Privacy approval system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11537746-B2
Application number	US-202117462671-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 31, 2021
Priority date	Mar 15, 2019
Publication date	Dec 27, 2022
Grant date	Dec 27, 2022

Abstract

Aspects of the present disclosure involve a system comprising a computer-readable storage medium storing a program and a method for determining whether data utilization is privacy compliant. The program and method includes receiving input, via a graphical user interface, that includes identification of an application feature that utilizes user data collected from a plurality of users of the application; generating, for display in the graphical user interface, a plurality of fields that characterize utilization of user data; receiving, via the graphical user interface, a selection of one or more fields, the selected one or more fields characterize the utilization of the user data by the application feature; determining, based on the selected one or more fields, whether the utilization of the user data is privacy compliant; and generating, for display, an approval status indicating whether the utilization of the user data is privacy compliant.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
receiving, by one or more processors, via a graphical user interface, a selection of one or more fields that characterize utilization of user data by an application feature;
determining, by the one or more processors, that the utilization of the user data is privacy compliant based on a correspondence between the selected one or more fields associated with the application feature and a set of fields of other application features that were previously approved to utilize the user data in a way that matches the utilization of the user data by the application feature; and
generating, by the one or more processors, for display in the graphical user interface, an approval status indicating that the utilization of the user data is privacy compliant.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving input, from a user device, that includes identification of the application feature that utilizes the user data collected from a plurality of users of an application, the user data comprising images or videos captured by the plurality of users; and
generating for display in the graphical user interface, a plurality of fields that characterize utilization of the user data in response to receiving the input from the user device, the selection of the one or more fields being received from the displayed plurality of fields.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
storing a unique identifier of the application feature;
associating the selected one or more fields and the application feature associated with the unique identifier; and
storing the user data on storage locations managed by a plurality of third-party storage sources, wherein the graphical user interface comprises an option to add a resource that identifies one or more of the plurality of third-party storage sources.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the user data comprises current locations of a plurality of users, further comprising:
receiving from a user device the unique identifier; and
retrieving the selected one or more fields for display in the graphical user interface based on the unique identifier.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
generating a first risk score for the application feature in response to determining that a number of the other application features that were previously approved to utilize the user data in the way that matches the utilization of the user data by the application feature exceeds a certain threshold; and
generating a second risk score for the application feature in response to determining that the number of the other application features that were previously approved to utilize the user data in the way that matches the utilization of the user data by the application feature fall below the certain threshold, the second risk score being greater than the first risk score.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the selected one or more fields comprise a first field identifying a storage location of the user data, a second field identifying a data type of the user data utilized by the application feature, a third field identifying use of the user data by the application feature, and a fourth field identifying a retention period for the user data, further comprising assigning a priority value to an individual field of the one or more fields that characterizes the utilization of the user data, wherein a risk score is computed based on the assigned priority value of the individual field.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining whether the utilization of the user data is privacy compliant comprises:
generating a first message to a privacy review user identifying the application feature, the first message including the selected one or more fields; and
receiving input from the privacy review user via the graphical user interface indicating whether the utilization of the user data is privacy compliant.

8. The method of claim 7 , further comprising:
storing, in a database, an approval status indicating whether utilization of the user data is privacy compliant, the approval status being associated with the application feature that utilizes the user data; and
modifying the approval status stored in the database based on the input received from the privacy review user.

9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising receiving additional input from a user device via the graphical user interface that adds a new field that characterizes utilization of the user data, wherein the application feature is part of or is used by a messaging application.

10. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
locking the selected one or more fields associated with the application feature to prevent modification of the selected one or more fields in response to receiving a request to review the utilization of the user data by the application feature; and
in response to locking the selected one or more fields, generating for display a date and time at which the selected one or more fields have been locked.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the graphical user interface includes a plurality of simultaneously displayed portions, wherein the date and time at which the selected one or more fields have been locked are displayed together with the plurality of simultaneously displayed portions, the portions including:
a first portion that includes information identifying a given user of a user device and information about the application feature;
a second portion that includes a plurality of menus representing the plurality of fields that characterize utilization of user data; and
a third portion that includes the approval status indicating whether the utilization of the user data is privacy compliant, the approval status including a plurality of simultaneously displayed indicators including a first indicator indicating incomplete approval status, a second indicator indicating in progress approval status, and a third indicator indicating complete approval status.

12. The method of claim 1 , further comprising storing in a database a plurality of application features, each of the plurality of application features being associated with a given set of selected one or more fields from the plurality of fields and a corresponding approval status indicating whether utilization of the user data based on the given set of the selected one or more fields is privacy compliant.

13. The method of claim 12 , further comprising:
identifying a plurality of application features for which the approval status indicates that utilization of the user data has been previously approved, wherein the other application features are included among the plurality of application features;
retrieving a list of combinations of fields of the identified plurality of application features for which the approval status indicates that utilization of the user data has been previously approved;
comparing the selected one or more fields that characterize the utilization of the user data by the application feature to the list of combinations of fields of the identified plurality of application features; and
determining that the utilization of the user data is privacy compliant in response to determining that more than a threshold quantity of fields of the selected one or more fields match the combinations of fields of the identified plurality of application features.

14. The method of claim 13 , further comprising computing a risk score for the application feature, the risk score indicating a likelihood that utilization of the user data is privacy compliant.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein the risk score is computed ba

Assignees

• Snap Inc

Inventors

• Sankuratripati Subhash
• Shaji Dhanuja
• Akhoondi Masoud
• Datta Amit

Classifications

• G06F2203/04803

  Split screen, i.e. subdividing the display area or the window area into separate subareas · CPC title

• G06F3/0482

  Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus · CPC title

• G06F21/6245 Primary

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

• G06F21/6227

  where protection concerns the structure of data, e.g. records, types, queries · CPC title

• G06Q30/018

  Certifying business or products · CPC title