Affinity Plane Access Control for Granular Resource Sharing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current online social networking systems lack a flexible, fine-grained, and user-friendly mechanism for controlling access to digital resources, often making resources available to all within a user's network, leading to unintended sharing and potential harm.
Innovation Solution
The system introduces affinity planes and sectors to control access, where users can associate connections, resources, and domains, allowing for granular access control through graphical user interfaces that dynamically customize content based on relationships and domain associations.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If a binary friend/non-friend distinction is used for access control, then the system is simple to operate, but fine-grained control over resource access is lost
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the binary friend/non-friend distinction into multiple affinity planes (e.g., close friends, acquaintances, professional contacts) and sectors (e.g., personal, work, hobbies). This segmentation allows users to assign different levels of access control granularity while maintaining ease of operation through automated classification algorithms that sort connections into appropriate affinity planes and sectors based on interaction patterns and user preferences.
2Productivity
If all connections are granted access to resources, then resource sharing is maximized, but unintended sharing and security risks increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by assigning different access permissions to different affinity planes and sectors for the same resource. For example, a user can allow 'close friends' affinity plane access to personal photos while restricting 'professional contacts' affinity plane access to work documents. The system evaluates each connection's specific affinity plane and sector associations to determine appropriate access levels, ensuring that resource sharing is maximized for authorized users while preventing unintended sharing with unauthorized users.
3Measurement precision
If fine-grained access control is implemented through multiple affinity planes and sectors, then control precision is improved, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements preliminary action by automatically classifying connections into affinity planes and sectors based on interaction patterns, relationship data, and user preferences before access control decisions are needed. The system pre-establishes the complex multi-dimensional access control framework, so when a resource access request occurs, the evaluation is straightforward by checking pre-computed affinity plane and sector associations rather than calculating complex permissions in real-time.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces affinity planes and sectors as intermediary layers between users and resources. These intermediaries abstract the complexity of fine-grained access control, allowing users to manage access through high-level affinity plane and sector assignments rather than configuring individual permissions for each resource-connection pair. The intermediaries handle the complex evaluation logic, simplifying the user interface while maintaining precise control capabilities.
Data Source
AI summary
A first person (which may be a natural person, organization, brand, or other entity) has one or more affinity planes. Each affinity plane represents a distinct closeness of relationship with the first person. The first person also has one or more sectors, each of which may be associated with a domain. Each of the other people may be associated with zero or more of the first person's affinity planes and zero or more of the first person's sectors. Each of the first person's resources may be associated with zero or more of the first person's affinity planes and zero or more of the first person's sectors. A request by one of the other people to access one of the first person's resources is granted based on the overlap between the affinity planes and sectors associated with the requestor and the affinity planes and sectors associated with the requested resource.