Social Network Contact Synchronization via Segmented Storage
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Solution Overview
Problem
Social networking systems face challenges in efficiently updating and managing contact information across user profiles, particularly in ensuring privacy settings and synchronizing data between user devices and the social network platform.
Innovation Solution
The system receives contact information from a user, checks if it is already in the user's profile, prompts the user to add or update the information, and stores it in either a public or private data structure based on user preferences, allowing for synchronization without requiring direct linkage between user contacts and the social network.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If contact information is automatically added to user profiles, then contact information management efficiency is improved, but user privacy control is compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The contact information storage is segmented into two distinct data structures: public contact information visible to others and private contact information visible only to the uploading user. This segmentation allows the system to efficiently store and manage contact information while simultaneously protecting user privacy by giving users control over what information is publicly visible versus what remains private.
2Stability of the object's composition
If contact information is synchronized between user devices and social network, then data consistency is improved, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the complexity of contact information synchronization from the user device and relocates it to the social network server. The server handles the synchronization logic, duplicate detection, and data structure management, while the user device simply uploads contact information and receives updates. This extraction maintains data consistency across devices without increasing the complexity of individual user devices.
3Manufacturing precision
If duplicate contact information is prevented, then data quality is improved, but processing time increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by maintaining an index of existing contact information on the server before new contact information is uploaded. When new contact information arrives, the system quickly checks this pre-existing index for duplicates using the contact's identifier (such as phone number or email), allowing for rapid duplicate detection without requiring time-consuming comparisons against all stored contact information.
Data Source
AI summary
A social networking system allows a first user to provide contact information for a second user via a synchronization or upload event from a computing device. The second user is prompted as to whether he or she wishes to share the received contact information on his public profile. If he or she responds affirmatively, the updated contact information is stored in association with the second user's profile on the social networking system. If the user responds negatively, the contact information is stored on the social networking system in association with the uploading user.