Systems and Methods to Emulate User Network Activity

• US 20130246618A1
• Filed: 05/07/2013
• Published: 09/19/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 10/09/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Weerasinghe, Srilal
• Granted Patent: US 9,866,461 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3495 for systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/875 Monitoring of systems including the internet
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0876 Network utilisation, e.g. volume of load or congestion level
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/234 for tracking messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34

Abstract

A method includes monitoring network activity corresponding to a user device to detect a period of inactivity and generating additional network activity that is different from the network activity in response to detecting the period of inactivity. The additional network activity obscures a profile of a user. The profile is generated by a remote user tracking engine.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a processor; and

a memory accessible to the processor, the memory including instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising;

monitoring network activity corresponding to a user device to detect a period of inactivity; and

in response to detecting the period of inactivity, generating additional network activity, wherein the additional network activity obscures a profile of a user, and wherein the profile is generated by a remote user tracking engine.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein generating the additional network activity includes:

submitting at least one user query to a search engine; and

submitting a hypertext transfer protocol request corresponding to a search result generated by the search engine.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein at least a portion of the additional network activity is generated based on at least one keyword identified from a list of keywords.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the list of keywords includes keywords that are uncorrelated to at least one of a preference of the user and demographic information associated with the user.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein generating the additional network activity includes sending a plurality of requests to access a network resource via a public network.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein sending the plurality of requests comprises automatically generating a hypertext transfer protocol request and sending the hypertext transfer protocol request via the public network.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the hypertext transfer protocol request comprises header information configured to mimic information of an end-user computing device.

8. A method comprising:

monitoring network activity corresponding to a user device to detect a period of inactivity; and

in response to detecting the period of inactivity, generating additional network activity that is different from the network activity, wherein the additional network activity obscures a profile of a user, and wherein the profile is generated by a remote user tracking engine.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein generating the additional network activity includes:

generating a search query; and

transmitting the search query to a search engine.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein generating the additional network activity includes sending a request to a video server to change a channel.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein generating the additional network activity includes selecting an advertisement included in multimedia content associated with the channel.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein generating the additional network activity includes sending a hypertext transfer protocol request corresponding to the advertisement to retrieve information related to an advertised product.

13. The method of claim 8, wherein the additional network activity is generated at a mobile communications device.

14. The method of claim 8, wherein generating the additional network activity includes traversing a network.

15. The method of claim 8, wherein generating the additional network activity includes initiating a messaging session.

16. The method of claim 8, wherein generating the additional network activity includes:

sending a first request to receive website data corresponding to a uniform resource locator; and

sending a second request to receive data corresponding to a link in the website data.

17. A computer readable storage device comprising instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:

monitoring network activity corresponding to a user device to detect a period of inactivity; and

in response to detecting the period of inactivity, generating additional network activity that is different from the network activity, wherein the additional network activity obscures a profile of a user, and wherein the profile is generated by a remote user tracking engine.

18. The computer readable storage device of claim 17, wherein generating the additional network activity includes sending an email message.

19. The computer readable storage device of claim 18, wherein the email message includes a predetermined keyword.

20. The computer readable storage device of claim 17, wherein generating the additional network activity includes sending a request to a video server of an Internet Protocol Television system to receive streaming media content.