SELECTING ANONYMOUS USERS BASED ON USER LOCATION HISTORY

• US 20140089049A1
• Filed: 09/27/2012
• Published: 03/27/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 09/27/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: David Cristofaro
• Original Assignee: David Cristofaro
• Inventors: Cristofaro, David
• Granted Patent: US 10,643,222 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/7.32
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0201 Market modelling; Market analysis; Collecting market data
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0203 Market surveys; Market polls
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/02 Protecting privacy or anonymity, e.g. protecting personally identifiable information [PII]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/63 Location-dependent; Proximity-dependent
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services

Abstract

Provided is a process for selecting candidates for participating in a market-research survey, or receiving other offers, based on location history while protecting privacy of the candidates. In some cases, the process includes: obtaining, at a survey-participant identification system, location histories from client devices, and the location histories indicating locations of the client device over time; associating each of the location histories with an anonymous pseudonym of the survey candidate; storing the location histories and the association with the anonymous pseudonyms in memory accessible to the server; obtaining, at the survey-participant identification system, criteria by which to select survey candidates, the criteria specifying locations relevant to a survey; selecting, with the survey-participant identification system, anonymous pseudonyms in memory that are associated with a location history that satisfies the criteria; and sending messages to the client devices inviting survey candidates corresponding to the selected anonymous pseudonyms to further identify themselves to participate in the survey.

Claims

1. A method of selecting candidates for participating in a market-research survey based on location history while protecting privacy of the candidates, the method comprising:

obtaining, at a survey-participant identification system, location histories from client devices, each client device being carried by a survey candidate, and the location histories indicating locations of the client device over time;

associating each of the location histories with an anonymous pseudonym of the survey candidate;

storing the location histories and the association with the anonymous pseudonyms in memory accessible to the server;

obtaining, at the survey-participant identification system, criteria by which to select survey candidates, the criteria specifying locations relevant to a survey;

selecting, with the survey-participant identification system, anonymous pseudonyms in memory that are associated with a location history that satisfies the criteria;

sending messages to the client devices inviting survey candidates corresponding to the selected anonymous pseudonyms to further identify themselves to participate in the survey.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein sending messages to the client devices comprises:

receiving a pull request for messages for one of the anonymous pseudonyms from one of the client devices;

in response to the pull request, sending one of the messages to the requesting client device.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein sending the messages to the client devices comprises:

retrieving an address of one of the client device from memory associating the address with the anonymous pseudonym; and

sending one of the messages to the address.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein obtaining location histories comprises:

receiving the location histories over the Internet from the client devices; and

deleting from memory of the survey-participant identification system internet-protocol addresses from which the location histories are received.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein obtaining location histories comprises:

receiving the location histories over the Internet from the client devices via an anonymizing proxy server.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein each anonymizing pseudonym is a cryptographic hash of a non-anonymous identifier of a corresponding survey candidate.

7. The method of claim 6, comprising:

receiving, after sending the messages, from one of the client devices, a key configured to decrypt an associated cryptographic hash.

8. The method of claim 7, comprising:

sending the survey to client devices of survey candidates accepting the invitation; and

receiving survey results from the client devices.

9. A tangible, non-transitory, machine-readable memory storing instructions, that when executed, cause a computing device to perform steps comprising:

storing in memory of a hand-held computing device a location history of the computing device;

receiving, at the hand-held computing device, from a remote server, location criteria specifying a geographic area related to a survey;

ascertaining whether the location history in memory satisfies the location criteria; and

after ascertaining that the location history satisfies the location criteria, displaying on the hand-held computing an indication that the user of the device has an option to answer questions related to the survey.

10. The memory of claim 9, wherein displaying that the user has an option to answer questions related to the survey comprises inviting the user to provide data relating to criteria other than location to determine whether the user is a candidate for the survey.

11. The memory of claim 9, comprising:

sending a message to the remote server indicating that the location history satisfies the location criteria.

12. The memory of claim 11, the steps comprising:

receiving the survey; and

administering the survey to the user; and

sending survey results obtained by administering the survey.

13. The memory of claim 9, wherein storing the location history comprises:

hashing locations in the location history with a hash function; and

storing the hashed locations in memory.

14. The memory of claim 13, wherein ascertaining that the location history satisfies the location criteria comprises:

ascertaining that criteria hashed with a corresponding hash function match the hashed locations stored in memory.

15. The memory of claim 14, wherein the hash function and the corresponding hash function are the same.

16. The memory of claim 9, the steps comprising:

obtaining locations from a global-positioning system (GPS) device of the hand-held computing device.

17. The memory of claim 9, comprising:

upon ascertaining that the location history satisfies the location criteria, displaying a reward for participating in the survey.

18. A system, comprising:

one or more processors;

memory coupled to the one or more processors, the memory storing instructions that when executed by the one or more processors cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising;

obtaining, at a survey-participant identification system, location histories from client devices, each client device being carried by a survey candidate, and the location histories indicating locations of the client device over time;

associating each of the location histories with an anonymous pseudonym of the survey candidate;

storing the location histories and the association with the anonymous pseudonyms in memory accessible to the server;

obtaining, at the survey-participant identification system, criteria by which to select survey candidates, the criteria specifying locations relevant to a survey;

selecting, with the survey-participant identification system, anonymous pseudonyms in memory that are associated with a location history that satisfies the criteria;

sending messages to the client devices inviting survey candidates corresponding to the selected anonymous pseudonyms to further identify themselves to participate in the survey.

19. A tangible, non-transitory, machine-readable memory storing instructions, that when executed, cause a computing device to perform operations comprising:

obtaining, at a survey-participant identification system, location histories from client devices, each client device being carried by a survey candidate, and the location histories indicating locations of the client device over time;

associating each of the location histories with an anonymous pseudonym of the survey candidate;

storing the location histories and the association with the anonymous pseudonyms in memory accessible to the server;

obtaining, at the survey-participant identification system, criteria by which to select survey candidates, the criteria specifying locations relevant to a survey;

selecting, with the survey-participant identification system, anonymous pseudonyms in memory that are associated with a location history that satisfies the criteria;

sending messages to the client devices inviting survey candidates corresponding to the selected anonymous pseudonyms to further identify themselves to participate in the survey.

20. A method, comprising:

storing in memory of a hand-held computing device a location history of the computing device;

receiving, at the hand-held computing device, from a remote server, location criteria specifying a geographic area related to a survey;

ascertaining whether the location history in memory satisfies the location criteria; and

after ascertaining that the location history satisfies the location criteria, displaying on the hand-held computing an indication that the user of the device has an option to answer questions related to the survey.

21. A system, comprising:

one or more processors;

memory coupled to the one or more processors, the memory storing instructions that when executed by the one or more processors cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising;

storing in memory of a hand-held computing device a location history of the computing device;

receiving, at the hand-held computing device, from a remote server, location criteria specifying a geographic area related to a survey;

ascertaining whether the location history in memory satisfies the location criteria; and

after ascertaining that the location history satisfies the location criteria, displaying on the hand-held computing an indication that the user of the device has an option to answer questions related to the survey.

22. A method of selecting candidates to receive offers based on location history while protecting privacy of the candidates, the method comprising:

obtaining, at a offers-participant identification system, location histories from client devices, each client device being carried by an offer candidate, and the location histories indicating locations of the client device over time;

associating each of the location histories with an anonymous pseudonym of the offer candidate;

storing the location histories and the association with the anonymous pseudonyms in memory accessible to the server;

obtaining, at the survey-participant identification system, criteria by which to select offer candidates, the criteria specifying locations relevant to an offer;

selecting, with the offer-participant identification system, anonymous pseudonyms in memory that are associated with a location history that satisfies the criteria;

sending messages to the client devices inviting offer candidates corresponding to the selected anonymous pseudonyms to accept an offer.

23. (canceled)

24. (canceled)

25. (canceled)

26. A tangible, non-transitory, machine-readable memory storing instructions, that when executed, cause a computing device to perform steps comprising:

storing in memory of a hand-held computing device a location history of the computing device;

receiving, at the hand-held computing device, from a remote server, location criteria specifying a geographic area related to an offer;

ascertaining whether the location history in memory satisfies the location criteria; and

upon ascertaining that the location history satisfies the location criteria, displaying on the hand-held computing an indication that the user of the device has an offer.

27. (canceled)

28. (canceled)

29. (canceled)