Generating anonymous log entries

• US 7,937,383 B2
• Filed: 02/01/2008
• Issued: 05/03/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 02/01/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Hintze, Michael D., Behr, Frederic H. Jr., Zheng, Zijian, Howell, Kimberly J., Kern, Randall F.
• Primary Examiner(s): LEROUX, ETIENNE PIERRE
• Application Number:
  US12/024,989
• Publication Number:
  US 20090198746A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,187 Days
• Field of Search: 707/100, 707/102, 707/202, 707/706, 709/219
• US Class Current: 707/706
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/00 Information retrieval; Database structures therefor; File system structures therefor

Abstract

Assigning session identifications to log entries and generating anonymous log entries are provided. In order to balance users'"'"' privacy concerns with the need for analysis of the log entries to provide high quality search results, non-user-specific data fields, such as a user'"'"'s location (e.g., city, state, and latitude/longitude) and connection speed, are inserted into the log entries, and user-specific data fields, such as the IP address and cookie identifications, are deleted from the log entries. In addition or alternatively, prior to anonymization of the log entries, session identifications are assigned to identified groups of log entries. The groups are identified based on factors such as the user'"'"'s identification, the IP address, the time of search, and differences between the search terms used in the search queries.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for generating anonymous log entries, the method comprising:

providing a log entry that is a web server'"'"'s record of a user'"'"'s past browsing activity corresponding to an online search query;

inserting at least one new data field and a corresponding value into the log entry, wherein the at least one new data field and the corresponding value cannot be used to track the log entry to a specific user, and wherein the at least one new data field is one or more of a user location or a connection speed; and

deleting all data fields and corresponding values that can be used to track the log entry to the specific user from the log entry to generate an anonymous log entry.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining whether the log entry is older than a pre-selected period of time.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the log entry is a copy log entry of an original log entry.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 3, further comprising:

validating the integrity of the anonymous log entry by comparing the anonymous log entry to the original log entry.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 3, further comprising:

deleting the original log entry that corresponds to the anonymous log entry.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the one or more of the user location or the connection speed are retrieved from an IP lookup database using an IP address associated with the log entry.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein deleting all data fields and corresponding values that can be used to track the log entry to a specific user comprises deleting an IP address and each of a plurality of cookie identifications associated with the log entry.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

deleting a plurality of user-identifying information from the search query.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 8, wherein the plurality of user-identifying information comprises the user'"'"'s social security number, the user'"'"'s name, the user'"'"'s address, and the user'"'"'s credit card number.

10. A computer-implemented method for assigning session identifications to log entries, the method comprising:

receiving a plurality of original log entries that each correspond to a web server'"'"'s record of a user'"'"'s browsing activity associated with an online search query, wherein each of the plurality of original log entries is associated with a different search query;

analyzing the plurality of original log entries based on at least one of a user identification, an IP address of a device associated with the user, or a time that the search queries were submitted;

based on analyzing the plurality of original log entries, identifying at least one group of log entries such that the log entries that comprise the group of log entries appear to be from a common search session;

assigning a session identification to each original log entry within the at least one group of log entries; and

generating anonymous log entries from the plurality of original log entries by inserting at least one new data field that is one or more of a user location or a connection speed, and by deleting all data fields and corresponding values that can be used to track the anonymous log entries to a corresponding specific user, wherein the user location allows for knowledge of the user'"'"'s general location instead of an identity of the user such that the user remains anonymous, and wherein the user location is one or more of a city, a state, a zip code, or latitude and longitude information associated with the user.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 10, wherein the analysis of each original log entry is based on at least one of a user identification, an IP address, a time of search, a difference between a plurality of search terms used in each of the search queries, and any combination thereof.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 10, further comprising:

determining whether each of the plurality of original log entries is older than a preselected period of time.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 12, further comprising:

creating a copy log entry of each of the plurality of original log entries.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 13, wherein the at least one new data field and the corresponding value cannot be used to track the log entry to a specific user.

15. The computer-implemented method of claim 14, further comprising:

validating the integrity of each of the anonymous log entries by comparing each anonymous log entry to the corresponding original log entry.

16. The computer-implemented method of claim 14, further comprising:

deleting the plurality of original log entries that correspond to the anonymous log entries.

17. One or more computer-readable media having computer-executable instructions embodied thereon that, when executed, perform a method for generating anonymous log entries, the method comprising:

receiving a plurality of original log entries that each correspond to a web server'"'"'s record of a user'"'"'s past browsing activity for an online search query, wherein each of the plurality of original log entries is associated with a different search query;

identifying at least one group of log entries, wherein the at least one group of log entries is based on an analysis of each original log entry, and wherein the analysis of each original log entry is based on at least one of a user identification, an IP address, a time of search, or a difference between a plurality of search terms used in each of the search queries;

assigning a session identification to each original log entry within the at least one group of log entries, wherein the session identification is not able to be tracked to a specific user;

creating a copy log entry of each of the plurality of original log entries, wherein the copy log entry of each of the plurality of original log entries includes user-identifying information that is also included in the corresponding original log entries;

inserting at least one new data field and a corresponding value into each of the copy log entries, wherein the at least one new data field and the corresponding value cannot be used to track the copy log entries to a specific user, and wherein the at least one new data field is at least one of a user location or a connection speed;

deleting all data fields and corresponding values that can be used to track the copy log entries to the specific user from the copy log entries to generate anonymous log entries;

validating the integrity of each of the anonymous log entries by comparing each anonymous log entry to the corresponding original log entry; and

deleting each of the plurality of original log entries that correspond to the anonymous log entries.