Privacy centric feature analysis for mobile devices

• US 10,506,427 B1
• Filed: 01/18/2019
• Issued: 12/10/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 03/15/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Quantcast
• Original Assignee: Quantcast
• Inventors: Feldman, Konrad S., Vogel Fernandez de Castro, Daniel, Blum, Michael R.
• Primary Examiner(s): Miller, Brandon J
• Application Number:
  US16/252,451
• Time in Patent Office: 326 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/02 Protecting privacy or anonymity, e.g. protecting personally identifiable information [PII]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/021 Services related to particular areas, e.g. point of interest [POI] services, venue services or geofences
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/023 using mutual or relative location information between multiple location based services [LBS] targets or of distance thresholds
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services

Abstract

Privacy centric feature analysis. A secure set of multiple mapped features is selected and provided to a mobile device. Each mapped feature maps a sharable feature to a matching criterion for an item of protected information and no combination of mapped features for a secure set are unique to an individual item of protected information. Privacy compliance instructions enable the mobile device to select a mapped feature from a received set of mapped features by identifying an item of protected information available to the mobile device which corresponds to a matching criterion found in the received set of mapped features. The sharable feature of the selected mapped feature is identified and sent to a privacy compliant destination. Advantageously, the analysis system protects the privacy of the mobile device user because it does not require the mobile device to relay protected information for the selection of customized content or relevant advertisements.

Claims

1. A method for feature analysis, the method comprising:

accessing, by a mobile application installed on a mobile device, a plurality of mapped features, each mapped feature comprising an item of protected information mapped to a non-unique sharable feature;

detecting, by the mobile application, an available item of protected information available to the mobile application;

selecting, by the mobile application, a non-unique sharable feature from the plurality of mapped features that maps to the detected available item of protected information; and

sending, by the mobile application, the non-unique sharable feature to a privacy compliant destination.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein detecting comprises detecting responsive to a trigger.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the trigger comprises a change in a state of a device on which the mobile application is installed.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the trigger comprises a change in state of the mobile application.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein the trigger comprises a signal received by the mobile application.

6. The method of claim 2, wherein the trigger operates according to a schedule.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

sending an identifier of the mobile application from the mobile application with the non-unique sharable feature.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

receiving, by the mobile application, responsive to the sending, content selected according to the non-unique sharable feature.

9. A non-transitory computer readable medium with computer executable instructions stored thereon executed by a processor to perform a method, the method comprising:

accessing, by a mobile application installed on a mobile device, a plurality of mapped features, each mapped feature comprising an item of protected information mapped to a non-unique sharable feature;

detecting, by the mobile application, an available item of protected information available to the mobile application;

selecting, by the mobile application, a non-unique sharable feature from the plurality of mapped features that maps to the detected available item of protected information; and

compliant destination.

10. The medium of claim 9, wherein detecting comprises detecting responsive to a trigger.

11. The medium of claim 10, wherein the trigger comprises a change in a state of a device on which the mobile application is installed.

12. The medium of claim 10, wherein the trigger comprises a change in state of the mobile application.

13. The medium of claim 10, wherein the trigger comprises a signal received by the mobile application.

14. The medium of claim 10, wherein the trigger operates according to a schedule.

15. The medium of claim 9, wherein the method further comprises:

sending an identifier of the mobile application from the mobile application with the non-unique sharable feature.

16. The medium of claim 9, wherein the method further comprises:

receiving, responsive to the sending, content selected according to the non-unique sharable feature.

17. A system comprising:

a processor; and

, a non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing processor-executable computer program instructions, the instructions comprising instructions for;

accessing, by a mobile application installed on a mobile device, a plurality of mapped features, each mapped feature comprising an item of protected information mapped to a non-unique sharable feature;

detecting, by the mobile application, an available item of protected information available to the mobile application;

selecting, by the mobile application, a non-unique sharable feature from the plurality of mapped features that maps to the detected available item of protected information; and

sending, by the mobile application, the non-unique sharable feature to a privacy compliant destination.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein detecting comprises detecting responsive to a trigger.

19. The system of claim 17, wherein the instructions further comprise instructions for:

sending an identifier of the mobile application from the mobile application with the non-unique sharable feature.

20. The system of claim 17, wherein the instructions further comprise instructions for:

receiving, by the mobile application, responsive to the sending, content selected according to the non-unique sharable feature.