Selective Content Accessibility in a Social Network

Abstract

A social networking service encourages users to post content to a communication channel with varying levels of accessibility to other users. Users may select how content will be published and control the accessibility of uploaded content using a privacy setting for each content item that the user posts. The privacy setting defines, or identifies, the set of connections who may view the posted content item. The posted content item is placed in a particular communication channel in the social networking service, such as a newsfeed or stream, where the content item can be viewed by those who are permitted to view it according to its associated privacy setting. Varying granularities of privacy settings provide flexibility for content accessibility on a social networking service.

1 . A computer-implemented method for posting content with selective accessibility on a social networking service, the method comprising:
 receiving a content item from a user of the social networking service;   receiving a selection of a privacy setting to be associated with the content item from the user, the privacy setting establishing one or more connections allowed to access the content item;   placing the content item into an electronic communication channel of the social networking service; and   making the content item accessible to one or more connections via the communication channel, where accessibility to the one or more connections is determined by the privacy setting selected by the user.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 blocking access to the content item for connections not identified by the privacy setting.   
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the privacy setting allows the content item to be searchable on the Internet. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the privacy setting identifies all users of the social networking service. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the privacy setting identifies all of the user's connections on the social networking service. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the privacy setting identifies a subset of the user's connections on the social networking service. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the privacy setting identifies one or more connections to exclude from the one or more connections. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the privacy setting includes a user-defined list of connections. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the privacy setting includes an automatic grouping of connections. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 9 , wherein the automatic grouping includes connections with a high affinity with the user. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 9 , wherein the automatic grouping includes connections sharing a common characteristic with the user. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the privacy setting is set to a default setting. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 responsive to receiving a selection of a privacy setting to be associated with the content item from preventing the content item from being posted to a communication channel accessible to one or more connections, omitting the content item from the communication channel accessible to the one or more connections.   
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 13 , wherein the selection is performed by the user. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 13 , wherein the selection is dynamically selected based on the user's affinity for the one or more connections. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the content item is associated with a data item having a separate privacy setting. 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 16 , wherein the separate privacy setting identifies one or more connections allowed to access the data item. 
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 16 , wherein the data item comprises another content item posted by one of the user's connections. 
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 16 , wherein the data item comprises location information. 
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 16 , wherein the data item comprises metadata about the content item. 
     
     
         21 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 receiving a new privacy setting for the content item from the user, the new privacy setting identifying one or more connections different from the previously identified one or more connections; and   modifying the accessibility of the posted content item in the communication channel according to the new privacy setting.   
     
     
         22 . A computerized system for posting content with selective accessibility on a social networking service, the system comprising:
 a user profile store for storing profiles of users of the social networking service, each profile comprising grouping data of the profile's connections; and   a web server comprising,
 a content generation module for receiving a content item with an associated privacy setting identifying one or more connections allowed to access the content item, 
 a content publishing module for posting the content item into an electronic communication channel of the social networking service and publishing the content item to one or more connections via the communication channel, wherein the content item is published subject to the privacy setting associated with the content item, and 
 a privacy module for managing the access to the content item. 
   
     
     
         23 . A method for managing communication of content within a social networking service, the method comprising:
 maintaining in a profile database a set of user profiles for users of the social networking service and a set of connections among the user profiles;   providing an interface for users of the social networking service enabling users to post content items and to specify privacy settings for accessibility of the posted content items;   maintaining in a content database a plurality of received content items and associated privacy settings from users posting content items via the interface;   for each of one or more of the users of the social networking service, generating a stream of content items for the user based on the user's connection to other users who posted the content items and limited according to the privacy settings associated therewith; and   providing the streams of content items to users of the social networking service via a computer display.   
     
     
         24 . The method of  claim 23 , wherein the content database maintains groupings of user profiles for users of the social networking service according to common characteristics of the user profiles and wherein the privacy settings are specified by selecting one or more of the groupings via the interface. 
     
     
         25 . The method of  claim 23 , wherein the content database maintains user-defined groupings of user profiles for users of the social networking service and wherein the privacy settings are specified by selecting one or more of the user-defined groupings via the interface. 
     
     
         26 . The method of  claim 23 , wherein the privacy settings are specified by selecting one or more users that are blocked from accessing the content items associated with a particular privacy settings. 
     
     
         27 . The method of  claim 23 , wherein the users comprise entities.