System and method for implementing dynamic access control rules to personal cloud information

• US 8,914,441 B2
• Filed: 11/30/2011
• Issued: 12/16/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 11/30/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Orange S.A.
• Original Assignee: Orange S.A.
• Inventors: Quintuna, Xavier
• Primary Examiner(s): DAILEY, THOMAS J
• Application Number:
  US13/307,164
• Publication Number:
  US 20120136936A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,112 Days
• Field of Search: 709/204, 709/206, 709/224
• US Class Current: 709/204
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/604 Tools and structures for managing or administering access control systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6245 Protecting personal data, e.g. for financial or medical purposes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/104 Grouping of entities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34

Abstract

A system and method are provided for sharing data of a user with contacts, the method comprising collecting the contacts from the user, collecting data related to the communications between the user and his contacts, and automatically grouping the contacts into different groups based on a level of communications between the user and the user'"'"'s contacts, defining an access level for each group, with each access level granting access to some part of the user'"'"'s data based on the access level. Advantageously, this permits a dynamic assignment of authority to access content that does not have to be actively managed by the user.

Claims

1. A method for sharing content of a user with contacts, the method comprising:

collecting the contacts from said user;

collecting data related to communications between the user and the user'"'"'s contacts;

automatically grouping the contacts into different groups based on a level of the communications between the user and the user'"'"'s contacts; and

defining an access level for each group, with each access level granting access to some part of the user'"'"'s content based on the access level;

rendering a series of user content folders in a display wherein the quantity of user content folders displayed is based on and equal to in quantity to a number of predefined said access levels;

associating each content folder with one or more access level groups; and

adding content into one of the content folders, the content being available to a contact in a corresponding said group based on the defined access level of the corresponding group.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the associating of each folder comprises either:

selecting one or more access levels and associating these with the folder;

or

selecting one or more folders and associating these with an access group.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the access level comprises real friends, occasional friends, and temporary friends.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the automatically grouping is based on social network activity.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein the automatically grouping is based on social network site information, including friends, news feed, and profile feed.

6. The method according to claim 5, wherein the automatically grouping is based on a classification algorithm that incorporates a counter of comments in a post.

7. The method according to claim 6, wherein the classification algorithm follows the equation:

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein the user'"'"'s content is stored in a personal cloud.

9. The method according to claim 8, further comprising:

retrieving the user'"'"'s content with an identity manager that retrieves information from multiple on-line sources.

10. The method according to claim 9, wherein access to the user'"'"'s content is provided using the Open Authorization OAuth standard.

11. The method according to claim 9, wherein the user'"'"'s content acquired with the identity manager comprises at least one of social network site friend information, feed information, home information, photo information, album information video information, and event information.

12. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

backing up the user content to a cloud services provider.

13. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

notifying each member of each group of contacts having been granted access to that part of the user'"'"'s content based on the access level when that content has become accessible or has changed.

14. The method according to claim 13, wherein the notifying of each member of each group is based on a notify attribute selected from the group consisting of never notify, which may include manual notification, notify once, and notify all of the time.

15. A non-transitory computer program product, comprising a computer usable medium having a computer readable program code embodied therein, said computer readable program code adapted to be executed to implement a method for sharing content of a user with contacts, said method comprising:

collecting the contacts from said user;

collecting data related to communications between the user and the user'"'"'s contacts;

automatically grouping the contacts into different groups based on a level of communications between the user and the user'"'"'s contacts;

defining an access level for each group, with each access level granting access to some part of the user'"'"'s content based on the access level;

rendering a series of user content folders in a display wherein the quantity of user content folders displayed is based on and equal to in quantity to a number of predefined said access levels;

associating each content folder with one or more access level groups; and

adding content into one of the content folders, the content being available to a contact in a corresponding said group based on the defined access level of the corresponding group.

16. A server device for sharing content of a user with contacts, the server device comprising:

a storage element configured to store contacts collected from said user;

a storage element configured to store data related to communications between the user and the user'"'"'s contacts; and

a processor configured to run;

an algorithm that automatically groups the contacts into different groups based on a level of communications between the user and the user'"'"'s contacts; and

an algorithm that defines an access level for each group, with each access level granting access to some part of the user'"'"'s content based on the access level;

an algorithm that renders a series of user content folders in a display wherein the quantity of user content folders displayed is based on and equal to in quantity to a number of predefined said access levels;

an algorithm that associates each content folder with one or more access level groups; and

an algorithm that adds content into one of the content folders, the content being available to a contact in a corresponding said group based on the defined access level of the corresponding group.

17. A system for sharing content of a user with contacts, the system comprising:

the server device according to claim 16;

a client device comprising a reader configured to read the part of the user'"'"'s content; and

a network that connects the client device to the server device.