System and method for separating content site visitor profiles

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9537964-B2
Application number	US-201615067089-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 10, 2016
Priority date	Mar 11, 2015
Publication date	Jan 3, 2017
Grant date	Jan 3, 2017

Abstract

Embodiments of the systems described herein can implement one or more visitor tearing processes. Visitor tearing can include, among other things, one or more processes by which multiple visitors that may appear to be the same visitor may be separated into different visitor profiles due to the leveraging of one or more unique persistent identifiers.

First claim

What is claimed:

1. A method of managing content site visitor profiles, the method comprising:
under control of a hardware processor:
receiving first visitor data from a first data collection tag embedded within a first content page, the first visitor data comprising (i) data indicative of user interactions with the first content page, (ii) a cookie-derived visitor identifier associated with a first visitor visiting the first content page, (iii) a first identifier, and (iv) a second identifier different from the first identifier, the first data collection tag comprising instructions to gather the first visitor data and report the first visitor data to the hardware processor;
identifying the first identifier and the second identifier from the first visitor data;
generating a first combined identifier from the first identifier and the second identifier;
adding at least some of the first visitor data to a first visitor profile;
receiving second visitor data from a second data collection tag embedded within a second content page, the second visitor data comprising (i) data indicative of user interactions with the second content page, (ii) the cookie-derived visitor identifier, (iii) the first identifier, and (iv) a third identifier different from the second identifier, the second data collection tag comprising instructions to gather the second visitor data and report the second visitor data to the hardware processor;
identifying the first identifier and the third identifier from the second visitor data;
generating a second combined identifier from the first identifier and the third identifier;
determining whether the first combined identifier and the second combined identifier are different; and
in response to determining that the first combined identifier and the second combined identifier are different, adding at least some of the second visitor data to a second visitor profile different from the first visitor profile.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first identifier corresponds to a first identifier type different from a second identifier type, the second identifier corresponds to the second identifier type.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first identifier comprises an email address, a social network identifier, a login credential, a phone number, or a mailing address.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving third visitor data from a third data collection tag embedded within a third content page, the third visitor data comprising the cookie-derived visitor identifier;
identifying the third identifier from the third visitor data; and
adding at least some of the third visitor data to the second visitor profile and not adding the third visitor data to the first visitor profile.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first and second visitor profiles are configured so that the first visitor associated with the first visitor profile is considered to be different from a second visitor associated with the second visitor profile.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first and second content pages are the same content page, and the first and second data collection tags are separate instances of the same data collection tag.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first and second visitor data are received in response to the first and second content pages being accessed by a first computing device.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising, in response to determining that the first combined identifier and the second combined identifier are different, not adding the second visitor data to the first visitor profile.

9. The method of claim 2 , wherein the first identifier type and the second identifier type each correspond to a different one of an email address type, a social network identifier type, a login credential type, a phone number type, or a mailing address type.

10. A system for managing content site visitor profiles, the system comprising:
a hardware processor configured to:
receive first visitor data from a first data collection tag embedded within a first content page, the first visitor data comprising (i) data indicative of user interactions with the first content page, (ii) a first identifier, and (iii) a second identifier different from the first identifier, the first data collection tag comprising instructions to gather the first visitor data and report the first visitor data to the hardware processor;
identify the first identifier and the second identifier from the first visitor data;
generate a first combined identifier from the first identifier and the second identifier;
add at least some of the first visitor data to a first visitor profile;
receive second visitor data from a second data collection tag embedded within a second content page, the second visitor data comprising (i) data indicative of user interactions with the second content page, (ii) the first identifier, and (iii) a third identifier different from the second identifier, the second data collection tag comprising instructions to gather the second visitor data and report the second visitor data to the hardware processor;
identify the first identifier and the third identifier from the second visitor data;
generate a second combined identifier from the first identifier and the third identifier;
determine whether the first combined identifier and the second combined identifier are different; and
in response to determining that the first combined identifier and the second combined identifier are different, adding at least some of the second visitor data to a second visitor profile different from the first visitor profile.

11. The system of claim 10 , wherein the first and second visitor profiles are associated with a first computing device.

12. The system of claim 10 , wherein the hardware processor is configured to:
in response to determining that the first combined identifier and the second combined identifier are different, remove the interaction data from the first visitor profile.

13. The system of claim 10 , wherein the first identifier corresponds to a first identifier type different from a second identifier type, the second identifier corresponds to the second identifier type.

14. The system of claim 10 , wherein the first identifier comprises an email address, a social network identifier, a phone number, a mailing address, or a login credential.

15. Non-transitory physical computer storage comprising instructions stored thereon that, when executed by a hardware processor, are configured to implement a process comprising:
receiving first visitor data from a first data collection tag embedded within a first content page, the first visitor data comprising (i) data indicative of user interactions with the first content page, (ii) a first identifier, and (iii) a second identifier different from the first identifier, the first data collection tag comprising instructions to gather the first visitor data;
identifying the first identifier and the second identifier from the first visitor data;
generating a first combined identifier from the first identifier and the second identifier;
receiving second visitor data from a second data collection tag embedded within a second content page, the second visitor data comprising (i) data indicative of user interactions with the second content page, (ii) the first identifier, and (iii) a third identifier different from the second identifier, the second data collection tag comprising instructions to gather the second visitor data;
identifying the first identifier and the third identifier from the second visitor data;
generating a second combined

Assignees

• Tealium Inc

Inventors

• Glommen Charles
• Williams Ii Benjamin Richard

Classifications

• H04L67/306 Primary

  User profiles · CPC title

• H04L67/02

  based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP] · CPC title

• H04L67/146

  Markers for unambiguous identification of a particular session, e.g. session cookie or URL-encoding · CPC title

• H04L67/22 Primary

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04L67/535 Primary

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