Web Comment Widget Using Access Control Lists for Privacy
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Solution Overview
Problem
Web pages often do not support interactions between users from a social graph, limiting the ability to provide comments restricted to specific groups of users, which can disrupt the existing presentation of public comments and fail to maintain user privacy.
Innovation Solution
A widget or plugin is introduced that allows users to post comments restricted to specific groups of users, using access control lists to manage permissions and display these comments separately from public comments, ensuring compatibility with the user's social graph and maintaining confidentiality.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If public comments are displayed on a web page, then user interaction is enabled, but user privacy is compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments comments into two distinct types: public comments and restricted comments. Restricted comments are further segmented by access control lists that define specific scopes of users who can view them. This segmentation allows the system to maintain both public interaction and private conversation capabilities simultaneously, resolving the contradiction between enabling user interaction and protecting user privacy.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies local quality by assigning different visibility properties to different comments based on their scope. Public comments have global visibility while restricted comments have localized visibility limited to specific user groups. The access control lists create localized access permissions that preserve privacy for specific conversations while maintaining overall system transparency.
2Loss of information
If comments are restricted to specific users, then user privacy is maintained, but web page compatibility with social graph is lost
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces access control lists as an intermediary mechanism that bridges the web page commenting system and the user's social graph. The access control lists serve as a mediator that translates social graph relationships into comment visibility permissions, enabling restricted commenting without requiring direct integration between the web page and social graph services.
Solution Approach 2:
The access control lists provide universal functionality by working with any user grouping mechanism. They can restrict comments to individual users, groups of users, or entire organizations, making the restricted commenting feature adaptable to various social graph structures and user relationship models without losing compatibility.
3Loss of information
If restricted comments are displayed separately, then privacy is maintained, but comment presentation is disrupted
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements dynamic presentation where restricted comments adapt their display based on the current user's permissions. The system dynamically determines which restricted comments the current user can access and displays them appropriately, while maintaining a consistent overall comment structure. This dynamic behavior preserves privacy while maintaining presentation integrity.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies local quality to the comment presentation by applying different display rules to different comments based on their scope and the user's permissions. Public comments are displayed with standard visibility while restricted comments are displayed with conditional visibility based on access control lists, creating localized presentation variations that maintain overall structural integrity.
4Adaptability or versatility
If access control lists are implemented, then comment scope is controlled, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements self-service functionality where the system automatically manages access control list creation and updates based on user actions. When users create restricted comments, the system automatically generates appropriate access control lists and manages permissions without requiring manual configuration. This automation reduces the perceived complexity for users while maintaining sophisticated scope control capabilities.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies preliminary action by pre-defining user groups and access control lists before restricted comments are created. The system prepares the access control infrastructure in advance, so when restricted comments are posted, the scope control is already in place. This preliminary setup simplifies the comment creation process while maintaining comprehensive scope control.
Data Source
AI summary
The subject technology discloses configurations for providing comments restricted to a set of users for web content on a web page. In one implementation, a widget is provided that enables a content provider or a user to provide comments restricted to the set of users in a manner that does not disrupt an existing implementation or presentation of publicly viewable web content that already provides public comments from visitors of the web site. In particular, the widget may be provided as a plugin or extension in the user's web browser, or be integrated in the web page by the content provider. The scope of the comments restricted to the set of users are defined by one or more access control lists, which allow the comments restricted to the set of users to be only viewable by a specified set of users (and not viewable by other users).