This disclosure generally relates to shared computing resources.
A mobile electronic device, such as a smartphone, tablet device, laptop computer, etc., has general computing capabilities. The mobile electronic device may execute one or more applications such as for example, communications through short-message service (SMS), communications through multimedia-messaging service (MMS), accessing e-mail, accessing Internet content, communications through a short-range wireless (e.g. infrared or BLUETOOTH), business applications, gaming, or photography using a camera integrated into the mobile electronic device. A smartphone is a particular class of mobile electronic device with telephony capabilities provided through a radio-frequency (RF) communication link whilst moving within a geographic area. The smartphone may have a touch sensor integrated with a display screen, where the touch sensor detects touch inputs and the display screen displays content. The smartphone connects to a cellular network for access to the public telephone network and Internet content.
As part of the trust-based authentication procedure, the user may receive authentication data associated with shared device 4, as illustrated by interaction 60 in
In particular embodiments, verification authority 31 may authenticate mobile device 10, shared device 4, or any combination of shared device 4 and mobile devices 10 through the access data transmitted by the application on mobile device 10, as illustrated by interaction 62 in
In particular embodiments, verification authority 31 authenticates the access data, that includes authentication data associated with shared device 4 and the digital credential associated with mobile device 10, transmitted by the application on mobile device 10. Verification authority 31 may compare the access data with verification data associated with shared device 4 and mobile device 10 stored on verification authority 31. As an example and not by way of limitation, the authentication manager of a social-networking system may act as the verification authority 31 and may compare the authentication data associated with shared device 4 and transmitted by mobile device 10 with the verification data stored on the social-networking system. As another example, the social-networking system may compare information in the authentication cookie transmitted by mobile device 10 with the verification data stored on the social-networking system.
Verification authority 31 may transmit a signed digital certificate to shared device 4 in response to authenticating the access data, as illustrated by interaction 64 of
In particular embodiments, verification authority 31 may establish a trust metric for mobile device 10 or shared device 4. System-state or configuration information of mobile device 10 may be transmitted to verification authority 31. As an example and not by way of limitation, mobile device 10 may include a trusted-platform module (TPM) that provides system-state information detailing the configuration of mobile device 10 and including data that indicates which applications are installed on mobile device 10. Moreover, verification authority 31 may access an application store, such as for example GOOGLE PLAY or APP STORE, to obtain a unique signature for each application installed on mobile device 10 according to the system-state data. In particular embodiments, the system-state information of mobile device 10 may be used to provide a trust metric for mobile device 10. As an example and not by way of limitation, the authentication manager of social-networking system 30 may compare the information provided by the TPM of mobile device 10 with the unique signatures of the applications installed on mobile device 10. In particular embodiments, a discrepancy between the system-state information and the signatures of the applications installed on mobile device 10 may indicate mobile device 10 has been compromised. A compromised mobile device 10 may be denied access to a service hosted by verification authority 31 or to shared device 4.
In particular embodiments, shared device 4 is registered with verification authority 31. In particular embodiments, verification authority 31 may scan shared device 4 to detect the presence of viruses or malware on shared device 4. Moreover, verification authority 31 may determine the configuration of shared device 4 including such as for example, the installed software and the versions of the software, operating system, or security patches, that are installed on shared device 4. In particular embodiments, verification authority 31 may collect statistics on the effectiveness of different anti-virus software by tracking the anti-virus software installed on shared device 4 and other devices registered with verification authority 31 and the number of viruses or malware found on those devices.
Verification authority 31 may provide a trust-based metric on mobile device 10 of the user indicating the “trustworthiness” of shared device 4. In particular embodiments, prior to accessing shared device 4, a social-networking system acting as a verification authority 31 may access the social graph and action store to determine if other users in the social graph of the user of mobile device 10 have previously accessed shared device 4. As described below, the social graph stores connections each user has with other users of a social-networking system and the action store stores actions that have been performed by the users of the social-networking system. In particular embodiments, verification authority 31 may transmit one or more names and/or images of other users of the social graph (e.g. as a “facepile”) who have previously accessed shared device 10. In particular embodiments, verification authority 31 may present a trust-based metric for shared device 4 based on the number of other users in the social graph of the user who have previously accessed shared device 4 and subsequently had their account on a service hosted by verification authority 31 compromised. As described below, the social graph of the user may include information of connections the user has with other users of an online service. In particular embodiments, the social graph may also include information of second-order connections, thereby forming a non-extended or extended social graph based at least in part on whether the other users or nodes have direct or indirect connection respectively with the user. In particular embodiments, the trust-based metric may include data from the extended social graph of the user to include users who are not directly connected to the user of mobile device 10. As an example and not by way of limitation, data from the extended social graph in cases where the amount of data available from the non-extended social graph is too small to generate a meaningful trust-based metric. As an example and not by way of limitation, verification authority 31 may determine an account is compromised based on whether the user reset their account password subsequent to accessing shared device 10 within a pre-determined period of time.
In particular embodiments, the names and/or images of users in the social graph and the trust-based metric may be displayed on the display of mobile device 10 and the user may decide whether to proceed with accessing shared device 4. Although this disclosure describes a particular trust-based metric that includes particular elements, this disclosure contemplates a trust-based metric that includes any suitable elements, such as for example numerical or graphical data, or a natural language message. As an example and not by way of limitation, verification authority 31 may present a message stating “13 of your friends have used this machine without issue.” As another example, verification authority 31 may provide a pie chart indicating a number of users in the social graph that had an issue with their account subsequent to accessing shared device 4 out of the total number of users in the social graph that accessed shared device 4.
A user may interact with social-networking system 30 using shared device 4 in conjunction with mobile device 10. Shared device 4 and mobile device 10 may communicate with social-networking system 30 via an application such as a web browser or native application executed on processor of shared device 4 and mobile device 10. As an example and not by way of limitation, interactions between shared device 10 and social-networking system 30 may include viewing profiles of other users of social-networking system 30, contributing and interacting with media items, joining groups, listing and confirming attendance at events, checking in at locations, liking certain pages, creating pages, and performing other tasks that facilitate social interaction. In particular embodiments, shared device 4 may be a publically accessible computing resource, such as for example a shared computer at an Internet café or public library, and mobile device 10 may be a smartphone, as described above. In other particular embodiments, shared device 4 may be a virtualized computing resource or a WI-FI or other wireless access point in addition to or instead of a shared computer. Although this disclosure describes and illustrates particular interactions between particular devices and the example social-networking system, this disclosure contemplates any suitable interactions between any suitable devices and any suitable system.
Social-networking system 30 includes components used to store information about users and objects represented in the social networking environment and relationships among the users and objects. The social-networking system 30 may include components enabling interactions with shared device 4 or mobile device 10, as described below. Components of social-networking system 30 may be hosted on one or more servers. This disclosure contemplates any suitable servers, such as servers that are internal to social-networking system 30 or external servers 32. As an example and not by way of limitation, one or more servers may each include one or more advertising servers, applications servers, catalog servers, communications servers, database servers, exchange servers, fax servers, file servers, game servers, home servers, mail servers, message servers, news servers, name or domain-name servers (DNS), print servers, proxy servers, sound servers, standalone servers, web servers, or web-feed servers. In particular embodiments, a server includes hardware, software, or both for providing the functionality of the server. As an example and not by way of limitation, a server that operates as a web server may be capable of hosting websites containing web pages or elements of web pages and include appropriate hardware, software, or both for doing so. In particular embodiments, a web server may host Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML) or other suitable files or dynamically create or constitute files for web pages on request. In response to a Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP) or other request from shared device 4 or mobile device 10, the web server may communicate one or more such files to mobile device 10. As another example, a server that operates as a database server may be capable of providing an interface for interacting with one or more data stores (such as, for example, action store 38 described below). Where appropriate, a server may include one or more servers; be unitary or distributed; span multiple locations; span multiple machines; span multiple datacenters; or reside in a cloud, which may include one or more cloud components in one or more networks.
A social graph 36 of social-networking system 30 stores the connections each user has with other users of social-networking system 30. In particular embodiments, social graph 36 may also store second-order connections. The connections may thus be direct or indirect. As an example and not by way of limitation, if user A is a first-order connection of user B but not of user C, and B is a first-order connection of C, then C is a second-order connection of A on social graph 36. An action store 38 stores actions that have been performed by the users of social-networking system 30, along with an indication of the time associated with those actions and references to any objects related to the actions. Action store 38 may store statistics for specified categories of actions. As an example and not by way of limitation, for a given user, action store 38 may contain a number of stories posted in 30 days by a user, a number of photos posted by the user in 30 days, or a number of distinct users that received comments of the user within the past 30 days. For a given connection between two users, user A and user B, action store 38 may contain actions such as the number of profile page views from user A to user B, the number of photo page views from user A to user B, and the number of times user A and user B were tagged in the same photo, and these actions may be associated with a timestamp or may be filtered by a cutoff (e.g., 24 hours, 90 days, etc.). The actions recorded in action store 38 may be farmed actions, which are performed by a user in response to the social-networking system 30 providing suggested choices of actions to the user.
A predictor module 40 is responsible for computing a set predictor functions that predict whether a user will perform a set of corresponding actions. Each predictor function may be representative of a user's interest in a particular action associated with the predictor function. The historical activity of a user may be used as a signal of a user's future interest in the same activity. In particular embodiments, the predictor function is generated using a machine-learned algorithm, that is trained using a user's historical activity associated with an action. Predictor module 40 thus provides a predictor function for each of a set of actions, where a predictor function may take as an input the a user's historical activity and then outputs a measure of the likelihood that the user will engage in the corresponding activity.
An authentication manager 42 may allow users to log into social-networking system 30 from mobile device 10 or shared device 4 through an application supporting social-networking system 30. An application programming interface (API) 44 works in conjunction with authentication manager 40 to validate users via external applications 46A-B stored on external server 32. In particular embodiments, authentication manager 42 in conjunction with API 44 may periodically verify account information of the user.
An affinity module 48 provides a measure of affinity based on input data about the user from the social-networking system 30 using the predictor functions. Various processes may request a measure of affinity from affinity module 48. As an example and not by way of limitation, the processes may include basic social-networking system functionality, such as for example newsfeed algorithms, advertising-targeting algorithms, or friend-suggestion algorithms. Other processes that request measures of affinity may be executed by one or more platform applications 50A-B, which are applications that operate within the social-networking system 30 but may be provided by third parties other than an operator of the social-networking system 30. Platform applications 50A-B may include social games, messaging services, or any suitable application that uses the social platform provided by social-networking system 30.
In particular embodiments, the processes requesting a measure of affinity for a user may include one or more external applications 46A-B executed on external server 32. External applications 46A-B may interact with the social-networking system 30 via API 44. External applications 46A-B can perform various operations supported by the API 44, such as enabling users to send each other messages or SMS messages through social-networking system 30 or showing advertisements routed through social-networking system 30. Herein, reference to SMS messages encompasses messages in text and other forms of content, such as for example, images or links to web content. Although this disclosure describes and illustrates a particular social-networking system having a particular configuration of particular components, this disclosure contemplates a social-networking system having any suitable configuration of any suitable components.
In particular embodiments, mobile device 10 includes a processor 16, memory 18, storage 22, an input/output (I/O) interface 24, a communication component 20, and a bus 26. Although this disclosure describes and illustrates a particular mobile device having a particular number of particular components in a particular arrangement, this disclosure contemplates any suitable mobile device having any suitable number of any suitable components in any suitable arrangement. In particular embodiments, processor 16 includes hardware for executing instructions, such as those making up a computer program or application. As an example and not by way of limitation, to execute instructions, processor 16 may retrieve (or fetch) the instructions from an internal register, an internal cache, memory 18, or storage 22; decode and execute them; and then write one or more results to an internal register, an internal cache, memory 18, or storage 22.
In particular embodiments, processor 16 may include one or more internal caches for data, instructions, or addresses. This disclosure contemplates processor 16 including any suitable number of any suitable internal caches, where appropriate. As an example and not by way of limitation, processor 16 may include one or more instruction caches, one or more data caches, and one or more translation lookaside buffers (TLBs). Instructions in the instruction caches may be copies of instructions in memory 18 or storage 22, and the instruction caches may speed up retrieval of those instructions by processor 16. Data in the data caches may be copies of data in memory 18 or storage 22 for instructions executing at processor 16 to operate on; the results of previous instructions executed at processor 16 for access by subsequent instructions executing at processor 16 or for writing to memory 18 or storage 22; or other suitable data. The data caches may speed up read or write operations by processor 16. The TLBs may speed up virtual-address translation for processor 16. In particular embodiments, processor 16 may include one or more internal registers for data, instructions, or addresses. This disclosure contemplates a processor 16 including any suitable number of any suitable internal registers, where appropriate. Where appropriate, processor 16 may include one or more arithmetic logic units (ALUs); be a multi-core processor; or include one or more processors. Although this disclosure describes and illustrates a particular processor, this disclosure contemplates any suitable processor.
In particular embodiments, software executed by processor 16 may include an operating system (OS). The OS may include a kernel or any number of device drivers corresponding to one or more hardware components of mobile device 10. As an example and not by limitation, if mobile device 10 is a smartphone, then the OS may be a mobile operating system, such as for example, WINDOWS Phone, ANDROID, SYMBIAN, IOS, or BADA. In particular embodiments, one or more software applications may be executed on mobile device 10. In particular embodiments, the applications may be native applications installed and residing on mobile device 10. As an example and not by way of limitation, an application (e.g. GOOGLE MAPS) may display a map on a touch screen, search for addresses and businesses, or provide directions to a geographic location; a second application may provide remote access to email; a third application (i.e. a web browser) may enable the device user to browse and search the Internet; a fourth application may control a camera to take photos or record videos; and a fifth application may allow the device user to receive and initiate voice-over Internet Protocol (VoIP) or cellular network calls. The software applications may have a user interface (UI) and may implement one or more specific functionalities. The software applications may include one or more software modules implementing the specific functionalities. The executable code of the software applications may be stored in memory 18 or storage 22 of mobile device 10.
In particular embodiments, memory 18 includes main memory for storing instructions for processor 16 to execute or data for processor 16 to operate on. As an example and not by way of limitation, mobile device 10 may load instructions from storage 22 or another source (such as, for example, another mobile device 10) to memory 18. Processor 16 may then load the instructions from memory 18 to an internal register or internal cache. To execute the instructions, processor 16 may retrieve the instructions from the internal register or internal cache and decode them. During or after execution of the instructions, processor 16 may write one or more results (which may be intermediate or final results) to the internal register or internal cache. Processor 16 may then write one or more of those results to memory 18. In particular embodiments, processor 16 executes only instructions in one or more internal registers or internal caches or in memory 18 (as opposed to storage 22 or elsewhere) and operates only on data in one or more internal registers or internal caches or in memory 18 (as opposed to storage 22 or elsewhere).
One or more memory buses (which may each include an address bus and a data bus) may couple processor 16 to memory 18. Bus 26 may include one or more memory buses, as described below. In particular embodiments, one or more memory management units (MMUs) reside between processor 16 and memory 18 and facilitate accesses to memory 18 requested by processor 16. In particular embodiments, memory 18 includes random-access memory (RAM). This RAM may be volatile memory, where appropriate Where appropriate, this RAM may be dynamic RAM (DRAM) or static RAM (SRAM). Moreover, where appropriate, this RAM may be single-ported or multi-ported RAM. This disclosure contemplates any suitable RAM. Memory 18 may include one or more memories, where appropriate. Although this disclosure describes and illustrates particular memory, this disclosure contemplates any suitable memory.
In particular embodiments, storage 22 includes mass storage for data or instructions. As an example and not by way of limitation, storage 22 may include a hard-disk drive (HDD), a floppy disk drive, flash memory, or a combination of two or more of these. Storage 22 may include removable or non-removable (or fixed) media, where appropriate. Storage 22 may be internal or external to mobile device 10, where appropriate. In particular embodiments, storage 22 is non-volatile, solid-state memory. In particular embodiments, storage 22 includes read-only memory (ROM). Where appropriate, this ROM may be mask-programmed ROM, programmable ROM (PROM), erasable PROM (EPROM), electrically erasable PROM (EEPROM), electrically alterable ROM (EAROM), or flash memory or a combination of two or more of these. This disclosure contemplates mass storage 22 taking any suitable physical form. Storage 22 may include one or more storage control units facilitating communication between processor 16 and storage 22, where appropriate. Where appropriate, storage 22 may include one or more storages 22. Although this disclosure describes and illustrates particular storage, this disclosure contemplates any suitable storage.
In particular embodiments, I/O interface 24 includes hardware, software, or both providing one or more interfaces for communication between mobile device 10 and one or more I/O devices. Mobile device 10 may include one or more of these I/O devices, where appropriate. One or more of these I/O devices may enable communication between a user and mobile device 10. As an example and not by way of limitation, an I/O device may include a keyboard, keypad, one or more sensors, touch screen, microphone, monitor, mouse, printer, scanner, speaker, digital still camera, stylus, trackball, video camera, another suitable I/O device or a combination of two or more of these. This disclosure contemplates any suitable I/O devices and any suitable I/O interfaces 24 for them. Where appropriate, I/O interface 24 may include one or more device or software drivers enabling processor 16 to drive one or more of these I/O devices. I/O interface 24 may include one or more I/O interfaces 24, where appropriate. Although this disclosure describes and illustrates a particular I/O interface, this disclosure contemplates any suitable I/O interface.
In particular embodiments, communication component 20 includes hardware, software, or both providing one or more interfaces for communication (such as, for example, packet-based communication) between mobile device 10 and one or more other mobile devices 10 or one or more networks. As an example and not by way of limitation, communication component 20 may include a network interface controller (NIC) or network adapter for communicating with an Ethernet or other wire-based network or a wireless NIC (WNIC), wireless adapter for communicating with a wireless network, such as for example a WI-FI network or modem for communicating with a cellular network, such third generation mobile telecommunications (3G), or Long Term Evolution (LTE) network. This disclosure contemplates any suitable network and any suitable communication component 20 for it. As an example and not by way of limitation, mobile device 10 may communicate with an ad hoc network, a personal area network (PAN), a LAN, a WAN, a MAN, or one or more portions of the Internet or a combination of two or more of these. One or more portions of one or more of these networks may be wired or wireless. As another example, mobile device 10 may communicate with a wireless PAN (WPAN) (such as, for example, a BLUETOOTH WPAN), a WI-FI network, a WI-MAX network, a cellular telephone network (such as, for example, a Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), 3G, or LTE network), or other suitable wireless network or a combination of two or more of these. Mobile device 10 may include any suitable communication component for any of these networks, where appropriate. Communication component 20 may include one or more communication components, where appropriate. Although this disclosure describes and illustrates a particular communication component, this disclosure contemplates any suitable communication component.
In particular embodiments, bus 26 includes hardware, software, or both coupling components of mobile device 10 to each other. As an example and not by way of limitation, bus 26 may include a graphics bus, an Enhanced Industry Standard Architecture (EISA) bus, a front-side bus (FSB), a HYPERTRANSPORT (HT) interconnect, an Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) bus, an INFINIBAND interconnect, a low-pin-count (LPC) bus, a memory bus, a Micro Channel Architecture (MCA) bus, a serial advanced technology attachment (SATA) bus, a Video Electronics Standards Association local (VLB) bus, or another suitable bus or a combination of two or more of these. Bus 26 may include one or more buses 26, where appropriate. Although this disclosure describes and illustrates a particular bus, this disclosure contemplates any suitable bus or interconnect.
Herein, a computer-readable non-transitory storage medium or media may include one or more semiconductor-based or other integrated circuits (ICs) (such, as for example, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) or application-specific ICs (ASICs)), hard disk drives (HDDs), hybrid hard drives (HHDs), optical discs, optical disc drives (ODDs), magneto-optical discs, magneto-optical drives, floppy diskettes, floppy disk drives (FDDs), magnetic tapes, solid-state drives (SSDs), RAM-drives, SECURE DIGITAL cards or drives, any other suitable computer-readable non-transitory storage media, or any suitable combination of two or more of these, where appropriate. A computer-readable non-transitory storage medium may be volatile, non-volatile, or a combination of volatile and non-volatile, where appropriate.
Herein, “or” is inclusive and not exclusive, unless expressly indicated otherwise or indicated otherwise by context. Therefore, herein, “A or B” means “A, B, or both,” unless expressly indicated otherwise or indicated otherwise by context. Moreover, “and” is both joint and several, unless expressly indicated otherwise or indicated otherwise by context. Therefore, herein, “A and B” means “A and B, jointly or severally,” unless expressly indicated otherwise or indicated otherwise by context.
This disclosure encompasses all changes, substitutions, variations, alterations, and modifications to the example embodiments herein that a person having ordinary skill in the art would comprehend. Moreover, although this disclosure describes and illustrates respective embodiments herein as including particular components, elements, functions, operations, or steps, any of these embodiments may include any combination or permutation of any of the components, elements, functions, operations, or steps described or illustrated anywhere herein that a person having ordinary skill in the art would comprehend. Furthermore, reference in the appended claims to an apparatus or system or a component of an apparatus or system being adapted to, arranged to, capable of, configured to, enabled to, operable to, or operative to perform a particular function encompasses that apparatus, system, component, whether or not it or that particular function is activated, turned on, or unlocked, as long as that apparatus, system, or component is so adapted, arranged, capable, configured, enabled, operable, or operative.
This application is a continuation under 35 U.S.C. §120 of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/498,677, filed 26 Sep. 2014, which is a continuation under 35 U.S.C. §120 of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/541,244, filed 3 Jul. 2012, both of which are incorporated by reference.
Number | Date | Country | |
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Parent | 14498677 | Sep 2014 | US |
Child | 14754590 | US | |
Parent | 13541244 | Jul 2012 | US |
Child | 14498677 | US |