Controlling access to ideograms

• US 9,515,968 B2
• Filed: 02/05/2014
• Issued: 12/06/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 02/05/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Inventors: Ebersman, David, Lessin, Samuel, Stocky, Thomas, Vernal, Michael
• Primary Examiner(s): Homayounmehr, Farid
• Assistant Examiner(s): Le, Thanh T
• Application Number:
  US14/173,425
• Publication Number:
  US 20150222617A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,035 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/169 Annotation, e.g. comment data or footnotes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/30 Semantic analysis
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/04 Real-time or near real-time messaging, e.g. instant messaging [IM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/10 Multimedia information
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/212 using filtering or selective blocking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/52 for supporting social networking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/102 Entity profiles

Abstract

Particular embodiments of a method comprise providing one or more ideograms (e.g., written characters, symbols or images that represent an idea or thing) for insertion into a message. A request may be received from a user for a restricted one of the ideograms. A determination may be made as to whether the user is authorized to access the restricted ideogram. This determination may be based on whether the user is a member of a group of authorized users, whether an attribute of the user meets a restriction requirement, or whether the request comprises an authorization code or token. If the user is authorized to access the restricted ideogram, then the restricted ideogram may be displayed to the user in association with the message. Otherwise, a restricted-content response may be generated.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

by one or more computing systems, sending, to a first client device associated with a first user of a social-networking system, information to display one or more ideograms available for insertion into a user input field for composing a message, wherein one or more of the ideograms are restricted;

by the one or more computing systems, receiving a request, from the first client device, for one of the restricted ideograms;

by the one or more computing systems, accessing social-networking information for the first user stored in association with a social graph of the social-networking system;

by the one or more computing systems, determining, based on the social-networking information, whether the first user is authorized to access the restricted ideogram;

if the first user is authorized to access the restricted ideogram, then sending, to the first client device, information to insert the restricted ideogram into the user input field;

else sending a restricted-content response to the first client device;

by the one or more computing systems, sending the message to a second client device associated with a second user of the social-networking system;

by the one or more computing systems, accessing social-networking information for the second user stored in association with the social graph;

by the one or more computing systems, determining, based on the social-networking information, whether the second user is authorized to access the restricted ideogram; and

if the second user is authorized to access the restricted ideogram, then sending, to the second client device, information to display the restricted ideogram;

else sending a restricted-content response to the second client device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining whether the first user is authorized to access the restricted ideogram comprises determining whether the first user is a member of a group of authorized users.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining whether the first user is authorized to access the restricted ideogram comprises determining whether an attribute of the first user meets a restriction requirement.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the restriction requirement relates to a demographic attribute of the first user, a profile attribute of the first user, a status of the first user, or a transaction history of the first user.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining whether the user first is authorized to access the restricted ideogram comprises determining whether the request comprises an authorization code or token.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the first user is an author of the message, and wherein the sending of the information to insert the restricted ideogram into the user input field comprises sending information to render a user interface that allows the first user to insert the restricted ideogram into the message.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the second user is a recipient of the message, and wherein the sending of the information to display the restricted ideogram comprises sending information to display the restricted ideogram in conjunction with the message.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the restricted-content response sent to the first client device comprises a warning that the restricted ideogram has restrictions associated with it.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the restricted-content response sent to the second client device comprises a version of the message wherein the restricted ideogram is removed.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the restricted-content response sent to the second client device comprises a version of the message wherein the restricted ideogram is replaced with a restricted-content symbol.

11. One or more computer-readable non-transitory storage media embodying software that is operable when executed to:

send, to a first client device associated with a first user of a social-networking system, information to display one or more ideograms available for insertion into a user input field for composing a message, wherein one or more of the ideograms are restricted;

receive a request, from the first client device, for one of the restricted ideograms;

access social-networking information for the first user stored in association with a social graph of the social-networking system;

determine, based on the social-networking information, whether the first user is authorized to access the restricted ideogram;

if the first user is authorized to access the restricted ideogram, then sending, to the first client device, information to insert the restricted ideogram into the user input field;

else send a restricted-content response to the first client device;

send the message to a second client device associated with a second user of the social-networking system;

access social-networking information for the second user stored in association with the social graph;

determine, based on the social-networking information, whether the second user is authorized to access the restricted ideogram; and

if the second user is authorized to access the restricted ideogram, then send, to the second client device, information to display the restricted ideogram;

else send a restricted-content response to the second client device.

12. The media of claim 11, wherein the software operable when executed to determine whether the first user is authorized to access the restricted ideogram comprises software operable when executed to determine whether the first user is a member of a group of authorized users.

13. The media of claim 11, wherein the software operable when executed to determine whether the first user is authorized to access the restricted ideogram comprises software operable when executed to determine whether an attribute of the first user meets a restriction requirement.

14. The media of claim 13, wherein the restriction requirement relates to a demographic attribute of the first user, a profile attribute of the first user, a status of the first user, or a transaction history of the first user.

15. The media of claim 11, wherein the software operable when executed to determine whether the first user is authorized to access the restricted ideogram comprises software operable when executed to determine whether the request comprises an authorization code or token.

16. A system comprising:

one or more processors; and

a memory coupled to the processors comprising instructions executable by the processors, the processors being operable when executing the instructions to;

send, to a first client device associated with a first user of a social-networking system, information to display one or more ideograms available for insertion into a user input field for composing a message, wherein one or more of the ideograms are restricted;

receive a request, from the first client device, for one of the restricted ideograms;

access social-networking information for the first user stored in association with a social graph of the social-networking system;

determine, based on the social-networking information, whether the first user is authorized to access the restricted ideogram;

if the first user is authorized to access the restricted ideogram, then sending, to the first client device, information to insert the restricted ideogram into the user input field;

else send a restricted-content response to the first client device;

send the message to a second client device associated with a second user of the social-networking system;

access social-networking information for the second user stored in association with the social graph;

determine, based on the social-networking information, whether the second user is authorized to access the restricted ideogram; and

if the second user is authorized to access the restricted ideogram, then send, to the second client device, information to display the restricted ideogram;

else send a restricted-content response to the second client device.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the first user is an author of the message, and wherein the processors being operable when executing the instructions to send the information to insert the restricted ideogram into the user input field comprises the processors being operable when executing the instructions to send information to render a user interface that allows the first user to insert the restricted ideogram into the message.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein the second user is a recipient of the message, and wherein the processors being operable when executing the instructions to send the information to display the restricted ideogram comprises the processors being operable when executing the instructions to send information to display the restricted ideogram in conjunction with the message.

19. The system of claim 16, wherein the restricted-content response sent to the first client device comprises a warning that the restricted ideogram has restrictions associated with it.

20. The system of claim 16, wherein the the restricted-content response sent to the second client device comprises a version of the message wherein the restricted ideogram is removed.