IP Library › Granted Patent US 12,355,784
Granted Patent B2
US 12,355,784 · App. 18/208,541 · Granted Jul 8, 2025

Additive friend suggestion for account security

Inventors: Jonathan Brody (Marina Del Rey, CA); Donald Giovannini (Venice, CA); Edward Koai (Santa Monica, CA); Jie Wu (Bellevue, WA); Lin Zhong (Medina, WA)
Assignee: Snap Inc.
H04L63/1416H04L63/1425H04L63/1475
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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 12,355,784
App. No.
18/208,541
Granted
Jul 8, 2025
Kind
B2
Abstract

Systems, methods, devices, instructions, and media are described for generating suggestions for connections between accounts in a social media system. One embodiment involves storing connection graph information for a plurality of user accounts, and identifying, by one or more processors of the device, a first set of connection suggestions based on a first set of suggestion metrics. A second set of connection suggestions is then identified based on a second set of suggestion metrics, wherein the second set of connection suggestions and the second set of suggestion metrics are configured to obscure the first set of connection suggestions, and a set of suggested connections is generated based on the first set of connection suggestions and the second set of connection suggestions. The set of connection suggestions is then communicated to a client device method associated with the first account.

Claims (42)

1. A device comprising:

a memory configured to store connection graph information for a plurality of user accounts of a social network system; and

processing circuitry configured to generate a set of suggested member connections for a first account of the plurality of user accounts of the social network system using the connection graph information by:

analyzing, using one or more artificial neural networks, the plurality of user accounts to determine a feature map indicating a feature that is of interest to a user of the first account;

identifying a first set of member connection suggestions from among the plurality of user accounts of the social network system based on the feature indicated by the feature map and a first set of suggestion metrics, each member connection suggestion in the first set of member connection suggestions satisfying a two-hop suggestion requirement provided by the first set of suggestion metrics;

identifying a second set of member connection suggestions from among the plurality of user accounts of the social network system based on a second set of suggestion metrics, each member connection suggestion in the second set of member connection suggestions satisfying a three or more hop suggestion requirement provided by the second set of suggestion metrics, the second set of suggestion metrics preventing inference of two-hop connections of a second account of the social network system;

generating the set of suggested member connections that are a subset of the plurality of user accounts of the social network system based on the first set of member connection suggestions and the second set of member connection suggestions, and

initiating communication with a portion of the set of suggested member connections to a device associated with the first account within the social network system.

2. The device of claim 1 , wherein the processing circuitry is configured to determine a subset of the plurality of user accounts having less than a threshold number of connections with other accounts of the plurality of user accounts.

3. The device of claim 1 , wherein the one or more artificial neural networks include one or more convolutional neural networks.

4. The device of claim 3 , wherein the feature map is at least partially determined based on privacy settings of the plurality of user accounts.

5. The device of claim 1 , wherein the processing circuitry is configured to modify, over a period of time, a percentage of the set of suggested member connections corresponding to the first set of suggestion metrics and a percentage of the set of suggested member connections corresponding to the second set of suggestion metrics.

6. The device of claim 5 , wherein the percentage of the set of suggested member connections corresponding to the first set of suggestion metrics is increased and the percentage of the set of suggested member connections corresponding to the second set of suggestion metrics is decreased.

7. The device of claim 1 , wherein the set of suggested member connections contains a minimum number of connection suggestions from the second set of member connection suggestions.

8. The device of claim 1 , wherein the set of suggested member connections contains a threshold percentage of connection suggestions from the second set of member connection suggestions.

9. The device of claim 1 , wherein the processing circuitry is configured to perform an analysis of synchronized attack behavior prior to generating the set of suggested member connections, and to prevent generation of suggested connections for accounts of the plurality of user accounts that are associated with synchronized attack behavior.

10. The device of claim 1 , wherein the processing circuitry is configured to verify a time threshold from account creation has been met before initiating communication with the portion of the set of suggested member connections to the device associated with the first account.

11. A method comprising:

storing, by a computing apparatus comprising one or more processors and memory, connection graph information for a plurality of user accounts of a social network system:

analyzing, by the computing apparatus and using one or more artificial neural networks, the plurality of user accounts to determine a feature map indicating a feature that is of interest to a user of a first account from the plurality of user accounts;

identifying, by the computing apparatus, a first set of member connection suggestions from among the plurality of user accounts of the social network system based on the feature indicated by the feature map and a first set of suggestion metrics, each member connection suggestion in the first set of member connection suggestions satisfying a two-hop suggestion requirement provided by the first set of suggestion metrics;

identifying, by the computing apparatus, a second set of member connection suggestions from among the plurality of user accounts of the social network system based on a second set of suggestion metrics, each member connection suggestion in the second set of member connection suggestions satisfying a three or more hop suggestion requirement provided by the second set of suggestion metrics, the second set of suggestion metrics preventing inference of two-hop connections of a second account of the social network system;

generating, by the computing apparatus, a set of suggested member connections that are a subset of the plurality of user accounts of the social network system based on the first set of member connection suggestions and the second set of member connection suggestions; and

initiating, by the computing apparatus, communication with a portion of the set of suggested member connections to a device associated with the first account within the social network system.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the one or more artificial neural networks include one or more convolutional neural networks.

13. The method of claim 11 , wherein the feature map is at least partially determined based on privacy settings of the plurality of user accounts.

14. The method of claim 11 , wherein the set of suggested member connections contains a minimum number of connection suggestions from the second set of member connection suggestions.

15. The method of claim 11 , wherein the set of suggested member connections contains a threshold percentage of connection suggestions from the second set of member connection suggestions.

16. The method of claim 11 , comprising:

performing, by the computing apparatus, an analysis of synchronized attack behavior prior to generating the set of suggested member connections; and

preventing generation of suggested member connections for one or more accounts of the plurality of user accounts that are associated with synchronized attack behavior.

17. The method of claim 11 , comprising:

verifying, by the computing apparatus, a time threshold from account creation has been met before initiating communication of the set of suggested member connections to the method associated with the first account.

18. One or more non-transitory computer readable media comprising instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of a computing system, cause the computing system to perform operations comprising:

storing connection graph information for a plurality of user accounts of a social network system;

analyzing, using one or more artificial neural networks, the plurality of user accounts to determine a feature map indicating a feature that is of interest to a user of a first account from the plurality of user accounts;

identifying a first set of member connection suggestions from among the plurality of user accounts of the social network system based on the feature indicated by the feature map and a first set of suggestion metrics, each member connection suggestion in the first set of member connection suggestions satisfying a two-hop suggestion requirement provided by the first set of suggestion metrics;

identifying a second set of member connection suggestions from among the plurality of user accounts of the social network system based on a second set of suggestion metrics, each member connection suggestion in the second set of member connection suggestions satisfying a three or more hop suggestion requirement provided by the second set of suggestion metrics, the second set of suggestion metrics preventing inference of two-hop connections of a second account of the social network system;

generating a set of suggested member connections that are a subset of the plurality of user accounts of the social network system based on the first set of member connection suggestions and the second set of member connection suggestions; and

initiating communication with a portion of the set of suggested member connections to a device associated with the first account within the social network system.

19. The one or more non-transitory computer readable media of claim 18 , including additional instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors of the computing system, cause the computing system to perform additional operations comprising verifying a time threshold from account creation has been met before initiating communication with the portion of the set of suggested member connections to the device associated with the first account.

20. The one or more non-transitory computer readable media of claim 18 , wherein the one or more artificial neural networks include one or more feed forward neural networks.

Assignments (1)
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Jun 19, 2023
From: BRODY, JONATHAN; GIOVANNINI, DONALD; KOAI, EDWARD; WU, JIE; ZHONG, LIN
To: SNAP INC.
Reel/Frame 063985/0221 →
Continuity (4)
Continuation 17521620 · Nov 8, 2021
Continuation 16457446 · Jun 28, 2019
Provisional Application 62692489 · Jun 29, 2018
Related Publication 20230328079A1 · Oct 12, 2023
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