Patent ID: 9704203
Date: 2017-07-11
CPC Classifications: G06Q

Claim:
1. A method for providing a privacy score for a target user in a social network utilizing an electronic computing device, the method comprising: retrieving a current privacy setting for a common profile item in the social network, wherein the current privacy setting indicates whether a common profile item is private or shared, wherein the common profile item corresponds with the target user in the social network and all other users in the social network, wherein the common profile item is a profile item shared between the target user and all other users, and wherein the common profile item is one of a plurality of common profile items; calculating a common profile item sensitivity value for the common profile item based on the current privacy setting for all users in the social network, wherein the sensitivity value represents a proportion of the common profile item that is shared by the target user with all other users, wherein the current privacy setting represents a value corresponding with whether or not the common profile item is shared, wherein the sensitivity value is computed in accordance with the formula β calculating a common profile item visibility value for the common profile item based on the current privacy setting and the sensitivity value for the common profile item, wherein the visibility value represents a product of the sensitivity value and a proportion of sharing of the common profile items for the target user; calculating the privacy score of the target user; displaying the privacy score for the target user; and displaying a privacy bar for displaying privacy settings relative to a continuum, the privacy bar including a dragging scroll bar for allowing a user to choose a selected privacy setting such that settings for the common profile item in the social network are automatically changed to reflect the selected privacy setting.