Method and apparatus for geolocation of a network user
First Claim
1. A method of predicting the geographic location of a user of a communication network based on the user'"'"'s network address, the method comprising the steps of:
- (1) obtaining and storing data purportedly disclosing the geographic location of a plurality of users of the network;
(2) obtaining and storing the network addresses of the plurality of users; and
(3) correlating the geographic location data with the network address data to generate data predicting the geographic location of a user of the network as a function of the network address through which the user accesses the network.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A database correlating the geographic locations of users of a network to the network address through which the users access the network is maintained and used to infer the geographic location of other users of the network that access the website through the same IP addresses. An Internet website operator may generate such a database from home or business address information self-reported by users of the website. If a plurality of users that access a website through the same IP address have self-reported information as to their geographic location to a website operator, that information collectively provides information as to the likely geographic location and the geographic diversity of other users that access the network through that IP address. Accordingly, such information is used to infer the extent to which a given IP address is likely to correlate to any particular geographic area and the particular area. Additionally, a website operator that has information indicative of the veracity of the self-reported location information may use that information to rate the likelihood that the self-reported location information for a given user is truthful and then use that rating to provide an even more accurate rating of the likelihood that an inferred location of a user is in a given location.
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Citations
36 Claims
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1. A method of predicting the geographic location of a user of a communication network based on the user'"'"'s network address, the method comprising the steps of:
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(1) obtaining and storing data purportedly disclosing the geographic location of a plurality of users of the network;
(2) obtaining and storing the network addresses of the plurality of users; and
(3) correlating the geographic location data with the network address data to generate data predicting the geographic location of a user of the network as a function of the network address through which the user accesses the network. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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17. A computer readable product embodied on computer readable media readable by a computing device for predicting the geographic location of a user of a communication network based on the user'"'"'s network address, said product comprising computer executable instructions for:
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obtaining and storing data purportedly disclosing the geographic location of a plurality of users of the network;
obtaining and storing the network addresses of the plurality of users; and
correlating the geographic location data with the network address data to generate data predicting the geographic location of a user of the network as a function of the network address through which the user accesses the network. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24)
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25. A method of predicting the geographic location of a user of the Internet who visits a Website on the Internet based on the user'"'"'s Internet Protocol address, the method comprising the steps of:
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(1) obtaining and storing data purportedly disclosing the geographic location of a plurality of users of the network who visit the website;
(2) obtaining and storing the network addresses of the plurality of users;
(3) correlating the geographic location data with the network address data to generate data predicting the geographic location of a user of the network as a function of the user'"'"'s network address through which the user accesses the network; and
(4) when a user of the network visits the website, predicting the user'"'"'s geographic location based on the predictive geographic location data. - View Dependent Claims (26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36)
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Specification