Approximate Privacy Indexing for Search Queries on Online Social Networks

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

• receive, from a client system of a first user of an online social network, a request to post content to the online social network;
• identify a plurality of second users, wherein each second user is associated with a privacy setting, and wherein a percentage of the identified second users have a privacy setting likely to make the content posted by the first user accessible to the second user;
• determine, for each identified second user, whether the content posted by the first user is accessible to the second user;
• and
• send, to one or more client systems of one or more of the second users, respectively, instructions for presenting the content posted by the first user, wherein the content is sent to second users determined to be able to access the content, and wherein the content is not sent to second users determined to be not able to access the content.

A system comprising:

• one or more processors;
• and a memory coupled to the processors comprising instructions executable by the processors, the processors operable when executing the instructions to:
• receive, from a client system of a first user of an online social network, a request to post content to the online social network;
• identify a plurality of second users, wherein each second user is associated with a privacy setting, and wherein a percentage of the identified second users have a privacy setting likely to make the content posted by the first user accessible to the second user;
• determine, for each identified second user, whether the content posted by the first user is accessible to the second user;
• and
• send, to one or more client systems of one or more of the second users, respectively, instructions for presenting the content posted by the first user, wherein the content is sent to second users determined to be able to access the content, and wherein the content is not sent to second users determined to be not able to access the content.