Computer-implemented method, a network device and computer program products for tracking OPT-OUT user preferences in a global communication network

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10122807-B2
Application number	US-201614993518-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 12, 2016
Priority date	Jan 13, 2015
Publication date	Nov 6, 2018
Grant date	Nov 6, 2018

Abstract

The method comprising performing, by at least one a user, at least one operation request for a service of an online system (500); tracking, by a network device (300), said operation request and detecting if it is linked to a tracking mechanism, wherein: a) if it is not linked to a tracking mechanism, said network device (300), bypasses the operation request to said online system (500) without performing any action; or if it is linked to a tracking mechanism, the network device (300), identifies whether an OPT-OUT or an Opt-In status related to the user is included in the operation request and sends or not the operation request to a tracking server (600) depending on the result of said identification.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A computer-implemented method for tracking OPT-OUT user preferences in a global communication network including at least one computing device of a user, a network device, an online system, and a tracking server, the method comprising:
performing, by the at least one computing device of a user whose OPT-OUT preferences are going to be tracked, at least one operation request including a hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) request for a service of the online system through said global communication network;
tracking, by the network device, said performed at least one operation request; and
detecting, by the network device, whether said tracked operation request is linked to a tracking mechanism, wherein:
when a result of said detection indicates that the operation request is not linked to a tracking mechanism, the method further comprises bypassing, by the network device, the operation request to said online system without performing any action; or
when the result of said detection indicates that the operation request is linked to a tracking mechanism, the method further comprises:
identifying, by the network device, whether an OPT-OUT or an Opt-In status related to the user is included in the operation request; and
selectively sending, by the network device, the operation request to the tracking server depending on the result of said identification,
wherein identifying the OPT-OUT or an OPT-IN status comprises identifying whether an OPT-OUT cookie indicative of said user preferences is included in the operation request and identifying the OPT-OUT user preferences for said service, and
wherein the user preferences indicate a desire of the user that information about him/her when performing the operation request not be collected,
wherein a result of said identification indicates that the user wants to be OPT-OUT in said service but the operation request does not include an OPT-OUT cookie, the method further comprises:
including, by the network device, in the operation request a public OPT-OUT cookie indicating the OPT-OUT user preferences for said service;
removing, by the network device, information about the user included in the operation request;
sending, by the network device, the operation request to the tracking server; and
tracking, by the network device, a response from the tracking server to the computing device of the user of the operation request for said service, wherein: when the response of the tracking server is unencrypted, the method further comprises including, by the network device, in the response said public OPT-OUT cookie indicating the OPT-OUT user preferences for said service; or when the response of the tracking server is encrypted, the method further comprises:
requesting, by the computing device of the user, at least one unencrypted HTTP request for a hypertext markup language (HTML) page;
capturing and injecting, by the network device, in said HTML page, an additional unencrypted HTTP request to the tracking server; and
upon the network device having captured the additional unencrypted HTTP request to the tracking server, responding, by the network device, to the computing device of the user with the public OPT-OUT cookie of the tracking server indicating the OPT-OUT user preferences for the tracking service, so that all subsequent encrypted HTTP secure (HTTPS) requests to tracking server will also contain the OPT-OUT cookie.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein when the response of the tracking server is encrypted, the method further comprises including the additional unencrypted request as an HTTP request to the tracking server for a transparent image of a certain pixel size at the end of an html body of said HTTP request to online system.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein when the response of the tracking server is encrypted, the method further comprises including the additional unencrypted request as an HTTP request to the tracking server for a transparent image of a certain pixel size in a first line of a head section of an html body of said HTTP request to online system.

4. A method, comprising: receiving, by a network device and from a computing device of a user whose OPT-OUT preferences are going to be tracked, at least one operation request including a hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) request for a service of an online system through a global communication network;
tracking, by the network device, the at least one operation request performed by the computing device of the user;
detecting, by the network device, whether the tracked operation request is linked to a tracking mechanism, wherein: when a result of the detection indicates that the operation request is not linked to tracking mechanism, the method further comprises bypassing, by the network device, the operation request to the online system without performing any action; or when the result of the detection indicates that the operation request is linked to a tracking mechanism, the method further comprises:
identifying, by the network device, whether an OPT-OUT or an OPT-IN status related to the user is included in the operation request; and
providing, by the network device and to the computing device of the user, the OPT-OUT cookie based on the response to permit the computing device of the user to provide the OPT-OUT cookie to the server device,
selectively sending, by the network device, the operation request to the tracking server depending on the result of the identification,
wherein identifying the OPT-OUT or an OPT-IN status comprises identifying whether an OPT-OUT cookie indicative of the user preferences is included in the operation request and identifying the OPT-OUT user preferences for the service, and
wherein the user preferences indicate a desire of the user that information about him/her when performing the operation request not be collected,
wherein a result of the identification indicates that the user wants to be OPT-OUT in the service but the operation request does not include an OPT-OUT cookie, the method further comprises:
including, by the network device, in the operation request a public OPT-OUT cookie indicating the OPT-OUT user preferences for the service;
removing, by the network device, information about the user included in the operation request;
sending, by the network device, the operation request to the tracking server; and
tracking, by the network device, a response from the tracking server to the computing device of the user of the operation request for the service, wherein: when the response of the tracking server is unencrypted, the method further comprises including, by the network device, in the response the public OPT-OUT cookie indicating the OPT-OUT user preferences for the service; or when the response of the tracking server is encrypted, the method further comprises:
receiving, by the network device and from the computing device of the user, at
least one unencrypted HTTP request for a hypertext markup language (HTML) page;
capturing and injecting, by the network device, in the HTML page, an additional unencrypted HTTP request to the tracking server; and
upon the network device having captured the additional unencrypted HTTP request to the tracking server, responding, by the network device, to the computing
device of the user with the public OPT-OUT cookie of the tracking server indicating the OPT-OUT user preferences for the tracking service, so that all subsequent encrypted HTTP secure (HTTPS) requests to tracking server will also contain the OPT-OUT cookie.

5. A network device for tracking Opt-Out user preferences in a global communication network, comprising:
one or more processors to:
store Opt-Out user preferences defined by at least one user about information the user wants to share in different tracking mechanisms;

Assignees

• Telefonica Digital Espana Slu
• Telefonica Digital Espanna S L U

Inventors

• Yang Xiaoyuan
• Guijarro Guillem David
• Pando Cao Arcadio
• Levi Martin I

Classifications

• H04L67/22 Primary

  Electricity · mapped topic

• G06F17/30867

  Physics · mapped topic

• G06F16/9535 Primary

  Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation · CPC title

• H04L67/535 Primary

  Tracking the activity of the user (network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34) · CPC title