Authorization and authentication based on an individual's social network

#1. Field of the Invention

#The present invention generally relates to authorizing activities and authenticating individuals, and more specifically, to methods for authorizing information flow to an individual and authenticating an individual for access to information or service based on that individual's social network.

#2. Description of the Related Art

#So that the manner in which the above recited features of the present invention can be understood in detail, a more particular description of the invention, briefly summarized above, may be had by reference to embodiments, some of which are illustrated in the appended drawings. It is to be noted, however, that the appended drawings illustrate only typical embodiments of this invention and are therefore not to be considered limiting of its scope, for the invention may admit to other equally effective embodiments.

#FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating the relationships between members in a social network.

#FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a system for providing relationship information from a social network to an existing database.

#A social network is generally defined by the relationships among groups of individuals, and may include relationships ranging from casual acquaintances to close familial bonds. A social network may be represented using a graph structure. Each node of the graph corresponds to a member of the social network. Edges connecting two nodes represent a relationship between two individuals. In addition, the degree of separation between any two nodes is defined as the minimum number of hops required to traverse the graph from one node to the other. A degree of separation between two members is a measure of relatedness between the two members.

#FIG. 1 illustrates a graph representation of a social network centered on a given individual (ME). Other members of this social network include A-U whose position, relative to ME's, is referred to by the degree of separation between ME and each other member. Friends of ME, which includes A, B, and C, are separated from ME by one degree of separation (1 d/s). A friend of a friend of ME is separated from ME by 2 d/s. As shown, D, E, F and G are each separated from ME by 2 d/s. A friend of a friend of a friend of ME is separated from ME by 3 d/s. FIG. 1 depicts all nodes separated from ME by more than 3 degrees of separation as belonging to the category ALL.

#Degrees of separation in a social network are defined relative to an individual. For example, in ME's social network, H and ME are separated by 2 d/s, whereas in G's social network, H and G are separated by only 1 d/s. Accordingly, each individual will have their own set of first, second and third degree relationships.