Leveraging online identities to grant access to private networks

A non-transitory computer readable storage medium comprising instructions that, when executed by a processing device, cause the processing device to perform operations comprising:

• receiving, by an authentication service running on the processing device, a request from a private network to authenticate a computing device that has attempted to access the private network, the request comprising a first identifier (ID) that uniquely identifies the computing device and a second ID that uniquely identifies the private network;
• determining, by the authentication service and based on the second ID, an authentication criterion for the private network, wherein the authentication criterion is associated with social network information of a third party social network service that is separate from the authentication service;
• determining, by the authentication service, whether the account comprises social network information from the third party social network service that satisfies the authentication criterion for the private network, wherein determining whether the account comprises the social network information that satisfies the authentication criterion comprises:
• establishing a session between the authentication service and the third party social network service;
• and
• receiving the social network information from the third party social network service via the session, wherein the social network information comprises data associated with a first social network account on the social network service, wherein the private network is associated with a second social network account on the social network service, and wherein the authentication criterion comprises a particular relationship between the first social network account and the second social network account;
• and
• responsive to determining that the social network information from the third party social network service satisfies the authentication criterion, notifying the private network that the computing device is authenticated.

A computing device comprising:

• a memory to store instructions for an authentication service;
• and
• a processing device, coupled to the memory, to:
• receive a request from a local area network (LAN) to authenticate a computing device that has attempted to access the LAN, the request comprising a first identifier (ID) that uniquely identifies the computing device and a second ID that uniquely identifies the LAN;
• determine, based on the first ID, whether the computing device is associated with an account of the authentication service;
• determine, by the authentication service and based on the second ID, a network account associated with the private network, wherein the network account comprises the private network and an additional private network;
• determine, based on the second ID, an authentication criterion for the LAN, wherein the authentication criterion is associated with social network information of a third party social network service that is separate from the authentication service, wherein the network account further comprises an additional authentication criterion associated with the additional private network, and wherein the additional authentication criterion is different from the authentication criterion;
• responsive to determining that the computing device is associated with an account of the authentication service, determine whether the account comprises profile information from a social network account with a third party social network service that satisfies the authentication criterion for the LAN, wherein determining whether the account comprises the profile information that satisfies the authentication criterion comprises:
• establishing a session between the authentication service and the third party social network service;
• and
• receiving the profile information from the third party social network service via the session;
• and
• responsive to determining that the account comprises profile information from the third party social network service that satisfies the authentication criterion, notifying the LAN that the computing device is authenticated.