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US 8,713,055 B2Granted
Dynamically updating privacy settings in a social network
OwnerEzra Callahan, James H. Wang +1inventors
InventorsEzra Callahan, James H. Wang, Nicolas Vera
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A social network allows its members to regulate what data is accessible to other members using one or more privacy settings. A particular member of the social network can modify the one or privacy settings to grant or deny different users access to different data. When a member modifies a privacy setting, the social network determines which information pathways communicating data between members are affected. The affected information pathways are then modified responsive to the privacy setting to communicate data identified by the modified privacy setting and enforce the new privacy restrictions.
Claims21
A method comprising:
- maintaining a profile for a plurality of users of a social networking system, each profile identifying one or more items of user data associated with a user;
- monitoring actions taken by the users of the social networking system, one of the actions comprising a change in a privacy setting by the user that denies a particular user access to the one or more items of user data, the user and the particular user being indirectly connected within the social networking system;
- responsive to the change in the privacy setting,
- determining one or more information pathways of the social networking system that are affected by the change in the privacy setting, and
- propagating the change to at least one of the information pathways;
- and
- determining that a search of the social networking system has been conducted by the particular user via a search engine external to the social networking system to generate a search result, the search result including data associated with the user for display to the particular user via the at least one of the information pathways;
- and
- generating, by a computer processor, a modified search result by removing the data associated with the user from the search result responsive to the changed privacy setting.
6 more elements
A system comprising:
- a computer processor;
- a user profile store for maintaining a profile for a plurality of users of the social networking system, each profile identifying one or more items of user data associated with a user;
- a plurality of information pathways, each information pathway for communicating data about a user to one or more additional users;
- a privacy engine communicatively coupled to the user profile store to:
- monitor actions taken by users of the social networking system, one of the actions comprising a change in a privacy setting by the user that denies a particular user access to the one or more items of user data, the user and the particular user being indirectly connected within the social networking system;
- responsive to the change in the privacy setting,
- determine one or more information pathways, of the plurality of information pathways, of the social networking system that are affected by the change in the privacy setting, and
- propagate the change to at least one of the information pathways;
- and
- determine that a search of the social networking system has been conducted by the particular user via a search engine external to the social networking system to generate a search result, the search result including data associated with the user for display to the particular user via the at least one of the information pathways;
- and
- generate by the computer processor, a modified search result by removing the data associated with the user from the search result responsive to the changed privacy setting.
9 more elements
A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions to be executed by a computer processor of computer system to carry out the steps of:
- maintaining a profile for a plurality of users of a social networking system, each profile identifying one or more items of user data associated with a user;
- monitoring actions taken by the users of the social networking system, one of the actions comprising a change in a privacy setting by the user that denies a particular user access to the one or more items of user data, the user and the particular user being indirectly connected within the social networking system;
- responsive to the change in the privacy setting,
- determining one or more information pathways of the social networking system that are affected by the change in the privacy setting, and
- propagating the change to at least one of the information pathways;
- and
- determining that a search of the social networking system has been conducted by the particular user via a search engine external to the social networking system to generate a search result, the search result including data associated with the user for display to the particular user via the at least one of the information pathways;
- and
- generating, by a computer processor, a modified search result by removing the data associated with the user from the search result responsive to the changed privacy setting.
6 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.