Privacy-preserving cookies for personalization without user tracking
First Claim
1. A computer-implemented process for creating a privacy-preserving data structure representing an obfuscated user profile to provide personalization for online services without user tracking, comprising:
- encoding a user profile into a data structure that has naturally occurring noise and that efficiently supports noise addition; and
injecting noise into the encoded data structure to create the privacy-preserving data structure representing the obfuscated user profile that allows personalized online services to be provided to a user while maintaining a specified level of user privacy,wherein the noise injected into the encoded data structure is automated to allow for a tradeoff between the specified level of user privacy and a level of personalization, andwherein the noise injected is automated by using a personalization prediction model that computes a loss of personalization using online histories for a set of users and independently varying a number of hash functions and an amount of noise used to build the privacy-preserving structure.
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Accused Products
Abstract
The privacy-preserving cookie generator implementations described herein create a privacy-preserving data structure (also called a privacy-preserving cookie herein) that is used to provide personalization for online services without user tracking. In some implementations the privacy-preserving cookie generator encodes a user profile (for example, based on a user'"'"'s online activity) into a data structure that has naturally occurring noise and that efficiently supports noise addition. In one implementation a Bloom filter is used to create the encoded profile. Additional noise is injected into the encoded profile to create an obfuscated user profile in the form of a privacy-preserving data structure. The privacy-preserving data structure or cookie can be attached to an online service request and sent over a network to an online service provider which can use it fulfill the services request, providing a somewhat personalized result while the user'"'"'s privacy is maintained.
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Citations
20 Claims
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1. A computer-implemented process for creating a privacy-preserving data structure representing an obfuscated user profile to provide personalization for online services without user tracking, comprising:
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encoding a user profile into a data structure that has naturally occurring noise and that efficiently supports noise addition; and injecting noise into the encoded data structure to create the privacy-preserving data structure representing the obfuscated user profile that allows personalized online services to be provided to a user while maintaining a specified level of user privacy, wherein the noise injected into the encoded data structure is automated to allow for a tradeoff between the specified level of user privacy and a level of personalization, and wherein the noise injected is automated by using a personalization prediction model that computes a loss of personalization using online histories for a set of users and independently varying a number of hash functions and an amount of noise used to build the privacy-preserving structure. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. A system for preserving user privacy while providing personalized online services, comprising:
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a computing device; a computer program, stored on a memory device, comprising program modules executable by the computing device, wherein the computing device is directed by the program modules of the computer program to, build a personalization profile based on a user'"'"'s online activities; encode the personalization profile by applying a Bloom filter to the personalization profile; inject noise into the encoded personalization profile to create a privacy-preserving cookie, wherein the injection of noise allows for a tradeoff between a specified level privacy and a level of personalization, and wherein the noise is controlled by setting a random number of bits in the encoded personalization profile; and attach the privacy-preserving cookie to an online service request sent over a network to allow a service provider to provide personalized results in response to the request while maintaining user privacy. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19)
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20. A computer-implemented process for providing personalization of online services without user tracking, comprising:
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receiving a user'"'"'s online service request and an obfuscated user profile created by applying a Bloom filter to an original user profile and setting random bits in the obfuscated user profile, wherein the level of obfuscation of the user profile is determined by using a privacy prediction model created by computing for a set of users over time a similarity value of each user'"'"'s profile and grouping the users'"'"' profiles into categories based on similarity values; retrieving services in response to the user'"'"'s online service request; and
ranking the retrieved results using the obfuscated user profile to provide personalized online services to the user.
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Specification