Controlling Access to Program Usage Data

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2020374584-A1
Application number	US-202016919252-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jul 2, 2020
Priority date	Jan 24, 2005
Publication date	Nov 26, 2020
Grant date	—

Abstract

A television program ratings method and system includes transferring information associated with households from a cable provider to a ratings provider such that the ratings provider has access to information associated with sampled households and lacks access to information associated with non-sampled households. To this end, identity information and usage information associated with the households are respectively anonymized and encrypted. Knowledge of the identities of the sampled households enables the anonymized identity information and the encrypted usage information for the sampled households to be respectively de-anonymized and decrypted. The ratings provider knows which households are sampled households. As such, the ratings provider de-anonymizes and decrypts the information associated with the sampled households and then uses the de-anonymized and decrypted information to determine television program ratings. The cable provider anonymizes and encrypts the information for all households as the cable provider does not know which households are sampled households.

First claim

1 . A method comprising:
determining, by a computing device and for a first household that has opted in to monitoring by a ratings provider, first encrypted program usage data by encrypting, using an encryption key that corresponds to the first household, first program usage data corresponding to the first household; determining, by the computing device and for a second household that has not opted in to monitoring by the ratings provider, second encrypted program usage data by anonymizing and encrypting second program usage data corresponding to the second household; and sending, by the computing device and to the ratings provider, the first encrypted program usage data and the second encrypted program usage data.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein anonymizing and encrypting the second program usage data comprises removing, from the second program usage data, information that identifies the second household.

3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the first program usage data comprises timing information associated with one or more times when the first household received content.

4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the encryption key is based on one or more of:
a shared secret associated with the ratings provider, and an account number associated with the first household.

5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the encryption key comprises a symmetric encryption/decryption key.

6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the first program usage data comprises video on demand usage information.

7 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving, from the ratings provider, an indication of the first household, wherein determining the first encrypted program usage data is based on the indication of the first household.

8 . The method of claim 1 , wherein encrypting the first program usage data comprises anonymizing the first program usage data based, at least in part, on a shared secret associated with the ratings provider, wherein the first encrypted program usage data is configured to be de-anonymized using the shared secret.

9 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the first encrypted program usage data, when decrypted using the encryption key, identifies the first household.

10 . An apparatus comprising:
one or more processors; and memory storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the apparatus to:
determine, for a first household that has opted in to monitoring by a ratings provider, first encrypted program usage data by encrypting, using an encryption key that corresponds to the first household, first program usage data corresponding to the first household;
determine, for a second household that has not opted in to monitoring by the ratings provider, second encrypted program usage data by anonymizing and encrypting second program usage data corresponding to the second household; and
send, to the ratings provider, the first encrypted program usage data and the second encrypted program usage data.

11 . The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the apparatus to anonymize and encrypt the second program usage data by causing the apparatus to remove, from the second program usage data, information that identifies the second household.

12 . The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the first program usage data comprises timing information associated with one or more times when the first household received content.

13 . The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the encryption key is based on one or more of:
a shared secret associated with the ratings provider, and an account number associated with the first household.

14 . The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the encryption key comprises a symmetric encryption/decryption key.

15 . The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the first program usage data comprises video on demand usage information.

16 . A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed, cause:
determining, for a first household that has opted in to monitoring by a ratings provider, first encrypted program usage data by encrypting, using an encryption key that corresponds to the first household, first program usage data corresponding to the first household; determining, for a second household that has not opted in to monitoring by the ratings provider, second encrypted program usage data by anonymizing and encrypting second program usage data corresponding to the second household; and sending, to the ratings provider, the first encrypted program usage data and the second encrypted program usage data.

17 . The computer-readable medium of claim 16 , wherein the first program usage data comprises timing information associated with one or more times when the first household received content.

18 . The computer-readable medium of claim 16 , wherein the encryption key is based on one or more of:
a shared secret associated with the ratings provider, and an account number associated with the first household.

19 . The computer-readable medium of claim 16 , wherein the encryption key comprises a symmetric encryption/decryption key.

20 . The computer-readable medium of claim 16 , wherein the first program usage data comprises video on demand usage information.

Assignees

• Comcast Cable Comm Llc

Inventors

• Chen Michael A

Classifications

• H04N21/44222 Primary

  Analytics of user selections, e.g. selection of programmes or purchase activity (monitoring of user selections in data processing systems G06F11/34; arrangements for monitoring the user's behaviour or opinions in broadcast systems H04H60/33) · CPC title

• H04H60/64

  for providing detail information · CPC title

• H04N21/25866

  Management of end-user data (customer care in data networks H04L41/5077) · CPC title

• H04N21/4532

  involving end-user characteristics, e.g. viewer profile, preferences (monitoring of user activities for profile generation for accessing a video database G06F16/739; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306; processing of user preferences or user profiles in wireless networks H04W8/18) · CPC title

• H04N21/44213

  Monitoring of end-user related data (arrangements for monitoring the users' behaviour or opinions in broadcast systems H04H60/33) · CPC title