Systems and methods for collecting consumer data

• US 7,181,412 B1
• Filed: 03/22/2000
• Issued: 02/20/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 03/22/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: comScore, Inc.
• Original Assignee: comScore Networks, Inc. (comScore, Inc.)
• Inventors: Abraham, Magid, Brown, Michael, Davis, Adam, Miller, Bryan, Fulgoni, Gian
• Primary Examiner(s): Reagan; James A
• Application Number:
  US09/532,890
• Time in Patent Office: 2,526 Days
• Field of Search: 705/10, 705/1, 705/14, 705/26, 705/27, 709/203, 709/219, 709/227, 709/206, 709/217, 213/375, 213/379, 213/380, 707/1
• US Class Current: 705/7.32
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06375 Prediction of business process outcome or impact based on a proposed change
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0203 Market surveys; Market polls
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0204 Market segmentation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0205 Location or geographical consideration
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0236 Incentive or reward received by requiring registration or ID from user
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0239 Online discounts or incentives
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0277 Online advertisement
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99931 Database or file accessing

Abstract

All of an internet user'"'"'s internet data is routed to a known domain on the internet, from which it is routed on to the intended recipient. The domain includes proxy servers which proxy the user'"'"'s WWW data requests to the domain, and database servers which filter and build a database of the user'"'"'s internet usage. Particular data concerning certain behaviors of interest, such as purchasing data, is filtered into the database, and can form the basis for numerous market measures.

Claims

1. A method of collecting consumer data, comprising:

offering one or more incentives for prospective consumers to register with a provider of services;

receiving a request at the provider of services from a consumer to register with the provider of services to receive at least one of the offered incentives;

registering the consumer with the provider of services, wherein registering the consumer includes receiving consumer-specific information about the consumer;

assigning a unique identifier to at least one of the registered consumer and a computer of the registered consumer that is connected to a network to record network activity of the registered consumer using the unique identifier at the provider of services, wherein the unique identifier is persistent across different network sessions and the network is the Internet;

modifying a browser application on the registered consumer'"'"'s computer to enable communications sent to and from the registered consumer'"'"'s computer to be directed through the provider of services, located at a domain on the network, to record the network activity of the registered consumer;

directing at least some communications addressed to the destination server on the network from the registered consumer'"'"'s computer to a server of the provider of services;

receiving at the provider of services data requests from the registered consumer'"'"'s computer addressed to the destination server;

recording at the provider of services at least part of the received data requests as associated with the unique identifier;

communicating the received data requests from the provider of services to the destination server capable of fulfilling the received data requests;

receiving data at the provider of services in response to the received data requests from the destination server;

recording at the provider of services at least part of the received data as associated with the unique identifier;

communicating the received data from the provider of services to the registered consumer'"'"'s computer;

aggregating the received data requests and received data associated with more than one unique identifier based on the recorded network activity of the registered consumers associated with the unique identifiers; and

generating a database by the provider of services of individual and aggregated consumer network activity, wherein the individual consumer network activity includes the received data requests and the received data that is recorded as being associated with the unique identifier, and wherein the aggregated consumer network activity includes the received data requests and the received data that is aggregated as being associated with the more than one unique identifiers.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the offered incentives include at least one of faster network delivery and performing data caching.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the consumer-specific information comprises consumer age.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the consumer network activity includes transaction information, the transaction information including at least one of time of transmission of a data set, location of computing device, date of transmission of a data set, currency paid, type of product purchased, product purchased, type of service purchased, network address of the intended recipient of a data set, click-through address, banner advertisement impression, and permission e-mail received, and combinations thereof.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the recording at least part of the received data includes filtering the received data so that only data of interest is recorded.

6. The method according to claim 5, wherein the filtering is based on a known format of a web page in the received data.

7. The method according to claim 1, further comprising generating a log of the consumer network activity by the provider of services, the log including consumer demographics as well as particular URLs visited by the consumer.

8. The method according to claim 1, further comprising analyzing the database of consumer network activity to extract estimates of projected revenue of a particular entity.

9. The method according to claim 1, further comprising analyzing the database of consumer network activity to extract estimates of commerce.

10. The method according to claim 1, wherein the recording at least part of the received data requests includes:

when the provider of services receives a request for data in a secure session from a computer of the consumer, negotiating by the server of the provider of services a separate secure session with the computer of the consumer, thus initiating a secure session with computer of the consumer;

communicating the received request for data from a server of the provider of services to the destination server capable of supplying the data;

negotiating by the server of the provider of services another secure session with the destination server for the requested data;

receiving at the server of the provider of services the requested data sent by the destination server during the secure session with the destination server;

recording at least part of the data received from the destination server at the provider of services; and

re-addressing the received data for delivery to the computer of the consumer during the secure session between the server of the provider of services and the computer of the consumer,

whereby the server of the provider of services securely transfers data to and from the computer of the consumer to the destination server and at a same time monitors the content of the secured data.

11. The method according to claim 10, wherein the request for data is augmented with the unique identifier when transmitted to the destination server.

12. The method according to claim 1, wherein provider of services is independent of providers of access to the Internet.

13. The method according to claim 1, wherein the consumer-specific information comprises consumer income level.

14. The method according to claim 1, wherein the consumer-specific information comprises consumer education level.

15. The method according to claim 1, wherein the consumer-specific information comprises consumer gender.

16. The method according to claim 1, wherein the consumer-specific information comprises consumer household size.