Patent Document ID: 9419933
Application ID: 13895900
Patent Flag: 1

Claim One:
1. A computer-implemented method of controlling propagation of information posted on an online social network (OSN), the method comprising executing on a processor the steps of: receiving a message and an unwanted target for the message from a source user of the OSN; storing the message and the unwanted target on one or more computer readable media in operable communication with the processor; obtaining a friend/follower list associated with the source user on the OSN; constructing, from the friend/follower list and the unwanted target, a maximum circle of trust (MCT), the MCT comprising a largest set of trusted users of the OSN, wherein the MCT minimizes a probability that the message will be propagated to the unwanted target via the trusted users; and rendering the message on the OSN, wherein the message is visible on the OSN only to the trusted users indicated by the MCT, wherein constructing the MCT comprises executing on the processor the following steps: representing the source user's network as a directed graph with a tuple of probability <a si , p si >, where a si is a sharing probability from the source user s to a friend user i and each a si is defined as a si = an si ⁢ Ad / ad si Ad , where an si represents a numerator of a si , ad si represents a denominator of a si and Ad is the least common multiple of all denominators ad si ; performing phase 1 scaling by scaling a si by a factor A to provide a scaled sharing probability a si ′ = ⌊ an si A ⌋ , where A = ɛ ⁢ ⁢ max ⁢ { an si ⁢ Ad ad si | a si ⁢ p it ≤ τ } S n , ε>0, τ is a leakage probability to the unwanted user t, and S n is the number of friends i of the source user s; and performing phase 2 dynamic programming by performing a recursion function L i (a) for a=1 to S n , L i ⁡ ( a ) = { L i - 1 ⁡ ( a ) , if ⁢ ⁢ a < a i ⁢ min ⁢ { L i - 1 ⁡ ( a ) , L i - 1 ⁡ ( a - a si ′ ) + w i } , if ⁢ ⁢ a ≥ a i where L i (a) is the minimum leakage probability of a subset of s's first i friends with a elide of trust Ca having size equal to a and w i =−log(1−a si p it ) corresponding to the neighbor i of s; and wherein the MCT is arg max 1≦a≦S n {C a |L(a)≦τ}.