METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR BLOCKING USAGE TRACKING

• US 20120304286A1
• Filed: 05/25/2011
• Published: 11/29/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 05/25/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Adler, Darin B., Decker, Kevin W., Falkenburg, Steven J., Hatcher, Timothy G., Jin, Jing, Melton, Donald D., Stachowiak, Maciej, Croll, Brian, Weinig, Samuel M., Weinstein, Brian A.
• Granted Patent: US 8,819,817 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 726/22
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/60 Protecting data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/62 Protecting access to data via a platform, e.g. using keys or access control rules
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6263 during internet communication, e.g. revealing personal data from cookies
• 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: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34

Abstract

Methods and apparatuses that maintain one or more data stores capable of storing local data in a device for loading a resource of a domain are described. The resource may be loaded to cause one or more data access operations on the data stores. Access to usage tracking data of the device from the domain may depend on at least one of the data access operations. The data access operations may be configured to block the usage tracking data of the device from the domain. The data access operations may be performed on the data stores for the loading of the resource. A web page may be presented to a user when the resource is successfully loaded.

Claims

1. A machine-readable non-transitory storage medium having instructions therein, which when executed by a machine, causes the machine to perform a method, the method comprising:

maintaining one or more data stores capable of storing local data in a device for loading a resource of a domain, the loading of the resource to cause one or more data access operations on the data stores, wherein access to usage tracking data of the device from the domain depends on at least one of the data access operations;

configuring the data access operations to block the usage tracking data of the device from the domain; and

performing the data access operations on the data stores for the loading of the resource, wherein the resource is successfully loaded for a presentation of a web page to a user.

2. The medium of claim 1, wherein the web page is rendered via a first party resource from a first party domain identified in a request received from the user, wherein the loading of the resource is caused by the first party resource and wherein the loading of the resource is transparent to the user.

3. The medium of claim 2, wherein the data access operations are associated with a session identifier valid for a limited period of time, and wherein the performing the data access operations comprises:

updating at least one of the data stores with a change associated with the session identifier when the session identifier is valid; and

removing the change associated with the session identifier from the at least one data stores when the session identifier expires outside the limited period of time.

4. The medium of claim 3, wherein the session identifier is associated with a window displaying the web page in the presentation and wherein the session identifier expires when the window closes.

5. The medium of claim 2, wherein at least one of the data stores includes partitions for separate domains, and wherein the configuration comprises:

associating the access operations with the first party domain, wherein the access operations are limited to access partitions of the first party domain in the data stores.

6. The medium of claim 5, wherein the data stores are accessed via APIs (application programming interface) and wherein the data access operations are explicitly specified in the resources via the APIs.

7. The medium of claim 5, wherein the data stores includes a cache store, wherein the data access operations to access the cache store and wherein performing the data access operations comprises:

storing a copy of the resource in a partition of the first party domain in the cache store.

8. The medium of claim 7, the performing the data access operations further comprising:

retrieving the resource from the partition of the first party domain in the cache store.

9. The medium of claim 1, wherein the device includes a persistent storage device, wherein the data access operations identify one of the data stores, and wherein performing the data access operations comprises:

storing a data item keyed by the domain to the identified data store with an indicator to prevent storing the data item persistently in the persistent storage device.

10. The medium of claim 1, wherein the resource includes APIs (application programming interface) to invoke the data access operations, and wherein performing the data access operations comprises:

returning status to the API calls without updating the data stores, the status indicating the API calls complete successfully.

11. The medium of claim 10, wherein the resource includes script code calling the APIs and wherein the script code is executed for the loading of the resource.

12. The medium of claim 10, wherein data access operations comprises:

returning a status to the API calls without updating the data stores, the status indicating the API calls complete successfully.

13. The medium of claim 1, wherein the resource specifies a plug-in module including the data access operations capable of updating one of the data stores associated with the plug-in module, and wherein the plug-in module is independent of data stores other than the associated data store.

14. The medium of claim 13, wherein the configuration comprises:

invoking the plug-in module within a virtual machine sandboxing the one data store.

15. The medium of claim 13, wherein the configuration comprises:

invoking the plug-in module with a private mode, wherein the data access operations are limited to read access to the associated data store with the private mode.

16. A machine-readable non-transitory storage medium having instructions therein, which when executed by a machine, causes the machine to perform a method, the method comprising:

identifying a plug-in module for loading a resource of a third party domain, wherein the third party domain is of a third party type with respect to a first party resource of a first party domain loaded in a device;

configuring the plug-in module to block usage tracking on the device from the third party domain; and

invoking the plug-in module for the loading of the resource, wherein the resource is successfully loaded for a presentation of the first party resource to a user.

17. The medium of claim 16, wherein the first party resource is loaded according to a request received from a user of the device and wherein the loading of the resource is caused by the first party resource transparent to the user.

18. The medium of claim 16, wherein the plug-in module is associated with a path to a storage location in the device to store local data, and wherein the configuration comprises:

allocating a temporary storage location of a temporary path in the device; and

redirecting the path to the temporary path in the device, wherein the plug-in module is capable of accessing the temporary location via the path and wherein the plug-in module is prohibited from accessing the storage location.

19. The medium of claim 18, wherein the first party resource is rendered in a web page presented to the user and wherein the temporary storage is made inaccessible when the web page is closed.

20. A machine-readable non-transitory storage medium having instructions therein, which when executed by a machine, causes the machine to perform a method, the method comprising:

in response to a request for a resource of a third party domain, identifying a first party domain for the third party domain, wherein the request is caused by a loaded resource of the first party domain, and wherein the third party domain is transparent to a user of a device;

querying a cache of the device for the resource under the first party domain, wherein resources of the third party domain in the cache under a separate first party domain are inaccessible for the querying under the first party domain; and

loading the resource under the first party domain from the cache if the querying is successful, wherein the loading prevents usage tracking from the third party domain via the cache.

21. The medium of claim 20, wherein the cache is indexed by at least one domain and wherein the resource is stored in the cache indexed by both the first party domain and the third party domain.

22. The medium of claim 20, wherein the cache includes segregated partitions separately corresponding to separate domains including the first party domain, and wherein the resource is indexed by the third party domain in one of the partitions corresponding to the first party domain.

23. A machine-readable non-transitory storage medium having instructions therein, which when executed by a machine, causes the machine to perform a method, the method comprising:

maintaining one or more blacklists of known trackers in a device, wherein each known tracker addresses resources of a domain capable of tracking usage of the device;

monitoring a history of third party requests for resources of third party domains, each third party request caused transparently to a user of the device via a loaded resource in the device, the loaded resource being of a first party domain specified in a request from the user;

presenting a user interface indicating usage tracking activities according to the history, wherein the usage tracking activities indicating relationships between the first party domains and the blacklists via the third party domains.

24. The medium of claim 23, wherein the blacklists include a first blacklist, wherein the third party requests include a particular request of a particular one of the third party domains, the method further comprising:

blocking the particular request if the particular third party domain belong to the first blacklist.

25. The medium of claim 24, wherein the blocking prohibits network connections with the third party domain.

26. The medium of claim 24, wherein the blacklists include a second blacklist, the method further comprising:

restricting access to local data of the device for the particular third party domain without blocking the particular third party request if the particular third party domain belongs to the second blacklist.

27. The medium of claim 23, wherein the usage tracking activities include statistics of the third party requests with respect to the blacklist for the first party domain.

28. The medium of claim 26, wherein the statistics include counts of total number of the third party requests for each of the third party domain.

29. A computer implemented method comprises:

maintaining one or more data stores capable of storing local data in a device for loading a resource of a domain, the loading of the resource to cause one or more data access operations on the data stores, wherein access to usage tracking data of the device from the domain depends on at least one of the data access operations;

configuring the data access operations to block the usage tracking data of the device from the domain; and

performing the data access operations on the data stores for the loading of the resource, wherein the resource is successfully loaded for a presentation of a web page to a user.

30. A computer system comprising:

a memory storing executable instructions;

a network interface coupled to sources of one or more domains including third party domains and first party domains according to requests from a user of the system;

a processor coupled to the memory and the network interface to execute the instructions from the memory, the processor being configured to

maintain at least one blacklist of known trackers in a device, wherein each known tracker addresses resources of a domain capable of tracking usage of the system,

monitor a history of third party requests for resources of the third party domains, each third party request caused transparently to the user via a loaded resource in the system, the loaded resource being of one of the first party domains specified in one of the requests;

present a user interface indicating usage tracking activities according to the history, wherein the usage tracking activities identifying relationships between the first party domains and the at least one blacklist via the third party domains.