Degrees of separation for handling communications

• US 8,185,638 B2
• Filed: 04/25/2011
• Issued: 05/22/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 04/02/2003
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AOL Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Appelman, Barry
• Primary Examiner(s): WASEL, MOHAMED A
• Application Number:
  US13/093,147
• Publication Number:
  US 20110196939A1
• Time in Patent Office: 393 Days
• Field of Search: 709/206, 709227-229
• US Class Current: 709/227
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/04 Real-time or near real-time messaging, e.g. instant messaging [IM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/212 using filtering or selective blocking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/214 using selective forwarding
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/48 Message addressing, e.g. address format or anonymous messages, aliases
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0245 Filtering by information in the payload
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1079 of unsolicited session attempts, e.g. SPIT
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46

Abstract

A sender'"'"'s degrees of separation from a recipient may be used to aid in spam filtering or to otherwise handle a communication. The “degrees of separation” represent a metric used to quantify whether/how the recipient is linked to the sender through intermediary people or other entities. For example, a recipient may know a first user (first degree of separation) and the first user may know a second user (second degree of separation) who knows the sender of an e-mail. In this case, the sender is separated from the recipient by two degrees of separation (by two other contacts). A level of “trust” or “legitimacy” about a sender'"'"'s communication can be inferred by looking at whether the sender is linked to an intended recipient. Typically, user contact lists (e.g., address book, buddy list, and/or white list) are evaluated to determine the number of degrees (or hops) are required to link or relate two users.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving a communication from a sender, wherein the communication is directed to an intended recipient;

identifying the sender of the communication;

identifying the intended recipient of the communication;

accessing a contact list associated with the intended recipient, the contact list of the intended recipient identifying at least one user identifier;

accessing a contact list associated with the at least one user identifier;

determining, based on the contact list of the intended recipient and the contact list of the user identifier, whether the sender and the intended recipient are linked by less than a threshold number of degrees of separation; and

displaying an interface to the intended recipient, prior to displaying the communication to the intended recipient, when the sender and the intended recipient are not linked by less than the threshold number of degrees of separation.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the interface informs the intended recipient that the sender has sent a communication to the intended recipient.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the interface comprises an interface element that allows the intended recipient to indicate that the communication should be displayed.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein determining whether the sender and the intended recipient are linked by less than the threshold number of degrees of separation includes determining whether the sender and the intended recipient are linked by at least one intermediary entity.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising displaying the communication to the intended recipient when the sender and the intended recipient are linked by less than the threshold number of degrees of separation.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the contact list of the intended recipient comprises at least one of an address book, a buddy list, a personal phone book, and a white list.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the communication is one of an e-mail message, an instant message, an SMS message, and a telephone call.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising displaying the communication to the intended recipient when the threshold number of degrees of separation corresponds to a value of at least one and the contact list of the user identifier includes an identifier of the sender.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the interface is displayed to the intended recipient when the threshold number of degrees of separation corresponds to a value of at least two and an identifier of the sender is not included in the contact list of the intended recipient and the contact list of the user identifier.

10. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing a programmable instructions, which when executed on a processor, causes the processor to perform a method comprising:

receiving a communication from a sender, wherein the communication is directed to an intended recipient;

identifying the sender of the communication;

identifying the intended recipient of the communication;

accessing a contact list associated with the intended recipient, the contact list of the intended recipient identifying at least one user identifier;

accessing a contact list associated with the at least one user identifier;

determining, based on the contact list of the intended recipient and the contact list of the user identifier, whether the sender and the intended recipient are linked by less than a threshold number of degrees of separation; and

displaying an interface to the intended recipient, prior to displaying the communication to the intended recipient, when the sender and the intended recipient are not linked by less than the threshold number of degrees of separation.

11. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, further comprising displaying the communication to the intended recipient when the threshold number of degrees of separation corresponds to a value of at least one and the contact list of the user identifier includes an identifier of the sender.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein the interface is displayed to the intended recipient when the threshold number of degrees of separation corresponds to a value of at least two and an identifier of the sender is not included in the contact list of the intended recipient and the contact list of the user identifier.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein the interface comprises an interface element that allows the intended recipient to indicate that the communication should be displayed.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, further comprising displaying the communication to the intended recipient when the sender and the intended recipient are linked by less than the threshold number of degrees of separation.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein the contact list of the intended recipient comprises at least one of an address book, a buddy list, a personal phone book, and a white list.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein the communication is one of an e-mail message, an instant message, an SMS message, and a telephone call.

17. An apparatus comprising:

a memory device storing instructions;

a processor executing the instructions to;

receive a communication from a sender, wherein the communication is directed to an intended recipient;

identify the sender of the communication;

identify the intended recipient of the communication;

access a contact list associated with the intended recipient, the contact list of the intended recipient identifying at least one user identifier;

access a contact list associated with the at least one user identifier; and

determine, based on the contact list of the intended recipient and the contact list of the user identifier, whether the sender and the intended recipient are linked by less than a threshold number of degrees of separation; and

a display device displaying an interface to the intended recipient, prior to displaying the communication to the intended recipient, when the sender and the intended recipient are not linked by less than the threshold number of degrees of separation.

18. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the communication is displayed to the intended recipient when the threshold number of degrees of separation corresponds to a value of at least one and the contact list of the user identifier includes an identifier of the sender.

19. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the interface is displayed to the intended recipient when the threshold number of degrees of separation corresponds to a value of at least two and an identifier of the sender is not included in the contact list of the intended recipient and the contact list of the user identifier.

20. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the communication is displayed to the intended recipient when the sender and the intended recipient are linked by less than the threshold number of degrees of separation.