SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR PROVIDING ANONYMIZED USER PROFILE DATA

• US 20110060905A1
• Filed: 05/11/2010
• Published: 03/10/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 05/11/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Experian Marketing Solutions, LLC (Experian plc), Fritz Schã¤Fer Gesellschaft Mit Beschrã¤Nkter Haftung (Fritz Schã¤Fer KG Einrichtungssysteme)
• Original Assignee: Experian Marketing Solutions Incorporated (Experian plc)
• Inventors: Abdous, Yacine, Lientz, Andrew, Stack, Brian, Chamberlain, Simon, Kahn, Ray
• Granted Patent: US 8,639,920 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 713/167
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/10 Protecting distributed programs or content, e.g. vending or licensing of copyrighted material protection in video systems or pay television H04N7/16 ; Digital rights management [DRM]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 2220/10 Usage protection of distributed data files
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0201 Market modelling; Market analysis; Collecting market data
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0269 based on user profile or attribute

Abstract

Embodiments facilitate confidential and secure sharing of anonymous user profile data to improve the delivery of customized content. Embodiments of the invention provide a data appliance to an entity such as a business to convert profile data about the business'"'"'s customers into anonymous identifiers. A similar data appliance is provided to a content provider in one embodiment to generate identifiers for its user profile data. Because the anonymous identifiers are generated with the same anonymization method, identical identifiers are likely generated from profile data of the same users. Therefore, the identifiers can be used to anonymously match the customers of the business to the users of the content provider. Therefore, data can be shared to improve customized content such as advertisements that the business wishes to place with the content provider without requiring the business to disclose customer data in an unencrypted form, and any non-matched data can remain confidential.

Claims

1. A system for anonymously sharing user profile data among a plurality of entities, comprising:

a plurality of data appliances located at the plurality of entities with user profile data;

a server configured to communicate with each of the plurality of data appliances to facilitate sharing of user profile data among the plurality of data appliances, the plurality of data appliances comprising;

a first data appliance that is configured to;

receive, from a first entity, first user profile data for a first group of users associated with the first entity, the first user profile data including names and addresses of the first group of users;

encrypt the first user profile data for each of the first group of users into a first encrypted identifier; and

send the first encrypted identifiers to the server; and

a second data appliance that is configured to;

receive, from a second entity, second user profile data for a second group of users associated with the second entity, the second user profile data including names and addresses of the second group of users;

encrypt the second user profile data for each of the second group of users into a second encrypted identifier with the same encryption used by the first data appliance, so that common user profile data between the first and second user profile data are converted into identical encrypted identifiers;

receive from the server the first encrypted identifiers; and

locate identical identifiers from among the first and second encrypted identifiers to generate an anonymous list of common users between the first and second groups of users, whereby the list can be used to customize content provided by the second entity to the users associated with the first entity.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the encryption is a cryptographic hash function.

3. A system for anonymously sharing user profile data among a plurality of entities, comprising:

a plurality of data appliances located at the plurality of entities;

a server configured to receive data from and transmit data to the plurality of data appliances, the plurality of data appliances comprising;

a first data appliance that is configured to;

receive, from a first entity, first personal identifiable information related to a first group of persons;

transform the first personally identifiable information into first encrypted data via an encryption process, the first encrypted data comprising an identifier for each of the first group of persons; and

send the encrypted data to the server; and

a second data appliance that is configured to;

receive, from a second entity, second personally identifiable information related to a second group of persons;

transform the second personally identifiable information into second encrypted data with the encryption process used by the first data appliance, the second encrypted data comprising an identifier for each of the second group of persons;

receive from the server the first encrypted data; and

use the first and second encrypted data to anonymously generate list data related to common persons between the first and second groups of persons, so that the list data can be used to customize information provided by the second entity at a direction of the first entity.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the second data appliance is further configured to generate the list data by matching the identifiers in the first encrypted data to the identifiers in the second encrypted data.

5. The system of claim 3, wherein the first personally identifiable information comprise names and addresses related to the first group of persons.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the first data appliance is further configured to complete missing portions in the addresses in the first personally identifiable information before transforming the first personally identifiable information into the first encrypted data.

7. The system of claim 3, wherein the first data appliance is further configured to delete the first personally identifiable information after transforming the first personally identifiable information into the first encrypted data.

8. The system of claim 3, wherein the first data appliance is further configured to append segment data to the first encrypted data before sending the encrypted data to the server.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the second data appliance is further configured to:

receive, from the second entity, in addition to the second personally identifiable information, identifiers used by the second entity to identify the second groups of persons; and

use the list data to create a mapping of user identifiers received from the second entity to the segment data from the first entity.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the mapping is used to anonymously track responses to online advertisements and emails.

11. The system of claim 8, wherein the second data appliance is further configured to identify additional persons referenced in the second encrypted data with personally identifiable information matching a criterion specified in the segment data, the additional persons not among the common persons in the list data.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the criterion is residing within an area with a common postal code.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the criterion is a type of consumer.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein the criterion is an indication of consumer interest shown to a product.

15. The system of claim 3, wherein the data appliance is configured to delete the first and second encrypted data after generating the list data related to common persons.

16. A method for sharing anonymized user profile data, the method comprising:

receiving at a first data appliance, first personally identifiable information related to a first group of persons;

transforming the first personally identifiable information into first encrypted data via an encryption process, the first encrypted data comprising an identifier for each of the first group of persons;

transmitting the first encrypted data from the first encrypted data to a second data appliance;

receiving, at the second data appliance, second personally identifiable information related to a second group of persons;

transforming the second personally identifiable information into second encrypted data with the encryption process, the second encrypted data comprising an identifier for each of the second group of persons; and

using the first and second encrypted data to anonymously generate list data related to common persons between the first and second groups of persons, so that the list data can be used to customize information provided by the second entity at a direction of the first entity.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the using further comprises generating the list data by matching the identifiers in the first encrypted data to the identifiers in the second encrypted data.

18. The method of claim 16 wherein the first personally identifiable information comprise names and addresses related to the first group of persons.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

completing missing portions in the addresses in the first personally identifiable information before transforming the first personally identifiable information into the first encrypted data.

20. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

deleting the first personally identifiable information after transforming the first personally identifiable information into the first encrypted data.

21. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

appending segment data to the first encrypted data before sending the encrypted data to the server.

22. The method of claim 21, further comprising:

receiving, from the second entity, in addition to the second personally identifiable information, identifiers used by the second entity to identify the second groups of persons; and

using the list data to create a mapping of user identifiers received from the second entity to the segment data from the first entity.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the mapping is used to anonymously track responses to online advertisements and emails.

24. The method of claim 21, wherein the second data appliance is further configured to identify additional persons referenced in the second encrypted data with personally identifiable information matching a criterion specified in the segment data, the additional persons not among the common persons in the list data.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein the criterion is residing within an area with a common postal code.

26. The method of claim 24, wherein the criterion is a type of consumer.

27. The method of claim 24, wherein the criterion is an indication of consumer interest shown to a product.

28. The method of claim 16, wherein the data appliance is configured to delete the first and second encrypted data after generating the list data related to common persons.