METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR GEOLOCATION OF A NETWORK USER
First Claim
1. A geographic location monitoring system, comprising:
- a database;
a communications interface that is coupled to a communications network;
a computing resource that is coupled to each of the communications interface and the database, wherein the computing resource is configured to;
receive, from a user device through the communications network via the communications interface, a plurality of different geographic locations that are each associated with a first device identifier for the user device;
store the plurality of geographic locations in the database;
store the first device identifier in the database; and
retrieve the plurality of geographic locations from the database using the first device identifier.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
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.
16 Citations
20 Claims
-
1. A geographic location monitoring system, comprising:
-
a database; a communications interface that is coupled to a communications network; a computing resource that is coupled to each of the communications interface and the database, wherein the computing resource is configured to; receive, from a user device through the communications network via the communications interface, a plurality of different geographic locations that are each associated with a first device identifier for the user device; store the plurality of geographic locations in the database; store the first device identifier in the database; and retrieve the plurality of geographic locations from the database using the first device identifier. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
-
-
8. A method for monitoring geographic locations, comprising:
-
receiving, by a server machine from a client machine through a communications network, a plurality of different geographic locations that are each associated with a client machine identifier for the client machine; storing, by the server machine in a non-transitory memory system, the plurality of geographic locations; storing, by the server machine in a non-transitory memory system, the client machine identifier; and retreiving, by the server machine, the plurality of geographic locations from the non-transitory memory using the client machine identifier. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
-
-
14. A computer-implemented method performed by a computer system having an operatively interconnected processor, memory and communications interface, the method comprising:
-
receiving, from a user device through a communications network via the communications interface, a plurality of different geographic locations that are each associated with a first device identifier for the user device; storing the plurality of different geographic locations in the memory of the computer system; storing the first device identifier in the memory of the computer system; and operating the processor to retrieve the plurality of geographic locations from the memory of the computer system using the first device identifier. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
-
Specification