GRANTING PERMISSION TO ACT ON BEHALF OF A USER IN A SOCIAL NETWORKING SYSTEM

• US 20150256557A1
• Filed: 03/06/2014
• Published: 09/10/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 03/06/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Inventors: Wong, Mark Kar Hong, Triolo, Christopher, Billings, Benjamin K., Williams, Joshua D., Wu, Cameron Chuk Hing
• Granted Patent: US 9,602,541 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/08 for authentication of entities cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication H04L9/32
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/20 for managing network security; network security policies in general filtering policies H04L63/0227
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/53 using third party service providers

Abstract

A social networking system allows entities to delegate actions performed on behalf of the entity to social networking system users by assigning one or more roles to social networking system users. Roles may be assigned based on information associated with the entity by the social networking system. Different roles are associated with sets of permissions specifying actions a user associated with a role is authorized to perform on behalf of the entity via the social networking system. Certain permissions of a role associated with the user may be associated with additional users by the user. A persona including a subset of information associated with a user by the social networking system may be created for a user assigned a role, allowing the user to limit information accessible to additional users connected to the persona.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

storing, in a social networking system, data describing an organization;

receiving a request from the organization to associate a role with a user of the social networking system, the role identifying an action the user is authorized to perform on behalf of the organization;

determining whether to associate the role with the user based at least in part on a type of connection between the user and the organization maintained by the social networking system; and

responsive to determining to associate the role with the user, storing one or more permissions enabling the user to perform the action identified by the role with the connection between the user and the organization.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein storing one or more permissions enabling the user to perform the action identified by the role with the connection between the user and the organization comprises:

generating a persona associated with the user, the persona including a subset of information associated with the user by the social networking system;

establishing a connection between the organization and the persona;

storing the one or more permissions enabling the user to perform the action identified by the role in association with the connection between the organization and the persona.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

storing the generated persona in the social networking system.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein subset of information associated with the user by the social networking system is selected from a group consisting of:

information in a user profile associated with the user by the social networking system, connections between the user and one or more additional users of the social networking system, actions associated with the user by the social networking system, and any combination thereof.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the data describing the organization identifies one or more assets associated with the organization, each asset associated with a type.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the type is selected from a group consisting of:

a page, an advertising account, a source of funding, a list identifying one or more users of the social networking system, an application, an event, and a group.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the request identifies an asset and the role is associated with the asset.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the role is selected from a group consisting of:

an advertiser, a moderator, a content creator, an administrator, and any combination thereof.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more permissions are selected from a group consisting of:

viewing information associated with the organization, creating content associated with the organization, removing content associated with the organization, authorizing a payment from a funding source associated with the organization, accessing information associated with the organization, accessing resources associated with the organization, and any combination thereof.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

responsive to determining not to associate the role with the user, communicating a denial of the request to the organization.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the user is an additional organization.

12. A method comprising:

storing, in a social networking system, data describing an organization;

receiving a request from a user to associate a role with the user of the social networking system, the role identifying an action the user is authorized to perform on behalf of the organization;

determining whether to associate the role with the user based at least in part on a type of connection between the user and the organization maintained by the social networking system; and

responsive to determining to associate the role with the user, storing one or more permissions enabling the user to perform the action identified by the role with the connection between the user and the organization.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein storing one or more permissions enabling the user to perform the action identified by the role with the connection between the user and the organization comprises:

generating a persona associated with the user, the persona including a subset of information associated with the user by the social networking system;

establishing a connection between the organization and the persona;

storing the one or more permissions enabling the user to perform the action identified by the role in association with the connection between the organization and the persona.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

storing the generated persona in the social networking system.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein subset of information associated with the user by the social networking system is selected from a group consisting of:

information in a user profile associated with the user by the social networking system, connections between the user and one or more additional users of the social networking system, actions associated with the user by the social networking system, and any combination thereof.

16. The method of claim 12, wherein the data describing the organization identifies one or more assets associated with the organization, each asset associated with a type.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the request identifies an asset and the role is associated with the asset.

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

an advertiser, a moderator, a content creator, an administrator, and any combination thereof.

19. The method of claim 12, wherein the one or more permissions are selected from a group consisting of:

viewing information associated with the organization, creating content associated with the organization, removing content associated with the organization, authorizing a payment from a funding source associated with the organization, accessing information associated with the organization, accessing resources associated with the organization, and any combination thereof.

20. A computer program product comprising a computer-readable storage medium having instructions encoded thereon that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to:

store, in a social networking system, data describing a user, the data identifying one or more assets associated with the user, each asset associated with a type;

receive a request from a requesting user to associate a role with a target user of the social networking system, the role associated with an asset and identifying an action the target user is authorized to perform on behalf of the user;

determine whether to associate the role with the target user based at least in part on a type of connection between the target user and the user maintained by the social networking system and a type associated with the asset; and

responsive to determining to associate the role with the user, store one or more permissions in association with the connection between the target user and the user, the one or more permissions associated with the type associated with the asset and enabling the user to perform the action identified by the role.