Patent ID: 8955145
Filing Date: 2015-02-10
Classification: G06F,H04L

Abstract:
1. A computer implemented method comprising: maintaining a user account for each of a plurality of users of a social networking system, each user account comprising social network information associated with a respective user of the plurality of users; establishing a plurality of connections, each connection between two or more of the user accounts; maintaining, by the social networking system, one or more privacy settings for a subject user of the plurality of users, the maintained privacy settings selected by the subject user and containing rules for access to social network information associated with the subject user, each rule making one or more items of the social network information associated with the subject user either available or unavailable to one or more other users of the plurality of users based on the established connections between the subject user and the one or more other users; receiving a request from an external system for information associated with the subject user of the social networking system, the external system outside of the social networking system, the external system configured to provide an online service to the subject user, and the external system further configured to personalize the online service with information associated with the subject user obtained from the social networking system; establishing, with the external system, a predetermined time period for the external system to delete at least a portion of the information associated with the subject user of the social networking system and shared with the external system by the social networking system; and transmitting a response to the external system, the response comprising information responsive to the request for information associated with the subject user based on the maintained privacy settings, the external system configured to delete at least a portion of the information associated with the subject user that was transmitted to the external system by the social networking system.