Patent ID: 8615552

Claim:
A method for sharing cloud data resources among associated users comprising: receiving a first sharing request from a first associate user to share a first cloud data resource owned by a primary user, wherein the first associate user and the primary user are associates of each other in a first social network; receiving one or more sharing requests from other associate users to share the first cloud data resource, wherein each other associate user is an associate of the primary user in a second social network, wherein the first and second social networks may be the same or different; in response to receiving the first sharing request, retrieving a sharing profile associated with the primary user from a storage area, wherein the sharing profile comprises a list of sharable cloud data resources owned by the primary user, a list of associate users who are associates of the primary user from one or more social networks, wherein the list of associate users specifies a rank for each associate user relative to each other associate user in the list, and one or more sharing rules, wherein each sharing rule specifies a condition on which an associate user member of the list of associates is permitted to share one or more cloud data resources from the list of sharable cloud data resources; and in response to retrieving the sharing profile, evaluating the first sharing request by determining if the conditions in the sharing rules are satisfied, and by comparing the rank for the first associate user and said other associate users, wherein if all of the conditions of each sharing rule in the sharing profile are satisfied, and the first associate user is relatively higher-ranked than any of said other associate users, then the first cloud data resource is made available for sharing by the first associate user, and wherein if the first associate user is lower-ranked than any of said other associate users, or if one or more of the conditions of the sharing rules are not satisfied, then the first sharing request is denied and the first associate user is not permitted to share the first cloud data resource.