particular user does not correspond to the one or more indicated users, automatically disallowing, by the supervised device, the activity using the supervised device; and

in response to determining that the particular user is absent from the supervised contact list and in response to determining that the particular user corresponds to at least one of the one or more indicated users, causing the particular user identifier to be automatically added to the supervised contact list without providing a request for approval of the activity from a supervisor user and without prior receipt of approval of the activity from the supervisor user.

17. The computer readable medium of claim 16 further comprising, in response to determining that the particular user identifier is absent from the supervised contact list, sending a request for approval of the particular user to a supervisor device over the network, sending the request for approval to the supervisor device, including sending screen capture data to the supervisor device that includes data displayed on a display screen of the supervised device that indicates the activity using the supervised device.

18. The computer readable medium of claim 16 wherein causing the particular user identifier to be added to the supervised contact list includes causing the particular user identifier to be temporarily added to the supervised contact list for a particular period of time, such that the particular user identifier is removed from the supervised contact list after the particular period of time has expired.