Providing application privacy information

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9384357-B2
Application number	US-201414504077-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 1, 2014
Priority date	Oct 1, 2014
Publication date	Jul 5, 2016
Grant date	Jul 5, 2016

Abstract

A system includes a data processing device, a memory, identifications of applications, and a privacy indication module. Each identification of the application has associated therewith a privacy indicator that indicating a degree of expected privacy of each of the corresponding applications. The privacy indication module is configured to control the data processing device to set each of the privacy indicators of each of the identifications of the applications and to provide at least one of the privacy indicators to control publication of information corresponding to at least one of the applications.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
storing, by a data processing device of a user device, a plurality of applications in non-transitory memory of the user device;
determining, by the data processing device, a plurality of privacy indicators associated with the plurality of applications, each application having a global privacy indicator associated therewith indicating a default degree of privacy to be applied to the application that is based on collective privacy settings of previous users of the application, and at least one of the plurality of applications having a respective user privacy indicator associated therewith that indicates a user defined degree of privacy to be applied to the application, the user defined degree of privacy being provided by a user of the user device;
storing the plurality of privacy indicators in the non-transitory memory in communication with the data processing device;
receiving, by the data processing device, a request to publish information regarding a particular application of the plurality of applications;
determining, by the data processing device, whether the particular application has a user privacy indicator associated therewith;
when the particular application has an associated user privacy indicator, controlling publication of the information regarding the particular application in accordance with the user privacy indicator; and
when the particular application does not have an associated user privacy indicator, controlling publication of the information regarding the particular application in accordance with the global privacy indicator associated with the particular application.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the request to publish information regarding the particular information is a request to publish download information indicating a download of the particular application in another application.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising selectively displaying on a display in communication with the data processing device the information regarding the particular application based on either the user privacy indicator associated with the particular application or the global privacy indicator associated with the particular application.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the information comprises history information indicating a previous download of the at least one of the plurality of applications.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein each of the plurality of privacy indicators indicates whether the information related to the associated application is intended to be private.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein each of the plurality of privacy indicators is a value corresponding to a degree that information related to the associated application is intended to be private.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein a global privacy indicator associated with an application is based on input received from a plurality of users of the application on different user devices.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving, at the data processing device, a function category associated with at least one function of at least one application and further associated with a category privacy indicator; and
determining at least one of the plurality of privacy indicators based on the category privacy indicator.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of privacy indicators are private.

10. A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising executable instructions, the instructions being executable by a data processing device to perform a method, the method comprising:
storing a plurality of applications in non-transitory memory of the data processing device;
determining a plurality of privacy indicators associated with the plurality of applications, each application having a global privacy indicator associated therewith indicating a default degree of privacy to be applied to the application that is based on collective privacy settings of previous users of the application, and at least one of the plurality of applications having a respective user privacy indicator associated therewith that indicates a user defined degree of privacy to be applied to the application, the user defined degree of privacy being provided by a user of the data processing device;
storing the plurality of privacy indicators in the non-transitory memory in communication with the data processing device;
receiving a request to publish information regarding a particular application of the plurality of applications;
determining whether the particular application has a user privacy indicator associated therewith;
when the particular application has an associated user privacy indicator, controlling publication of the information regarding the particular application in accordance with the user privacy indicator; and
when the particular application does not have an associated user privacy indicator, controlling publication of the information regarding the particular application in accordance with the global privacy indicator associated with the particular application.

11. A user device comprising:
non-transitory memory storing:
a plurality of applications; and
a plurality of privacy indicators associated with the plurality of applications, each application having a global privacy indicator associated therewith indicating a default degree of privacy to be applied to the application that is based on collective privacy settings of previous users of the application, and at least one of the plurality of applications having a respective user privacy indicator associated therewith that indicates a user defined degree of privacy to be applied to the application, the user defined degree of privacy being provided by a user of the user device; and

a data processing device in communication with the non-transitory memory and executing instructions that cause the data processing device to:
receive a request to publish information regarding a particular application of the plurality of applications;
determine whether the particular application has a user privacy indicator associated therewith;
when the particular application has an associated user privacy indicator, control publication of the information regarding the particular application in accordance with the user privacy indicator; and
when the particular application does not have an associated user privacy indicator, control publication of the information regarding the particular application in accordance with the global privacy indicator associated with the particular application.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the request to publish information regarding the particular information is a request to display an icon of the particular application in a graphical user interface of the user device.

Assignees

• Quixey Inc

Inventors

• Patil Sameer
• Glover Eric
• Savliwala Taher
• Mark Gilead

Classifications

• G06F21/62

  Protecting access to data via a platform, e.g. using keys or access control rules · CPC title

• G06Q30/0256

  User search · CPC title

• G06F21/60 Primary

  Protecting data · CPC title

• G06F21/6245 Primary

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

• G06F2221/2111

  Location-sensitive, e.g. geographical location, GPS · CPC title