Methods and apparatus to monitor media presentations

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11736583-B2
Application number	US-202217877653-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 29, 2022
Priority date	Mar 14, 2013
Publication date	Aug 22, 2023
Grant date	Aug 22, 2023

Abstract

Methods and apparatus to monitor media presentations are disclosed. Disclosed example apparatus include memory, instructions, and at least one processor to execute the instructions to at least receive demographic information from a user, transmit the demographic information to a central facility, cause storage of a consent identifier in a pasteboard of the media device, the consent identifier accessible to a first instrumented application and a second instrumented application executed in a sandbox environment, the consent identifier to indicate to the first instrumented application and the second instrumented application that monitoring is allowed, access the consent identifier from the pasteboard, present media, generate monitoring information if the consent identifier permits collection of monitoring information, not generate monitoring information if the consent identifier does not permit the collection of the monitoring information, and transmit the monitoring information to the central facility.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A tangible machine-readable storage medium comprising instructions which, when executed, cause a machine to at least:
provide a software development kit to an application developer, the software development kit to enable the application developer to create a monitoring enabled application to be executed at a media device;
transmit a panelist identifier in response to a request from a registrar executed by the media device, the registrar separate from the monitoring enabled application, the registrar to store a consent identifier in a pasteboard of the media device, the request including demographic information associated with a user of the media device, the panelist identifier stored in the pasteboard of the media device by the registrar executed at the media device and accessible to multiple monitoring enabled applications at the media device, the monitoring enabled application to collect at least one of application monitoring data or media monitoring data if the consent identifier is in the pasteboard and to disable collection of the at least one of application monitoring data or media monitoring data if the consent identifier is not in the pasteboard, the registrar to delete the consent identifier while leaving the panelist identifier in a data store associated with at least one of the application monitoring data or the media monitoring data; and
collect the at least one of application monitoring data or media monitoring data from the monitoring enabled application.

2. The tangible machine-readable storage medium as described in claim 1 , wherein the instructions, when executed, cause the machine to generate the panelist identifier.

3. The tangible machine-readable storage medium as described in claim 1 , wherein the instructions, when executed, cause the machine to store the at least one of the application monitoring data or the media monitoring data.

4. The tangible machine-readable storage medium as described in claim 3 , wherein the instructions, when executed, cause the machine to store the demographic information.

5. The tangible machine-readable storage medium as described in claim 1 , wherein the instructions, when executed, cause the machine to generate a report representing the at least one of the application monitoring data or the media monitoring data in connection with the demographic information.

6. The tangible machine-readable storage medium as described in claim 1 , wherein the instructions, when executed, cause the machine to receive the demographic information and the at least one of the application monitoring data or the media monitoring data from the monitoring enabled application.

7. A tangible machine-readable storage medium comprising instructions which, when executed, cause a machine to at least:
obtain consent to enable monitoring functionality of a first monitoring-enabled application and a second monitoring-enabled application from a user, the first monitoring-enabled application and the second monitoring-enabled application being different than an application requesting the consent; and
store a consent identifier indicating the consent of the user in a pasteboard of a media device, the consent identifier accessible to the first monitoring-enabled application and the second monitoring-enabled application, the consent identifier to be retrieved by the first monitoring-enabled application, the first monitoring-enabled application to collect monitoring information if the consent identifier is in the pasteboard and to disable collection of the monitoring information if the consent identifier is not in the pasteboard.

8. The tangible machine-readable storage medium as described in claim 7 , wherein the instructions, when executed, cause the machine to request demographic information from the user.

9. The tangible machine-readable storage medium as described in claim 8 , wherein the instructions, when executed, cause the machine to:
transmit the demographic information to a central facility;
generate a panelist identifier to identify the user; and
store the panelist identifier in the pasteboard.

10. The tangible machine-readable storage medium as described in claim 9 , wherein the panelist identifier is based on the demographic information.

11. The tangible machine-readable storage medium as described in claim 9 , wherein the panelist identifier is requested from the central facility.

12. The tangible machine-readable storage medium as described in claim 11 , wherein the panelist identifier is encrypted.

13. The tangible machine-readable storage medium as described in claim 11 , wherein the instructions, when executed, cause the machine to transmit the panelist identifier in association with the monitoring information to the central facility.

14. The tangible machine-readable storage medium as described in claim 13 , wherein the panelist identifier is an encrypted panelist identifier, and the machine is not capable of decrypting the encrypted panelist identifier.

15. A media device comprising:
a registrar, implemented by a processor, to receive demographic information from a user, to transmit the demographic information to a central facility, and to store a panelist identifier identifying the user in a shared memory of the media device, the panelist identifier accessible to a first instrumented application and a second instrumented application, the first instrumented application and the second instrumented application separate from the registrar; and
the first instrumented application to present media, to collect media monitoring information if the panelist identifier is in the shared memory, and to disable collection of the media monitoring information if the panelist identifier is not in the shared memory.

16. The media device of claim 15 , wherein the registrar is to request permission from the user to enable monitoring.

17. The media device of claim 16 , wherein:
if permission is received, the registrar is to store a consent identifier enabling the collection of media monitoring information by the first instrumented application and the second instrumented application; and
if permission is not received, the registrar is to at least one of not storing or deleting the consent identifier.

18. The media device of claim 17 , wherein the consent identifier enabling monitoring is the panelist identifier.

19. The media device of claim 15 , wherein the panelist identifier is based on the demographic information.

20. The media device of claim 15 , wherein the panelist identifier is an encrypted panelist identifier.

Assignees

• Nielsen Co Us Llc

Inventors

• Bosworth Alan N
• Borawski Albert T
• Cooper Scott
• Gaynor Kevin K

Classifications

• H04L67/535 Primary

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

• G06F8/30

  Creation or generation of source code · CPC title

• G06F8/77

  Software metrics · CPC title

• G06F11/34

  Recording or statistical evaluation of computer activity, e.g. of down time, of input/output operation {; Recording or statistical evaluation of user activity, e.g. usability assessment} · CPC title

• G06F21/6245 Primary

  Protecting personal data, e.g. for financial or medical purposes · CPC title