Mutual privacy management

• US 10,129,260 B1
• Filed: 06/24/2014
• Issued: 11/13/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 06/25/2013
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Wickr Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Statica, Robert, Howell, Christopher A., Coppa, Kara Lynn
• Primary Examiner(s): Li, Meng
• Assistant Examiner(s): Wade, Shaqueal D
• Application Number:
  US14/314,021
• Time in Patent Office: 1,603 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/212 using filtering or selective blocking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0407 wherein the identity of one or more communicating identities is hidden cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for anonymous credentials or for identity based cryptographic systems H04L9/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0414 during transmission, i.e. party's identity is protected against eavesdropping, e.g. by using temporary identifiers, but is known to the other party or parties involved in the communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/101 Access control lists [ACL]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/1466 Active attacks involving interception, injection, modification, spoofing of data unit addresses, e.g. hijacking, packet injection or TCP sequence number attacks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/0643 Hash functions, e.g. MD5, SHA, HMAC or f9 MAC
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/0841 involving Diffie-Hellman or related key agreement protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/0869 involving random numbers or seeds
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/0894 Escrow, recovery or storing of secret information, e.g. secret key escrow or cryptographic key storage
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/12 Transmitting and receiving encryption devices synchronised or initially set up in a particular manner

Abstract

Determining whether a message should be allowed to be sent is determined. A request to send a message to a recipient is received from a sender'"'"'s client device. A determination is made at a server as to whether the sender is allowed to send the message to the recipient, based on a privacy list. A response to the sender is sent, based on the determination.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

a processor configured to;

receive, at a server, a sender'"'"'s privacy list from a sender'"'"'s client device;

receive, at the server, the recipient'"'"'s privacy list from a recipient'"'"'s client device, wherein the sender'"'"'s client device is different from the recipient'"'"'s client device;

receive, at the server, a request, from the sender'"'"'s client device, for user information for an intended recipient of a message, wherein the request includes a first hashed representation of a recipient'"'"'s username and a second hashed representation of a sender'"'"'s username;

determine, at the server, whether the sender is permitted to send the message to the recipient based at least in part on a sender'"'"'s privacy list stored at the server, wherein the determining includes comparing the first hashed representation to entries included in the sender'"'"'s privacy list;

determine, at the server, whether the recipient is permitted to receive the message from the sender based at least in part on a recipient'"'"'s privacy list stored at the server, wherein determining includes comparing the second hashed representation to entries included in the recipient'"'"'s privacy list;

in response to a determination that the sender appears on the recipient'"'"'s privacy list, deny the request for user information received from the sender'"'"'s client device; and

a memory coupled to the processor and configured to provide the processor with instructions.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein receiving the request includes receiving a request for a public key of the recipient.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the sender'"'"'s privacy list is editable by the sender.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein the recipient'"'"'s privacy list is editable by the recipient.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein the recipient'"'"'s privacy list comprises a block list.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein the sender'"'"'s privacy list comprises an allowed list.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein determining that the sender is not allowed to send the message includes determining whether the sender has configured the sender'"'"'s privacy list as a block list.

8. The system of claim 1 wherein determining that the sender is not allowed to send the message includes determining whether the sender has configured the sender'"'"'s privacy list as an allow list.

9. The system of claim 1 wherein the processor is further configured to:

provide, from the server, a notification to the sender'"'"'s client device indicating that the sender is not permitted to transmit the message to the recipient.

10. The system of claim 1 wherein the sender'"'"'s privacy list is editable by an administrator associated with the sender and is not editable by the sender.

11. The system of claim 1 wherein the recipient'"'"'s privacy list is editable by an administrator associated with the recipient and is not editable by the recipient.

12. A method, comprising:

receiving, at a server, a sender'"'"'s privacy list from a sender'"'"'s client device;

receiving, at the server, the recipient'"'"'s privacy list from a recipient'"'"'s client device, wherein the sender'"'"'s client device is different from the recipient'"'"'s client device;

receiving, at the server, a request, from the sender'"'"'s client device, for user information for an intended recipient of a message, wherein the request includes a first hashed representation of a recipient'"'"'s username and a second hashed representation of a sender'"'"'s username;

determining, at the server, whether the sender is permitted to send the message to the recipient based at least in part on a sender'"'"'s privacy list stored at the server, wherein the determining includes comparing the first hashed representation to entries included in the sender'"'"'s privacy list stored at the server;

determining, at the server, whether the recipient is permitted to receive the message from the sender based at least in part on a recipient'"'"'s privacy list stored at the server, wherein the determining includes comparing the second hashed representation to entries included in the recipient'"'"'s privacy list; and

in response to a determination that the sender is on the recipient'"'"'s privacy list, denying the request for user information received from the sender'"'"'s client device.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein receiving the request includes receiving a request for a public key of the recipient.

14. The method of claim 12 wherein the sender'"'"'s privacy list is editable by the sender.

15. The method of claim 12 wherein the recipient'"'"'s privacy list is editable by the recipient.

16. The method of claim 12 wherein the recipient'"'"'s privacy list comprises a block list.

17. The method of claim 12 wherein the sender'"'"'s privacy list comprises an allowed list.

18. The method of claim 12 wherein determining that the sender is not allowed to send the message includes determining whether the sender has configured the sender'"'"'s privacy list as a block list.

19. A computer program product embodied in a non-transitory, tangible computer readable storage medium and comprising computer instructions for:

receiving, at a server, a sender'"'"'s privacy list from a sender'"'"'s client device;

receiving, at the server, the recipient'"'"'s privacy list from a recipient'"'"'s client device, wherein the sender'"'"'s client device is different from the recipient'"'"'s client device;

receiving, at the server, a request, from the sender'"'"'s client device, for user information for an intended recipient of a message, wherein the request includes a first hashed representation of a recipient'"'"'s username and a second hashed representation of a sender'"'"'s username;

determining, at the server, whether the sender is permitted to send the message to the recipient based at least in part on a sender'"'"'s privacy list stored at the server, wherein the determining includes comparing the first hashed representation to entries included in the sender'"'"'s privacy list stored at the server;

determining, at the server, whether the recipient is permitted to receive the message from the sender based at least in part on a recipient'"'"'s privacy list stored at the server, wherein the determining includes comparing the second hashed representation to entries included in the recipient'"'"'s privacy list; and

in response to a determination that the sender is on the recipient'"'"'s privacy list, denying the request for user information received from the sender'"'"'s client device.