Hierarchical Class Trees for Cross-Platform Content Security
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current social web platforms lack effective control over user-created content (UCC) distribution and security, as users rely on site-specific security policies that do not extend beyond the hosting site, limiting individual control over their content's access and usage.
Innovation Solution
A data dictionary-enabled secure social web site allows users to create and manage hierarchical class trees with embedded security profiles, enabling them to control access and usage of their UCC across multiple platforms, ensuring compliance with their digital rights policies, even when sharing content with other users or sites.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If users rely on site-specific security policies to control their UCC, then security control is provided within the hosting site, but the security control cannot extend beyond the web site and users have no choice in the type of security provided
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a portable security profile as an intermediary component that mediates between the user's digital rights policies and the hosting social web site's security mechanisms. This security profile contains the user's preferred security settings and travels with the user's content across different platforms, enabling consistent security control without being bound to a single site's security policy
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements preliminary action by requiring users to pre-configure their security profiles and digital rights policies before sharing content. These security settings are established in advance and automatically applied when content is distributed to other users or platforms, eliminating the need for users to adapt to different site-specific security policies later
2Ease of operation
If a user downloads UCC from a web site, then the user gains access to the content, but the downloader is not required to abide by any particular security policy
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary anti-action by embedding security constraints directly into the downloaded content through watermarks, metadata, or cryptographic licenses. These pre-applied security measures automatically enforce the original creator's digital rights policies on the downloader, preventing unauthorized redistribution or misuse without requiring active monitoring or user compliance
3Reliability
If social web sites offer privacy controls, then users can control visibility of their UCC on that site, but the security cannot extend beyond the web site and cannot be allianced with other sites' security policies
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements universality by creating a standardized security profile format that can be recognized and enforced across multiple different social web platforms. This universal security mechanism allows users to maintain consistent privacy controls across different sites without needing to configure separate settings for each platform, effectively extending security scope beyond a single website
Data Source
AI summary
A method includes receiving, by a first computer, input from a first user. The method further includes creating, by the first computer, a hierarchical class tree implementing security profiles based on the input from the user. The hierarchical class tree identifies data, actions, and behaviors pertaining to content, and the security profiles restrict access and use of that user's content. The method also includes transmitting, by the first computer, a portion of the hierarchical class tree to a second computer. A corresponding apparatus is also provided.