In prior art, Facebook and the likes are using a static model to manage connections. As shown in FIG. 1, on Facebook, two factors are presented in one's connection with other people (also called relationship): there is a connection or not and the characterization of the connection.
As shown in FIG. 2, connections with the same characterization are grouped into friend lists or groups or circles. If a user wants to control the access to his/her personal data, he/she can only control it at the group level, or manually specify individual people or groups.
In the prior art, a key point that social connections are dynamic in life is ignored.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds