Systems and methods for protecting mobile contact information

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10070308-B2
Application number	US-201615188431-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 21, 2016
Priority date	Jun 21, 2016
Publication date	Sep 4, 2018
Grant date	Sep 4, 2018

Abstract

The disclosed technology includes techniques for allowing a contact to exercise control over a third party's sharing of the contact's mobile contact information with mobile applications. A contact may create an application contact key containing rules that govern when a third party may share the contact information with mobile applications. The application contact key may be stored in association with the contact information on a third party's mobile device, on a remote server, or as part of a social networking website. The application contact key may instruct the mobile device whether or not to share the contact information with a particular mobile application. Further, an application contact import management system may track all requests from various mobile applications to access the contact information, and may provide for a seamless future on-boarding experience in the event the contact later decides to accept a previously denied request to share the contact information.

First claim

I claim:

1. A method implemented by a computing device, the method comprising:
receiving, by the computing device, an application contact key corresponding to a contact, the application contact key including share permissions that contain rules regarding applications that are allowed to access a portion of contact information associated with the contact;
receiving, by the computing device from an application, a request to access the contact information; and
authorizing, by the computing device, access to the contact information by the application based on a comparison of the rules within the application contact key and metadata associated with the application that is requesting the access.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the rules specify that the contact information may only be shared with applications of a certain classification.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the metadata associated with the application includes a classification of the application.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the authorization comprises comparing the classification of the application to a list of authorized application classifications specified by the rules.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising transmitting the metadata, a unique application ID, and a user code to an application contact import management system.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the rules specify one or more applications of the applications that are allowed to access the portion of the contact information associated with the contact.

7. A method implemented by a server, the method comprising:
receiving, by the server, indications of a user's preferences regarding sharing of the user's contact information;
responsive to receiving the indications of the user's preferences, generating, by the server, an application contact key associated with the user's contact information, the application contact key including rules regarding applications that are allowed to access the user's contact information;
transmitting, by the server, the application contact key to a mobile device;
receiving, by the server and from the mobile device, metadata associated with a mobile application, a unique application ID associated with the mobile application, and a user code associated with an owner of the mobile device; and
storing, by the server, the metadata associated with the mobile application, the unique application ID associated with the mobile application, and the user code associated with the owner of the mobile device.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the application contact key is a digital file.

9. The method of claim 7 , further comprising:
receiving, by the server and from the mobile device, a notification that the mobile application desires to access the user's contact information; and
transmitting, by the server to a computing device of the user, the notification and a prompt to provide an instruction to either allow or deny the sharing of the user's contact information with the mobile device, the notification based on a comparison of the rules within the application contact key and the metadata associated with the mobile application or the unique application ID associated with the mobile application.

10. The method of claim 9 , further comprising:
receiving, by the server and from the computing device of the user, an instruction to either allow or deny the sharing of the contact information; and
transmitting, by the server to the mobile device, the instruction to either allow or deny the sharing of the contact information.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the instruction to either allow or deny the sharing of the contact information is an instruction to allow sharing, the method further comprising:
identifying, by the server, one or more user codes associated with the unique application ID associated with the mobile application;
transmitting, by the server, the identified one or more user codes associated with the unique application ID associated with the mobile application to the mobile device.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the one or more user codes enable the mobile application to automatically connect the user with other users corresponding to the one or more user codes.

13. A method implemented by a computing device, the method comprising:
receiving, by the computing device, an application contact key, the application contact key including share permissions associated with contact information of a first user, the share permissions containing rules regarding applications that are allowed to access the contact information of the first user;
receiving, by the computing device, a request from a mobile application to access the contact information of the first user;
transmitting, by the computing device and to an application management server:
the request to access the contact information of the first user;
the application contact key;
metadata associated with the mobile application; and
an identification code associated with a second user; and

receiving, by the computing device and from the application management server, one of a grant or refusal to allow access of the first user's contact information by the mobile application, the grant or refusal being based on a comparison of the rules within the application contact key and the metadata associated with the mobile application that made the request to access the contact information of the first user.

14. The method of claim 13 , further comprising:
responsive to receiving a grant to allow sharing of the first user's contact information, providing, by the computing device, the mobile application access to the first user's contact information.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein the metadata associated with the mobile application includes at least one of: a classification of the mobile application, information regarding how frequently the mobile application is used, information regarding the average usage time of the mobile application, and information regarding whether the mobile application utilizes a GPS receiver of the mobile device.

16. A system comprising:
at least one memory operatively coupled to at least one processor and configured for storing data and instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the system to:
receive an application contact key corresponding to a contact, the application contact key including share permissions of contact information associated with the contact that are established by the contact, the share permissions containing rules regarding applications that are allowed to access the contact information;
receive metadata associated with a mobile application;
receive, from the mobile application, a request to access, by the mobile application, the contact information;
determine, based on a comparison of the rules within the application contact key and the metadata associated with the mobile application, whether access to the contact information by the mobile application that is requesting the access is authorized; and
responsive to determining that access to the contact information is authorized, provide the mobile application with access to the contact information.

17. The system of claim 16 , wherein the rules specify that the contact information may only be shared with mobile applications of a certain classification.

18. The system of claim 17 , wherein the metadata associated with the mobile application includes a classification of the mobile application.

19. The system of claim 17 , wherein the determination comprises comparing

Assignees

• Google Inc
• Google Llc

Inventors

• Carter Bernadette Alexia

Classifications

• G06F21/6245 Primary

  Protecting personal data, e.g. for financial or medical purposes · CPC title

• H04W12/02 Primary

  Protecting privacy or anonymity, e.g. protecting personally identifiable information [PII] · CPC title

• G06F21/44 Primary

  Program or device authentication · CPC title

• G06F21/45

  Structures or tools for the administration of authentication · CPC title

• G06F21/629

  to features or functions of an application · CPC title