Protecting user privacy during collection of demographics census data

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10728596-B2
Application number	US-201816182348-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 6, 2018
Priority date	Sep 23, 2013
Publication date	Jul 28, 2020
Grant date	Jul 28, 2020

Abstract

Providing analysis of exposure of users to content without the use of personally identifiable information (PII) is described. Initially, first user activity data is obtained from a server associated with a collection service. The first user activity data comprises a first unique identifier (ID) deterministically created based on an Internet protocol (IP) address of a first entity using a first one-way function. Next, second user activity data is obtained from a service provider. The second user activity data comprises a second unique ID deterministically created based on PII of a second entity using a second one-way function. It is determined whether the first unique ID is the same as the second unique ID, and responsive to that determination, the first and second user activity data are continuously aggregated such that a trend is determined in real-time and analysis of the aggregated user activity data is performed and reported in compliance with mandated legal or policy privacy provisions.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by a processor, effectuate operations comprising: obtaining, from a server associated with a collection service, first user activity data, wherein the first user activity data comprises a first unique identifier (ID) deterministically created based on an Internet protocol (IP) address of a first entity using a first one-way function; obtaining, from a service provider, second user activity data, wherein the second user activity data comprises a second unique identifier (ID) deterministically created based on personally identifiable information (PII) of a second entity using a second one-way function, wherein the service provider is different from the collection service's server; determining whether the first unique ID is the same as the second unique ID; and responsive to a determination that the first and second unique IDs are the same, continuously aggregating the first and second user activity data such that (i) a trend is determined in real-time from among the aggregated user activity data and (ii) analysis of the aggregated user activity data is subsequently performed and reported in compliance with one or more mandated legal or policy privacy provisions, wherein at least one of the first and second user activity data is continuously obtained.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first user activity data relates to consumption of online content associated with Internet communications via one or more first communications protocols, and
wherein the second user activity data relates to consumption of offline content associated with a mobile phone service, television (TV) programming, or on-demand video programming via a second communications protocol different from the one or more first communications protocols.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein at least one of the online and offline content relates to advertisement rendered or otherwise employed during a given time period.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the PII relates to a name or address of a user associated with the second entity.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first user activity data is received as part of a beacon message, the beacon message being generated in relation to a beacon that is associated with content consumed with respect to the first entity.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the beacon message comprises a universal resource locator (URL) associated with the consumed content, an IP address of a location where a device, from which the beacon message is sent, accesses a network, and a user-agent of a corresponding browser application.

7. The method of claim 5 , wherein the beacon message is an HTTP GET request or an HTTP Post request, and
wherein the beacon is JavaScript code that accesses a URL associated with the consumed content.

8. The method of claim 5 , wherein the beacon message indicates the content consumed by a user device and an ID associated with a request by the user device that sends the beacon message.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first one-way function is a hash function.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the first unique ID is generated by creating a hash of the IP address based on a message digest (MD) cryptographic algorithm.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the hash of the IP address is further based on a country code derived from at least one of a Geo lookup and a text phrase.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the analysis comprises at least one of audience analytics, advertising analytics, web & monetization analytics, and mobile operator analytics.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein the mandated legal or policy privacy provisions relate to a plurality of different jurisdictions.

14. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
obfuscating the IP address prior to analysis of the aggregated user activity data.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein the IP address is obfuscated by irreversibly modifying a portion of the IP address so that the IP address is no longer useable to identify a specific user, and
wherein a remainder of the IP address is maintained unmodified such that the remainder is used in the subsequent analysis.

16. The method of claim 1 , wherein the aggregated user activity data is used to build a profile of a specific user's content consumption behavior.

17. The method of claim 1 , wherein the aggregated user activity data relates to data consumed by a plurality of users of a household.

18. The method of claim 17 , wherein an algorithm is applied to the household data to convert said data to individual user-level data.

19. A data analysis system providing analysis of exposure of users to content without the use of personal identifiable information (PII), the system comprising:
a processor; and
memory storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, effectuate operations comprising:
obtaining, from a server associated with a collection service, first user activity data, wherein the first user activity data comprises a first unique identifier (ID) deterministically created based on an Internet protocol (IP) address of a first entity using a first one-way function;
obtaining, from a service provider, second user activity data, wherein the second user activity data comprises a second unique identifier (ID) deterministically created based on personally identifiable information (PII) of a second entity using a second one-way function, wherein the service provider is different from the collection service's server;
determining whether the first unique ID is the same as the second unique ID; and
responsive to a determination that the first and second unique IDs are the same, continuously aggregating the first and second user activity data such that (i) a trend is determined in real-time from among the aggregated user activity data and (ii) analysis of the aggregated user activity data is subsequently performed and reported in compliance with one or more mandated legal or policy privacy provisions,
wherein at least one of the first and second user activity data is continuously obtained.

20. A computer-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by a processor, effectuate operations comprising:
obtaining, from a server associated with a collection service, first user activity data, wherein the first user activity data comprises a first unique identifier (ID) deterministically created based on an Internet protocol (IP) address of a first entity using a first one-way function;
obtaining, from a service provider, second user activity data, wherein the second user activity data comprises a second unique identifier (ID) deterministically created based on personally identifiable information (PII) of a second entity using a second one-way function, wherein the service provider is different from the collection service's server;
determining whether the first unique ID is the same as the second unique ID; and
responsive to a determination that the first and second unique IDs are the same, continuously aggregating the first and second user activity data such that (i) a trend is determined in real-time from among the aggregated user activity data and (ii) analysis of the aggregated user activity data is subsequently performed and reported in compliance with one or more mandated legal or policy privacy provisions,
wherein at least one of the first and second user activity data is continuously obtained.

Assignees

• Comscore Inc

Inventors

• Brown Michael A

Classifications

• H04N21/44226

  on social networks · CPC title

• H04N21/44224

  Monitoring of user activity on external systems, e.g. Internet browsing · CPC title

• H04N21/42684

  Client identification by a unique number or address, e.g. serial number, MAC address, socket ID (network arrangements, protocols or services for addressing or naming H04L61/00) · CPC title

• H04N21/64322

  IP · CPC title

• H04N21/6582

  Data stored in the client, e.g. viewing habits, hardware capabilities, credit card number (arrangements where receivers interact with the broadcast H04H20/38) · CPC title