Systems and methods for identity-protected advertising network

• US 10,049,392 B2
• Filed: 05/20/2014
• Issued: 08/14/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 05/20/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Yahoo AD Tech LLC
• Original Assignee: Oath Inc. (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: Wilson, Jeffrey T.
• Primary Examiner(s): Abdi, Kambiz
• Assistant Examiner(s): Anderson, Scott C
• Application Number:
  US14/282,074
• Publication Number:
  US 20150339734A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,547 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6263 during internet communication, e.g. revealing personal data from cookies
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/00 Commerce
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0277 Online advertisement

Abstract

Systems and methods are disclosed for protecting consumer privacy in an online advertising environment. A request may be received from a browser for a webpage along with a unique browser identifier. The browser may be provided a first portion of the webpage that is locally available. The unique browser identifier may be provided to at least one advertising entity, wherein the advertising entity determines an advertisement based, at least in part, on the unique browser identifier. The advertisement may be received from the advertising entity, and provided to the browser as a second portion of the webpage.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for protecting consumer privacy in an online third-party content serving environment using an intermediary publishing system, the method comprising:

generating, at the intermediary publishing system, a unique publisher-generated individual browser instance identifier uniquely linking an individual browser instance to a user, the intermediary publishing system acting as an intermediary to receive network data provided from the individual browser instance, and to provide network data received by the individual browser instance to the individual browser instance, the intermediary publishing system publishing at least one webpage;

receiving, at the intermediary publishing system, a request for the webpage, from the user and via the individual browser instance, wherein the individual browser instance is associated with the unique publisher-generated individual browser instance identifier;

obtaining, at the intermediary publishing system, the webpage, the webpage being associated with the request from the user;

identifying, by the intermediary publishing system, a plurality of links in the webpage that link to at least one third-party content provisioning entity;

replacing the plurality of links in the webpage that link to the third-party content provisioning entity with temporary placeholder content to generate a first publisher-content partial portion of the webpage;

providing, from the intermediary publishing system to the individual browser instance, the first publisher-content partial portion of the webpage that is locally available to the intermediary publishing system;

identifying, by the intermediary publishing system, any identifier data in the request received from the individual browser instance that is linkable to the user, linkable to the individual browser instance, or linkable to an electronic device used by the user;

removing, by the intermediary publishing system, any data in the request received from the individual browser instance that is linkable to the user, linkable to the individual browser instance, or linkable to the electronic device used by the user;

inserting, by the intermediary publishing system, into source code of the request received from the individual browser instance, at a plurality of locations corresponding to the data in the request linkable to the user, linkable to the individual browser instance, or linkable to the electronic device used by the user, the unique publisher-generated individual browser instance identifier before providing the at least a portion of the request to at least one third-party content provisioning entity;

providing, from the intermediary publishing system, the at least a portion of the request to the third-party content provisioning entity, wherein the third-party content provisioning entity determines third-party content based, at least in part, on the unique publisher-generated individual browser instance identifier uniquely linking the individual browser instance to the user;

receiving, at the intermediary publishing system, the third-party content from the third-party content provisioning entity;

providing, from the intermediary publishing system, the third-party content to the individual browser instance as a second third-party content partial portion of the webpage; and

replacing the temporary placeholder content, in the first publisher-content partial portion of the webpage, with the second third-party content partial portion of the webpage.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein providing a unique publisher-generated individual browser instance identifier uniquely linking the individual browser instance to the user to the third-party content provisioning entity further comprises providing the unique publisher-generated individual browser instance identifier uniquely linking the individual browser instance to the user to a data exchange, wherein the data exchange provides non-user-linked data and data associated with the unique publisher-generated individual browser instance identifier uniquely linking the individual browser instance to the user to the at least one third-party content provisioning entity, wherein the entity determines the third-party content based, at least in part, on the non-user-linked data associated with the unique publisher-generated individual browser instance identifier uniquely linking the individual browser instance to the user.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, at the intermediary publishing system, a second request for a webpage from the individual browser instance; and

providing, from the intermediary publishing system, a second unique publisher-generated individual browser instance identifier uniquely linking the individual browser instance to the user to the at least one third-party content provisioning entity, wherein the unique publisher-generated individual browser instance identifier uniquely linking the individual browser instance to the user is not cross-referenceable with the second unique publisher-generated individual browser instance identifier uniquely linking the individual browser instance to the user as being associated with the user.

4. A computer-implemented method for protecting consumer privacy in an online third-party content serving environment, the method comprising:

sending, from a user via an individual browser instance, a request to an intermediary publishing system for a webpage, wherein the intermediary publishing system replaces one or more identifiers in the request linkable to the user, linkable to the individual browser instance, or linkable to an electronic device associated with the user, with a unique publisher-generated individual browser instance identifier, the unique publisher-generated individual browser instance identifier being generated by the intermediary publishing system, uniquely linking the individual browser instance to the user before providing the at least a portion of the request to at least one third-party content provisioning entity, the intermediary publishing system acting as an intermediary to receive network data provided from the individual browser instance, and to provide network data received by the individual browser instance to the individual browser instance, the intermediary publishing system publishing at least one webpage;

receiving, from the intermediary publishing system, a first publisher-content portion of the webpage, wherein links in the first publisher-content portion of the webpage that linked to a third-party content provisioning entity are replaced, by the intermediary publishing system, with temporary placeholder content; and

receiving, at the individual browser instance, as a second third-party content portion of the webpage, third-party content from the intermediary publishing system, wherein the third-party content was determined based, at least in part, on the unique publisher-generated individual browser instance identifier uniquely linking the individual browser instance to the user, the second third-party content portion of the webpage replacing the temporary placeholder content.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 4, further comprising:

in response to receiving a modify request at the intermediary publishing system, causing the unique publisher-generated individual browser instance identifier uniquely linking the individual browser instance to the user to be modified.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 5, further comprising:

in response to receiving the modify request at the intermediary publishing system, causing a plurality of additional unique publisher-generated individual browser instance identifiers uniquely linked to the user in a plurality of additional individual browser instances to be modified.

7. An intermediary publishing system for protecting consumer privacy in an online third-party content serving environment, the system including:

a data storage device storing instructions for protecting consumer privacy in an online third-party content serving environment; and

a processor configured to execute the instructions to perform a method including;

generating, at the intermediary publishing system, a unique publisher-generated individual browser instance identifier uniquely linking an individual browser instance to a user, the intermediary publishing system acting as an intermediary to receive network data provided from the individual browser instance, and to provide network data received by the individual browser instance to the individual browser instance, the intermediary publishing system publishing at least one webpage;

receiving, at the intermediary publishing system, a request for the webpage, from the user and via the individual browser instance, wherein the individual browser instance is associated with the unique publisher-generated individual browser instance identifier;

obtaining, at the intermediary publishing system, the webpage, the webpage being associated with the request from the user;

identifying, by the intermediary publishing system, a plurality of links in the webpage that link to at least one third-party content provisioning entity;

replacing the plurality of links in the webpage that link to the third-party content provisioning entity with temporary placeholder content to generate a first publisher-content partial portion of the webpage;

providing, from the intermediary publishing system to the individual browser instance, the first publisher-content partial portion of the webpage that is locally available to the intermediary publishing system;

identifying, by the intermediary publishing system, any identifier data in the request received from the individual browser instance that is linkable to the user, linkable to the individual browser instance, or linkable to an electronic device used by the user;

removing, by the intermediary publishing system, any data in the request received from the individual browser instance that is linkable to the user, linkable to the individual browser instance, or linkable to the electronic device used by the user;

inserting, by the intermediary publishing system, into source code of the request received from the individual browser instance, at a plurality of locations corresponding to the data in the request linkable to the user, linkable to the individual browser instance, or linkable to the electronic device used by the user, the unique publisher-generated individual browser instance identifier before providing the at least a portion of the request to at least one third-party content provisioning entity;

providing, from the intermediary publishing system, the at least a portion of the request to the third-party content provisioning entity, wherein the third-party content provisioning entity determines third-party content based, at least in part, on the unique publisher-generated individual browser instance identifier uniquely linking the individual browser instance to the user;

receiving, at the intermediary publishing system, the third-party content from the third-party content provisioning entity;

providing, from the intermediary publishing system, the third-party content to the individual browser instance as a second third-party content partial portion of the webpage; and

replacing the temporary placeholder content, in the first publisher-content partial portion of the webpage, with the second third-party content partial portion of the webpage.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein providing a unique publisher-generated individual browser instance identifier uniquely linking the individual browser instance to the user to the third-party content provisioning entity further comprises providing the unique publisher-generated individual browser instance identifier uniquely linking the individual browser instance to the user to a data exchange, wherein the data exchange provides non-user-linked data and data associated with the unique publisher-generated individual browser instance identifier uniquely linking the individual browser instance to the user to the at least one third-party content provisioning entity, and wherein the third-party content provisioning entity determines third-party content based, at least in part, on the data associated with the unique publisher-generated individual browser instance identifier uniquely linking the individual browser instance to the user.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein the processor is further configured for:

receiving a second request for a webpage along with a second unique publisher-generated individual browser instance identifier uniquely linking the individual browser instance to the user from the individual browser instance; and

providing the second unique publisher-generated individual browser instance identifier uniquely linking the individual browser instance to the user to the at least one third-party content provisioning entity, wherein the unique publisher-generated individual browser instance identifier uniquely linking the individual browser instance to the user is not cross-referenceable with the second unique publisher-generated individual browser instance identifier uniquely linking the individual browser instance to the user as being associated with the user.

10. The system of claim 7, wherein providing at least a portion of the request to at least one third-party content provisioning entity further comprises removing data from the request which can be linked to a specific individual browser instance or user, with the exception of the unique publisher-generated individual browser instance identifier uniquely linking the individual browser instance to the user, and providing the request to the third-party content provisioning entity.

11. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform a method for protecting consumer privacy in an online third-party content serving environment using an intermediary publishing system, the method including:

generating, at the intermediary publishing system, a unique publisher-generated individual browser instance identifier uniquely linking an individual browser instance to a user, the intermediary publishing system acting as an intermediary to receive network data provided from the individual browser instance, and to provide network data received by the individual browser instance to the individual browser instance, the intermediary publishing system publishing at least one webpage;

receiving, at the intermediary publishing system, a request for the webpage, from the user and via the individual browser instance, wherein the individual browser instance is associated with the unique publisher-generated individual browser instance identifier;

obtaining, at the intermediary publishing system, the webpage, the webpage being associated with the request from the user;

identifying, by the intermediary publishing system, a plurality of links in the webpage that link to at least one third-party content provisioning entity;

replacing the plurality of links in the webpage that link to the third-party content provisioning entity with temporary placeholder content to generate a first publisher-content partial portion of the webpage;

providing, from the intermediary publishing system to the individual browser instance, the first publisher-content partial portion of the webpage that is locally available to the intermediary publishing system;

identifying, by the intermediary publishing system, any identifier data in the request received from the individual browser instance that is linkable to the user, linkable to the individual browser instance, or linkable to an electronic device used by the user;

removing, by the intermediary publishing system, any data in the request received from the individual browser instance that is linkable to the user, linkable to the individual browser instance, or linkable to the electronic device used by the user;

inserting, by the intermediary publishing system, into source code of the request received from the individual browser instance, at a plurality of locations corresponding to the data in the request linkable to the user, linkable to the individual browser instance, or linkable to the electronic device used by the user, the unique publisher-generated individual browser instance identifier before providing the at least a portion of the request to at least one third-party content provisioning entity;

providing, from the intermediary publishing system, the at least a portion of the request to the third-party content provisioning entity, wherein the third-party content provisioning entity determines third-party content based, at least in part, on the unique publisher-generated individual browser instance identifier uniquely linking the individual browser instance to the user;

receiving, at the intermediary publishing system, the third-party content from the third-party content provisioning entity;

providing, from the intermediary publishing system, the third-party content to the individual browser instance as a second third-party content partial portion of the webpage; and

replacing the temporary placeholder content, in the first publisher-content partial portion of the webpage, with the second third-party content partial portion of the webpage.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 11, the method further including:

providing non-user-linked data to the third-party content provisioning entity, wherein the third-party content provisioning entity determines the third-party content based, at least in part, on the non-user-linked data.