PROVIDING AND MANAGING PRIVACY SCORES

• US 20110029566A1
• Filed: 07/31/2009
• Published: 02/03/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 07/31/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Liu, Kun, Sun, Tony, Richardson, Dwayne L., Maximilien, Michael, Guo, Sherry, Grandison, Tyrone W.A.
• Granted Patent: US 9,704,203 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/783
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking

Abstract

Methods for providing a privacy setting for a target user in a social network utilizing an electronic computing device are presented, the method including: causing the electronic computing device to retrieve a current privacy setting for a common profile item, where the common profile item corresponds with the target user and each of a number of users, and where the common profile item is one of a number of common profile items; causing the electronic computing device to calculate a common profile item sensitivity value for the common profile item based on the current privacy setting; causing the electronic computing device to calculate a common profile item visibility value for the common profile item based on the a current privacy setting and the sensitivity value for the common profile item; and causing the electronic computing device to calculate the privacy score of the target user.

Claims

1. A method for providing a privacy setting for a target user in a social network utilizing an electronic computing device, the method comprising:

causing the electronic computing device to retrieve a current privacy setting for a common profile item, wherein the common profile item corresponds with the target user and each of a plurality of users, and wherein the common profile item is one of a plurality of common profile items;

causing the electronic computing device to calculate a common profile item sensitivity value for the common profile item based on the current privacy setting;

causing the electronic computing device to calculate a common profile item visibility value for the common profile item based on the current privacy setting and the sensitivity value for the common profile item; and

causing the electronic computing device to calculate the privacy score of the target user.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

continuing the retrieving and the calculating until the common profile item sensitivity value for each of the plurality of common profile items is calculated;

causing the electronic computing device to calculate a partial privacy score of the target user, wherein the partial privacy score combines the common profile item sensitivity value and the common profile item visibility value; and

continuing the retrieving and the calculating until the partial privacy score for each of the plurality of common profile items is calculated.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the privacy score of the target user is a sum of the partial privacy scores.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the common profile item sensitivity value and the common profile item visibility value are based on sharing between the target user and the plurality of users.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the common profile item sensitivity value comprises a proportion of the common profile item that is shared by the target user with the plurality of users.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the common profile item visibility value comprises a product of:

a) the common profile item sensitivity value; and

b) a proportion of sharing of the plurality of common profile items for the target user.

7. The method of claim 4, wherein the common profile item sensitivity value and the common profile item visibility value are further based on a relationship between the target user and the plurality of users.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the relationship is selected without limitation from the group consisting of:

a close friend relationship, a friend relationship, a friend of a friend relationship, an acquaintance relationship, a group relationship, and a network relationship and wherein the relationship is assigned a numeric level.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the common profile item sensitivity value comprises a proportion of the common profile item that is shared by the target user the plurality of users with respect to the relationship between the target user and each of the plurality of users.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the common profile item visibility value comprises a product of:

a) the common profile item sensitivity value; and

b) a product of a proportion of sharing of the plurality of common profile items for the target user and the numeric level.

11. The method of claim 2, wherein the partial privacy score is a product of the common profile item sensitivity value and the common profile item visibility value.

12. A computing device program product for providing a privacy setting for a target user in a social network using an electronic computing device, the computing device program product comprising:

a computer readable medium;

first programmatic instructions for retrieving a current privacy setting for a common profile item, wherein the common profile item corresponds with the target user and each of a plurality of users, and wherein the common profile item is one of a plurality of common profile items;

second programmatic instructions for calculating a common profile item sensitivity value for the common profile item based on the current privacy setting;

third programmatic instructions for retrieving the current privacy setting of the common profile item of the target user;

fourth programmatic instructions for calculating a common profile item visibility value for the common profile item based on the a current privacy setting and the sensitivity value for the common profile item; and

fifth programmatic instructions for calculating the privacy score of the target user.

13. The computing device program product of claim 12, further comprising:

continuing the retrieving and the calculating until the common profile item sensitivity value for each of the plurality of common profile items is calculated;

sixth programmatic instructions for calculating a partial privacy score of the target user, wherein the partial privacy score combines the common profile item sensitivity value and the common profile item visibility value; and

continuing the retrieving and the calculating until the partial privacy score for each of the plurality of common profile items is calculated.

14. The computing device program product of claim 13, wherein the privacy score of the target user is a sum of the partial privacy scores.

15. The computing device program product of claim 12, wherein the common profile item sensitivity value and the common profile item visibility value are based on sharing between the target user and the plurality of users.

16. The computing device program product of claim 15, wherein the common profile item sensitivity value comprises a proportion of the common profile item that is shared by the target user with the plurality of users.

17. The computing device program product of claim 16, wherein the common profile item visibility value comprises a product of:

c) the common profile item sensitivity value; and

d) a proportion of sharing of the plurality of common profile items for the target user.

18. The computing device program product of claim 15, wherein the common profile item sensitivity value and the common profile item visibility value-are further based on a relationship between the target user and the plurality of users.

19. The computing device program product of claim 18, wherein the relationship is selected without limitation from the group consisting of:

a close friend relationship, a friend relationship, a friend of a friend relationship, an acquaintance relationship, a group relationship, and a network relationship and wherein the relationship is assigned a numeric level.

20. The computing device program product of claim 19, wherein the common profile item sensitivity value comprises a proportion of the common profile item that is shared by the target user the plurality of users with respect to the relationship between the target user and each of the plurality of users.

21. The computing device program product of claim 20, wherein the common profile item visibility value comprises a product of:

c) the common profile item sensitivity value; and

d) a product of a proportion of sharing of the plurality of common profile items for the target user and the numeric level.

22. The computing device program product of claim 12, wherein the partial privacy score is a product of the common profile item sensitivity value and the common profile item visibility value.

23. A method for providing a privacy setting for a target user in a social network utilizing an electronic computing device, the method comprising:

causing the electronic computing device to retrieve a current privacy setting for a common profile item, wherein the common profile item corresponds with the target user and each of a plurality of users, and wherein the common profile item is one of a plurality of common profile items;

causing the electronic computing device to calculate a common profile item sensitivity value for the common profile item based on the current privacy setting;

continuing the retrieving and the calculating until the common profile item sensitivity value for each of the plurality of common profile items is calculated;

causing the electronic computing device to retrieve the current privacy setting of the common profile item of the target user,

causing the electronic computing device to calculate a common profile item visibility value for the common profile item based on the a current privacy setting and the sensitivity value for the common profile item, wherein the common profile item sensitivity value and the common profile item visibility value are based on sharing between the target user and the plurality of users;

causing the electronic computing device to calculate a partial privacy score of the target user, wherein the partial privacy score is a product of the common profile item sensitivity value and the common profile item visibility value;

continuing the retrieving and the calculating until the partial privacy score for each of the plurality of common profile items is calculated; and

causing the electronic computing device to calculate the privacy score of the target user, wherein the privacy score of the target user is a sum of the partial privacy scores.