Detecting unintended recipients of electronic communications

Abstract

A computer-implemented method, including receiving information indicative of a request to send an electronic communication to a recipient; executing by one or more computer systems one or more validation operations to determine whether the recipient is an intended recipient of the electronic communication by producing a validation score; determining, based on comparison of the validation score to a threshold value, that the recipient is an unintended recipient of the electronic communication; and when detecting the recipient as an unintended recipient, notifying the sender that the recipient is potentially an unintended recipient of the electronic communication prior to sending.

1 - 30 . (canceled) 
     
     
         31 . A computer-implemented method, comprising:
 producing by one or more computer systems an inverse hierarchical score that is an inverse of a number of degrees of separation in hierarchical information between an item of the hierarchical information representing a sender of an electronic communication and another item of the hierarchical information representing a recipient of the electronic communication;   determining whether the inverse hierarchical score is greater than a numerical threshold value;   when the inverse hierarchical score is greater than the numerical threshold value, determining, by the one or more computer systems, that the recipient of the electronic communication is unintended to receive the electronic communication; and when detecting that the recipient is unintended to receive the electronic communication; and   notifying by the one or more computer systems the sender that the recipient is an unintended recipient of the electronic communication.   
     
     
         32 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 31 , wherein notifying the sender comprises:
 notifying the sender that the recipient is the unintended recipient of the electronic communication, prior to transmission of the electronic communication.   
     
     
         33 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 31 , further comprising:
 transmitting, to a client device associated with the sender, information for a graphical user interface that when rendered on a display of the client device, renders:
 a visual representation of the electronic communication; 
 a region for inputting the electronic communication; and 
 a control for sending the electronic communication; and 
   wherein determining whether the recipient of the electronic communication is unintended to receive the electronic communication is in response to selection of the control.   
     
     
         34 . (canceled) 
     
     
         35 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 31 , wherein the hierarchical information is represented in a graph structure, and the method further comprises:
 identifying by the one or more computer systems an edge in the graph between a node representing the sender and a node representing the recipient;   determining by the one or more computer systems a weight associated with the edge; and   calculating by the one or more computer systems the inverse hierarchical score based on the weight.   
     
     
         36 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 31 , further comprising: causing the electronic communication to be sent when detecting the recipient is intended to receive the electronic communication. 
     
     
         37 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 31 , wherein the hierarchical information is provided by reading one or more of
 a global address list;   Lightweight Directory Access Protocol information; and   a social network graph of a social networking platform, with a node in the social network graph representing the sender and another node in the social network graph representing the recipient.   
     
     
         38 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 31 , wherein determining whether the recipient of the electronic communication is unintended to receive the electronic communication is further based on executing one or more validation operations, and wherein a validation operation comprises:
 determining whether information representing the recipient is included in a pre-approved recipient list.   
     
     
         39 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 31 , wherein determining whether the recipient of the electronic communication is unintended to receive the electronic communication is further based on executing one or more validation operations, and wherein a validation operation comprises:
 determining whether information representing the recipient is included in a list that specifies entities to whom the sender previously sent electronic communications.   
     
     
         40 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 31 , wherein notifying comprises:
 causing a sender of the electronic communication to be prompted to confirm sending of the electronic communication to the recipient.   
     
     
         41 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 31 , further comprising:
 executing by the one or more computer systems one or more validation operations to determine whether the recipient of the electronic communication is unintended to receive the electronic communication; and   aggregating a result of the one or more validation operations with the inverse hierarchical score, with at least one of the one or more validation operations producing:
 a pre-approved recipient score that is indicative of whether the recipient is included in a list of previously specified recipients; 
 a social networking score indicative of whether the recipient is socially connected to the sender in a social networking platform; or 
 a prior recipient score indicative of whether the recipient is included in information specifying recipients previously sent electronic communications by the sender. 
   
     
     
         42 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 41 , wherein determining whether the recipient of the electronic communication is unintended to receive the electronic communication comprises:
 determining, by the one or more computer systems based on a comparison of the aggregated result to a numerical threshold value, whether the recipient of the electronic communication is unintended to receive the electronic communication.   
     
     
         43 . An electronic system comprising:
 one or more processing devices; and   one or more machine-readable hardware storage devices storing instructions that are executable by the one or more processing devices to perform operations comprising:
 producing an inverse hierarchical score that is an inverse of a number of degrees of separation in hierarchical information between an item of the hierarchical information representing a sender of an electronic communication and another item of the hierarchical information representing a recipient of the electronic communication; 
 determining whether the inverse hierarchical score is greater than a numerical threshold value; 
 when the inverse hierarchical score is greater than the numerical threshold value, determining, that the recipient of the electronic communication is unintended to receive the electronic communication; and when detecting that the recipient is unintended to receive the electronic communication; and 
 notifying the sender that the recipient is an unintended recipient of the electronic communication. 
   
     
     
         44 . The electronic system of  claim 43 , wherein notifying the sender comprises:
 notifying the sender that the recipient is the unintended recipient of the electronic communication, prior to transmission of the electronic communication.   
     
     
         45 . The electronic system of  claim 43 , wherein the operations further comprise:
 transmitting, to a client device associated with the sender, information for a graphical user interface that when rendered on a display of the client device, renders:
 a visual representation of the electronic communication; 
 a region for inputting the electronic communication; and 
 a control for sending the electronic communication; and 
   wherein determining whether the recipient of the electronic communication is unintended to receive the electronic communication is in response to selection of the control.   
     
     
         46 . The electronic system of  claim 43 , wherein the operations further comprise:
 executing one or more validation operations to determine whether the recipient of the electronic communication is unintended to receive the electronic communication; and   aggregating a result of the one or more validation operations with the numerical inverse hierarchical, with at least one of the one or more validation operations producing:
 a pre-approved recipient score that is indicative of whether the recipient is included in a list of previously specified recipients; 
 a social networking score indicative of whether the recipient is socially connected to the sender in a social networking platform; or 
 a prior recipient score indicative of whether the recipient is included in information specifying recipients previously sent electronic communications by the sender. 
   
     
     
         47 . The electronic system of  claim 46 , wherein determining whether the recipient of the electronic communication is unintended to receive the electronic communication comprises:
 determining, based on a comparison of the aggregated result to a numerical threshold value, whether the recipient of the electronic communication is unintended to receive the electronic communication.   
     
     
         48 . One or more machine-readable hardware storage devices storing instructions that are executable by one or more processing devices to perform operations comprising:
 producing an inverse hierarchical score that is an inverse of a number of degrees of separation in hierarchical information between an item of the hierarchical information representing a sender of an electronic communication and another item of the hierarchical information representing a recipient of the electronic communication;   determining whether the inverse hierarchical score is greater than a numerical threshold value;   when the inverse hierarchical score is greater than the numerical threshold value, determining, that the recipient of the electronic communication is unintended to receive the electronic communication; and when detecting that the recipient is unintended to receive the electronic communication; and   notifying the sender that the recipient is an unintended recipient of the electronic communication.   
     
     
         49 . The one or more machine-readable hardware storage devices of  claim 48 , wherein notifying the sender comprises:
 notifying the sender that the recipient is the unintended recipient of the electronic communication, prior to transmission of the electronic communication.   
     
     
         50 . The one or more machine-readable hardware storage devices of  claim 48 , wherein the operations further comprise:
 executing one or more validation operations to determine whether the recipient of the electronic communication is unintended to receive the electronic communication; and   aggregating a result of the one or more validation operations with the numerical inverse hierarchical, with at least one of the one or more validation operations producing:
 a pre-approved recipient score that is indicative of whether the recipient is included in a list of previously specified recipients; 
 a social networking score indicative of whether the recipient is socially connected to the sender in a social networking platform; or 
 a prior recipient score indicative of whether the recipient is included in information specifying recipients previously sent electronic communications by the sender. 
   
     
     
         51 . The one or more machine-readable hardware storage devices of  claim 50 , wherein determining whether the recipient of the electronic communication is unintended to receive the electronic communication comprises:
 determining, based on a comparison of the aggregated result to a numerical threshold value, whether the recipient of the electronic communication is unintended to receive the electronic communication.