Serving anonymous cookies associated with purchasing analytics

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9954962-B2
Application number	US-201514616477-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 6, 2015
Priority date	Feb 6, 2015
Publication date	Apr 24, 2018
Grant date	Apr 24, 2018

Abstract

Anonymously providing purchasing analytics associated with customer to a website while the customer is accessing the website. Specifically, a financial institution, having access to a customer's transactional data, can analyze the data to determine analytical purchasing data. Once the customer authenticates themselves at a financial institution website, a networked application or the like, an anonymous cookie that is configured to identify the analytical purchasing data is generated and stored in the web browser cache. In response to the customer using the device to access a website that displays advertisements, the anonymous cookie is retrieved from the web browser cache and the analytical purchasing data is provided to the website. In specific embodiments of the invention, the website uses the analytical purchasing data of the customer to determine which of the plurality of advertisements are to be displayed to the customer while they visit the website.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An apparatus for anonymously providing purchasing analytics associated with a user to a website while the user is accessing the website, the system comprising:
a computing platform including a memory and at least one processor in communication with the memory;
a purchasing analytics application stored in the memory, executable by one or more of the processors and configured to access one or more financial institution transaction databases storing transaction records associated with the user of a financial institution associated with the transaction databases, and determine, based on the transaction records, analytical purchasing data associated with the user, wherein the transactions records include both online purchases and offline purchases conducted by the user; and
a cookie initiator application stored in the memory, executable by one or more of processors and configured to, in response to the user identifying themselves at a first website or mobile application as the user of the financial institution, initiate generation of an anonymous cookie that is stored in a web browser cache of a computing device from which the user has accessed the first website or the mobile application, wherein the anonymous cookie includes a user-specific identifier that is configured to identify the analytical purchasing data associated with the user by mapping the identifier to the analytical purchasing data;
wherein, in response to the user using the computing device to access a second website, (i) the anonymous cookie is retrieved from the web browser cache, (ii) the user-specific identifier in the cookie, prompts a call-back, which includes the user-specific identifier, to a server associated with the financial institution, (iii) in response to correlating the user-specific identifier to the analytical purchasing data at the server, retrieves the analytical purchasing data, and (iv) communicates the analytical purchasing data to the second website.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein (i) the purchasing analytics application is further configured to determine, based on the transaction data, at least one of a date purchasing trends or time purchasing trends associated with the user, and (ii) the cookie initiator application initiates generation of the anonymous cookie that is configured to identify the date purchasing trends and the time purchasing trends associated with the user.

3. The apparatus of claim 2 , wherein the purchasing analytics application is further configured to determine, based on the transaction data, at least one of the date purchasing trends or the time purchasing trends associated with the user, and wherein the date and time purchasing trends are further defined as being one of product or service specific, type of product or service specific, merchant specific, or type of merchant specific.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein (i) the purchasing analytics application is further configured to determine, based on the transaction data, at least one of an amount or a percentage purchased electronically and purchased at a physical location associated with the user, and (ii) the cookie initiator application initiates generation of the anonymous cookie that is configured to identify the amount or a percentage purchased electronically and purchased at a physical location.

5. The apparatus of claim 2 , wherein the purchasing analytics application is further configured to determine, based on the transaction data, at least one of the amount or the percentage purchased electronically and purchased at the physical location, and wherein the amount and the percentage are further defined as being one of product or service specific, type of product or service specific, merchant specific, or type of merchant specific.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the (i) the purchasing analytics application is further configured to determine, based on the transaction data, at least one of an amount or a percentage purchased at a specified merchant in comparison to at least one of an overall purchase amount for the user or a purchase amount for a merchant type by the user, and (ii) the cookie initiator application initiates generation of the anonymous cookie that is configured to identify the amount or the percentage purchased at the specified merchant in comparison to at least one of the overall purchase amount of the user or the purchase amount for a merchant type by the user.

7. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein, in response to the user using the device to access the second website, at least one of (i) the anonymous cookie being retrieved from the web browser cache, (ii) the call-back to the financial institution server or (iii) retrieving the analytical purchasing data and communicating the analytical purchasing date to the second website, is based on the website being affiliated with the financial institution.

8. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein, in response to the user using the device to access the second website that displays advertising, the anonymous cookie is retrieved from the web browser cache and the analytical purchasing data is provided to the website, and wherein the second website uses the analytical purchasing data to determine one or more advertisements to currently display to the user while accessing the second website.

9. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein, in response to the user using the device to access the second website, the anonymous cookie is retrieved from the web browser cache and the analytical purchasing data is provided to the website, and wherein the second website compiles the analytical purchasing data and data associated with the website session of the user.

10. A system for anonymously providing purchasing analytics associated with a user to a website while the user is accessing the website, the system comprising:
a user computing device having a first memory and at least one first processor in communication with the memory;
a first computing platform including a second memory and at least one second processor in communication with the second memory;
a purchasing analytics application stored in the second memory, executable by one or more of the second processors and configured to access one or more financial institution transaction databases storing transaction records associated with the user of a financial institution associated with the transaction databases, and determine, based on the transaction records, analytical purchasing data associated with the user, wherein the transactions records include both online purchases and offline purchases conducted by the user;
a web browser application stored in the first memory, executable by one or more of first processors and configured to, in response to the user authenticating themselves at a first website or mobile application as the user of the financial institution, generate an anonymous cookie includes a user-specific identifier that is configured to identify the analytical purchasing data associated with the user by mapping the identifier to the analytical purchasing data, and store the anonymous cookie in a web browser cache,
wherein, in response to the user using the computing device to access a second website, (i) the anonymous cookie is retrieved from the web browser cache, (ii) the user-specific identifier in the cookie, prompts a call-back, which includes the user-specific identifier, to a server associated with the financial institution, (iii) in response to correlating the user-specific identifier to the analytical purchasing data at the server, retrieves the analytical purchasing data, and (iv) communicates the analytical purchasing data is provided to the second website.

11. The system of claim 10 , w

Assignees

• Bank Of America

Inventors

• Blackhurst Jason P
• Shahda Frederick A
• Abbott Robert L
• Hamilton Alfred

Classifications

• H04L63/0421

  Anonymous communication, i.e. the party's identifiers are hidden from the other party or parties, e.g. using an anonymizer · CPC title

• G06Q30/0201 Primary

  Market modelling; Market analysis; Collecting market data · CPC title

• H04L67/20

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04L67/02

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

• H04L67/22 Primary

  Electricity · mapped topic