On-demand application permissions

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11216537-B2
Application number	US-202016835151-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 30, 2020
Priority date	May 1, 2014
Publication date	Jan 4, 2022
Grant date	Jan 4, 2022

Abstract

On-demand application permissions is described, including obtaining one or more consents associated with one or more functions of an application, where the application does not allow using the functions without associated consents; receiving, from a user, a consent associated with a function; activating to allow that function to be executed; when a request from the user to use another function is received, determining that the another function requires an associated consent to activate; determining that there is no consent from the user associated with the another function; prompting for a consent associated with the another function; receiving the consent associated with another function; and activating to allow the another function to be executed.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
executing on data processing hardware of a user device, an application having:
a required application function requiring access to a corresponding required resource of the user device, the required application function having been granted permission to access the corresponding required resource of the user device by a user of the user device at installation of the application on the user device; and
an optional application function requiring access to a corresponding optional resource of the user device, the optional application function having a deferred permission to access the corresponding optional resource of the user device, the optional application function having been designated as the deferred permission to access the corresponding optional resource of the user device by the user of the user device at installation of the application on the user device;
a second optional application function requiring access to a corresponding second optional resource of the user device, the second optional application function having a denied permission to access the corresponding second optional resource of the user device; and

during execution of the application on the user device:
based on the deferred permission to access the corresponding optional resource of the user device, soliciting permission, by the data processing hardware, to allow the application to access the corresponding optional resource of the user device;
determining, by the data processing hardware, whether the solicited permission is granted;
when the solicited permission is granted, allowing, by the data processing hardware, the application to access the corresponding optional resource of the user device; and
based on the denied permission to access the corresponding second optional resource of the user device, prohibiting, by the data processing hardware, solicitation of permission to allow the application to access the corresponding second optional resource of the user device.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising, before soliciting permission to allow the application to access to the corresponding optional resource of the user device, identifying the optional application function based on discovery of any available optional resources of the user device.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising soliciting permission to allow the application to access to the corresponding optional resource of the user device on an as-needed basis for the optional application function.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving, at the data processing hardware, an access request from the application to access the corresponding optional resource of the user device in order to execute the optional application function; and
in response to the access request, soliciting permission to allow the application to access to the corresponding optional resource of the user device.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein soliciting permission to allow the application to access to the corresponding optional resource of the user device is based on feature-based consent information that describes application functionalities based on given consents.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the required application function comprises a feature-based function of the application and the optional application function comprises a user-information-based function of the application.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising, when the solicited permission is denied, denying, by the data processing hardware, the application to access to the corresponding optional resource of the user device.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the corresponding required resource is associated with a first type of sensor configured to control access to a first type of data and a second resource is associated with a second sensor configured to control access to a second type of data.

9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising storing, by the data processing hardware, a response to the solicited permission on the user device and/or on another device in communication with the user device.

10. A system comprising:
data processing hardware; and
memory hardware in communication with the data processing hardware, the memory hardware storing instructions that when executed on the data processing hardware cause the data processing hardware to perform operations comprising:
executing on the data processing hardware of a user device, an application having:
a required application function requiring access to a corresponding required resource of the user device, the required application function having been granted permission to access the corresponding required resource of the user device by a user of the user device at installation of the application on the user device; and
an optional application function requiring access to a corresponding optional resource of the user device, the optional application function having a deferred permission to access the corresponding optional resource of the user device, the optional application function having been designated as the deferred permission to access the corresponding optional resource of the user device by a user of the user device at installation of the application on the user device;
a second optional application function requiring access to a corresponding second optional resource of the user device, the second optional application function having a denied permission to access the corresponding second optional resource of the user device; and

during execution of the application on the user device:
based on the deferred permission to access the corresponding optional resource of the user device, soliciting permission to allow the application to access the corresponding optional resource of the user device;
determining whether the solicited permission is granted;
when the solicited permission is granted, allowing the application to access the corresponding optional resource of the user device; and
based on the denied permission to access the corresponding second optional resource of the user device, prohibiting solicitation of permission to allow the application to access the corresponding second optional resource of the user device.

11. The system of claim 10 , wherein the operations further comprise, before soliciting permission to allow the application to access to the corresponding optional resource of the user device, identifying the optional application function based on discovery of any available optional resources of the user device.

12. The system of claim 10 , wherein the operations further comprise soliciting permission to allow the application to access to the corresponding optional resource of the user device on an as-needed basis for the optional application function.

13. The system of claim 10 , wherein the operations further comprise:
receiving an access request from the application to access the corresponding optional resource of the user device in order to execute the optional application function; and
in response to the access request, soliciting permission to allow the application to access to the corresponding optional resource of the user device.

14. The system of claim 10 , wherein soliciting permission to allow the application to access to the corresponding optional resource of the user device is based on feature-based consent information that describes application functionalities based on given consents.

15. The system of claim 10 , wherein the required application function comprises a feature-based function of the application and the optional application fun

Assignees

• Google Llc

Inventors

• Grigera Alejo

Classifications

• G06F21/6245 Primary

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

• G06F21/30 Primary

  Authentication, i.e. establishing the identity or authorisation of security principals · CPC title

• G06F21/629

  to features or functions of an application · CPC title