Instant personalization security

• US 8,875,247 B2
• Filed: 03/14/2013
• Issued: 10/28/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 03/14/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Inventors: Bao, Ling, Yang, Andrew Chi-An, Prabhu, Pratap, Rice, Alex, Tyson, Joey, Shah, Naitik
• Primary Examiner(s): Rahman, Mahfuzur
• Application Number:
  US13/804,924
• Publication Number:
  US 20140282884A1
• Time in Patent Office: 593 Days
• Field of Search: 726/4
• US Class Current: 726/4
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/31 User authentication
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/316 by observing the pattern of computer usage, e.g. typical user behaviour
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6245 Protecting personal data, e.g. for financial or medical purposes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6263 during internet communication, e.g. revealing personal data from cookies
• 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 method and system for instant personalization security are provided. The system includes a platform for a user to open applications and/or access web sites. When an application is integrated with the platform, the identification of the application can be combined with the ID of the user and encrypted into a hashed ID. The application does not have access to the user'"'"'s fully identifying profile (e.g., UID or other public information). Instead, the application only has access to a pseudonymous profile (e.g., the hashed ID, first name, last initial, small profile pictures, and/or other non-fully identifying profile information) of the user. One or more options are then provided for the user to authorize or reject the application to access the user'"'"'s fully identifying profile. Upon the user'"'"'s authorization, an access token is provided to the application to access a subset of the user'"'"'s fully identifying profile.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

providing a platform for a user to use applications and/or access web pages;

when an application or a web page is integrated with the platform, combining at least an identifier of the application or the web page (application ID) with an identifier of the user (UID) and the birthday of the user in a social networking system into a combined string;

encrypting the combined string into a hashed ID according to a hash function;

linking the hashed ID with a pseudonymous profile of the user, wherein the pseudonymous profile includes the user'"'"'s profile picture, URLs, first name, or last initial;

providing, to the application or the web page, the hashed ID to identify the user;

providing one or more options for the user to authorize or reject the application or the web page to access the user'"'"'s fully identifying profile; and

upon the user'"'"'s authorization, providing the application or the web page an access token to access a subset of the user'"'"'s fully identifying profile in the social networking system.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the user'"'"'s fully identifying profile in the social networking system includes the user'"'"'s name and/or UID, profile picture, gender, birthday, networks, friend list, location, language, country, likes, favorite brands, news, outlets, restaurants, information that the user chooses to share with every user on the social networking system, or any combination thereof.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the hash function is a one-way hash function including GOST, HAVAL, MD2, MD4, MD5, PANAMA, RADIOGATUN, RIPEMD, RIPEMD-128/256, RIPEMD-160, RIPEMD-320, SHA-0, SHA-1, SHA-256/224, SHA-512/384, SHA-3, TIGER(2)-192/160/128, WHIRLPOOL, or any combination thereof.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

linking the hashed ID with the pseudonymous profile of the user; and

providing the application or the web page access to the pseudonymous profile;

wherein the pseudonymous profile includes the user'"'"'s profile picture, first name, last initial, other non-fully identifying profile information, or any combination thereof.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing a pop-up box on the platform for the user to authorize or reject the application or the web page to access the user'"'"'s fully identifying profile.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the pop-up box and the application or the web page are displayed on different GUI interfaces.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing a banner on the platform for the user to authorize or reject the application or the web page to access the user'"'"'s fully identifying profile;

wherein the banner'"'"'s size, text size/color and location on the platform are determined by one or more attributes of the application or the web page and the user'"'"'s preferences.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

analyzing the user'"'"'s activities outside the banner on the platform regarding the application or the web page; and

providing the application or the web page the access token when the user'"'"'s activities outside the banner are equivalent to making a selection on the banner, to authorize the application or the web page to access the user'"'"'s fully identifying profile.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

when the user rescinds a prior authorization or decides to disable the application or the web page, standing proxy to request provider of the application or the web page to delete the user'"'"'s fully identifying profile.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

adding a sequence of bytes to the combined string before passing the combined string through the hash function;

wherein the sequence of bytes are a fixed sequence of bytes, a variable sequence of bytes, a randomly generated sequence of bytes, or any combination thereof.

11. A social networking system comprising:

memory and a computer processor; and

an application program instantiated by the computer processor, wherein the application provides computer-generated output;

wherein the computer processor is configured to;

provide a platform for a user to use applications and/or access web pages;

when an application is integrated with the platform, combine an identifier of the application (application ID) with an identifier of the user (UID) and the birthday of the user in the social networking system;

encrypt the combined UID, birthday and application ID into a hashed ID according to a hash function;

link the hashed ID with a pseudonymous profile of the user;

wherein the pseudonymous profile includes the user'"'"'s profile picture, URLs, first name, or last initial;

provide, to the application, the hashed ID to identify the user;

provide one or more options for the user to authorize or reject the application to access the user'"'"'s fully identifying profile; and

upon the user'"'"'s authorization, provide the application an access token to access a subset of the user'"'"'s fully identifying profile in the social networking system.

12. The social networking system as recited in claim 11, wherein the user'"'"'s fully identifying profile in the social networking system includes the user'"'"'s name, UID, profile picture, gender, birthday, networks, friend list, location, language, country, likes, favorite brands, news, outlets, restaurants, information that the user chooses to share with every user on the social networking system, or any combination thereof.

13. The social networking system as recited in claim 12, wherein the hash function is a one-way hash function including GOST, HAVAL, MD2, MD4, MD5, PANAMA, RADIOGATUN, RIPEMD, RIPEMD-128/256, RIPEMD-160, RIPEMD-320, SHA-0, SHA-1, SHA-256/224, SHA-512/384, SHA-3, TIGER(2)-192/160/128, WHIRLPOOL, or any combination thereof.

14. The social networking system as recited in claim 13, wherein the computer processor is configured to:

link the hashed ID with the pseudonymous profile of the user; and

provide the application access to the pseudonymous profile;

wherein the pseudonymous profile includes the user'"'"'s profile pictures, first name, last initial, other non-fully identifying profile information, or any combination thereof.

15. The social networking system as recited in claim 13, wherein the computer processor is configured to provide a pop-up box on the platform for the user to authorize or reject the application to access the user'"'"'s fully identifying profile.

16. The social networking system as recited in claim 15, wherein the pop-up box and the application are displayed on different GUI interfaces.

17. The social networking system as recited in claim 13, wherein the computer processor is configured to provide a banner on the platform for the user to authorize or reject the application to access the user'"'"'s fully identifying profile;

and wherein the banner'"'"'s size, text size/color and location on the platform are determined by one or more attributes of the application and the user'"'"'s preferences.

18. The social networking system as recited in claim 17, wherein the computer processor is configured to:

analyze the user'"'"'s activities outside the banner on the platform regarding the application; and

provide the application the access token if the user'"'"'s activities outside the banner are equivalent to making a selection on the banner to authorize the application to access the user'"'"'s fully identifying profile.

19. The social networking system as recited in claim 17, wherein the computer processor is configured to:

when the user rescinds a prior authorization or decides to disable the application, stand proxy to request provider of the application to delete the user'"'"'s fully identifying profile.

20. A method comprising:

providing a platform on a user device for a user to use applications and/or access web pages;

when an application is integrated with the platform, combining an identifier (ID) of the application, an identifier of the user (UID) and the user'"'"'s birthday in a social networking system;

encrypting the combined application ID, UID and the user'"'"'s birthday into a hashed ID according to a hash function;

linking the hashed ID with pseudonymous profile of the user;

wherein the pseudonymous profile includes the user'"'"'s profile picture, URLs, first name, last initial, or any combination thereof;

providing, to the application or the web page, the hashed ID to identify the user;

providing one or more options for the user to authorize or reject the application to access the user'"'"'s fully identifying profile; and

upon the user'"'"'s authorization, providing the application an access token to access a subset of the user'"'"'s fully identifying profile in the social networking system.