# US 2017/0286718 A1 · Approximate Privacy Indexing for Search Queries on Online Social Networks

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- Number: US 2017/0286718 A1
- Document ID: US20170286718A1
- Status: Published application
- Kind: A1
- Application number: 15/623,021
- Filed: 2017-06-14
- Published: 2017-10-05
- Earliest claimed: 2013-05-08
- Assignees: Facebook, Inc.
- Applicants: Facebook, Inc.
- Inventors: Gintaras Andrius Woss; Sriram Sankar; Zhongxian Chen; Kihyuk Hong; Kedar Dhamdhere; Rajat Raina
- Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US20170286718A1

## CPC

- G06F 21/6263: {during internet communication, e.g. revealing personal data from cookies}
- G06F 16/9024: {Graphs; Linked lists (G06F16/9027 takes precedence)}
- G06F 16/9535: Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
- G06F 16/9536: Search customisation based on social or collaborative filtering
- H04L 65/403: Arrangements for multi-party communication, e.g. for conferences (data switching systems for conference H04L12/18; arrangements for connecting several subscribers to a common circuit, i.e. affording conference facilities H04M3/56; television conferencing systems H04N7/15)
- H04L 67/02: based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
- H04L 67/306: User profiles
- G06F 2221/2141: Access rights, e.g. capability lists, access control lists, access tables, access matrices
- G06F: ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING (computer systems based on specific computational models G06N)
- H04L: TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION (arrangements common to telegraphic and telephonic communication H04M)

## Abstract

In one embodiment, a method includes receiving, from a client system of a first user, a request to post content to the online social network, identifying 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, determining, for each identified second user, whether the content posted by the first user is accessible to the second user, and sending, 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 is not sent to second users determined to be not able to access the content.

## Claims

### Claim 1

A method comprising, by one or more computing devices:
receiving, from a client system of a first user of an online social network, a request to post content to the online social network;
identifying 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;
determining, for each identified second user, whether the content posted by the first user is accessible to the second user; and
sending, 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.

### Claim 2 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, further comprising:
receiving, from one of the identified second users, a search query;
searching the one or more data stores to identify one or more objects that match the search query, wherein one of the identified objects is the content posted by the first user; and
generating one or more search results corresponding to the search query, wherein each search result corresponds to one of the identified objects, and wherein at least one of the search results correspond to the content posted by the first user if the second user has been determined to be able to access the content.

### Claim 3 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, further comprising scoring each identified second user based on the privacy setting associated with the respective second user.

### Claim 4 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, further comprising scoring each identified second user based on a social-graph affinity associated with the first user with respect to the identified second user.

### Claim 5 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, wherein the privacy setting defines an access control of the second user with respect to other users of the online social network.

### Claim 6 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, wherein identifying the plurality of second users comprises determining whether the privacy setting of each respective second user is likely to make the content posted by the first user accessible to the second user.

### Claim 7 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, wherein identifying the plurality of second users comprises identifying a first percentage of second users having privacy settings likely to make the content posted by the first user accessible to the respective second user.

### Claim 8 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, further comprising:
accessing a social graph comprising a plurality of nodes and a plurality of edges connecting the nodes, each of the edges between two of the nodes representing a single degree of separation between them, wherein each node of the plurality of nodes corresponds to a particular object, the nodes comprising:
a first node corresponding to the first user; and
a plurality of second nodes corresponding to a plurality of second users associated with the online social network, respectively.

### Claim 9 (depends on 8)

The method of claim 8, wherein each identified second user corresponds to a second node within a threshold degree of separation of the first node.

### Claim 10 (depends on 8)

The method of claim 8, wherein determining, for each identified second user, whether the content posted by the first user is accessible to the second user comprises, for each identified second user:
identifying a second node of the plurality of second nodes corresponding to the identified second user; and
determining whether the identified node is connected to the first node in the social graph by a series of nodes and edges that each have a visibility that is visible to the first user.

### Claim 11 (depends on 8)

The method of claim 8, wherein determining, for each identified second user, whether the content posted by the first user is accessible to the second user comprises, for each identified second user:
identifying a second node of the plurality of second nodes corresponding to the identified second user; and
determining whether the identified node is within a threshold degree of separation from the first node in the social graph.

### Claim 12 (depends on 8)

The method of claim 8, wherein the privacy setting associated with each second user defines a visibility of the node corresponding to the second user or a visibility of one or more of the edges connected to the node corresponding to the second user.

### Claim 13 (depends on 8)

The method of claim 8, wherein the privacy setting associated with each second user defines an accessibility of information associated with the node corresponding to the second user with respect to other nodes in the social graph.

### Claim 14 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, wherein the sent content is presented to the second users as part of a newsfeed of the respective second users.

### Claim 15 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, wherein the sent content is presented to the second users as part of a content stream.

### Claim 16 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, wherein the sent content is presented to the second users as part of a search-results page.

### Claim 17 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, wherein the sent content is presented to the second users as part of a push notification pushed to respective client systems of the second users.

### Claim 18 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, wherein the sent content is presented to the second users as part of an advertisement.

### Claim 19

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.

### Claim 20

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.