Methods and apparatus to obtain anonymous audience measurement data from network server data for particular demographic and usage profiles

• US 8,307,006 B2
• Filed: 06/30/2010
• Issued: 11/06/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nielsen Company (US) LLC (RR Donnelley & Sons Company)
• Original Assignee: The Nielsen Company LLC (MOOD Media Corporation)
• Inventors: Hannan, Kevin Michael, Papakostas, Achilleas, Perez, Albert Ronald, Yonker, Michael Andrew, Albino, Austin William
• Primary Examiner(s): Woo, Isaac M
• Application Number:
  US12/827,865
• Publication Number:
  US 20120005213A1
• Time in Patent Office: 860 Days
• Field of Search: 707600-831
• US Class Current: 707/791
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/00 Information retrieval; Database structures therefor; File system structures therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24 Querying
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34

Abstract

Methods and apparatus to obtain anonymous audience measurement data from network server data for particular demographic and usage profiles are disclosed. An example method to provide anonymous audience measurement data to an audience measurement entity disclosed herein comprises obtaining a demographic profile and a network usage profile, sampling customer data stored in a customer database not accessible by the audience measurement entity to generate a customer sample representative of the demographic profile and the network usage profile without customer intervention, the customer sample including customer identification information, processing log data obtained from a network server not accessible by the audience measurement entity using the customer identification information to determine audience measurement data associated with customers in the customer sample, and removing the customer identification information from the audience measurement data to prepare the anonymous audience measurement data for the audience measurement entity.

Claims

1. A method to provide anonymous audience measurement data to an audience measurement entity, the method comprising:

obtaining a demographic profile and a network usage profile;

electronically sampling customer data stored in a customer database not accessible by the audience measurement entity to generate a customer sample representative of the demographic profile and the network usage profile without customer intervention, the customer sample including customer identification information;

electronically processing log data obtained from a network server not accessible by the audience measurement entity using the customer identification information to determine audience measurement data associated with customers in the customer sample; and

removing the customer identification information from the audience measurement data to prepare the anonymous audience measurement data for the audience measurement entity.

2. A method as defined in claim 1 wherein the demographic profile and the network usage profile are obtained from the audience measurement entity.

3. A method as defined in claim 1 wherein the demographic profile comprises a plurality of demographic categories, each demographic category comprising a plurality of target segments associated respectively with a first plurality of target population percentages, and the usage profile comprises a plurality of usage categories associated respectively with a second plurality of target population percentages.

4. A method as defined in claim 3 wherein sampling the customer data comprises:

indexing the customer data stored in the customer database according to the plurality of demographic categories to determine indexed customer data; and

randomly sampling the indexed customer data based on the first plurality of target population percentages associated with each demographic category to randomly select a plurality of customers representative of the demographic profile.

5. A method as defined in claim 3 wherein electronically sampling the customer data comprises:

indexing the customer data stored in the customer database according to the plurality of demographic categories and the plurality of usage categories to determine indexed customer data; and

randomly sampling the indexed customer data based on the first plurality of target population percentages associated with each demographic category and the second plurality of target population percentages associated with the plurality of usage categories to randomly select a plurality of customers representative of the demographic profile and the usage profile.

6. A method as defined in claim 1 wherein the customer identification information comprises at least one of a phone number, an Internet protocol (IP) address, a username, a personal identification number or a cookie identifier associated with each customer included in the customer sample.

7. A method as defined in claim 1 further comprising using the customer identification information to retrieve log data from the network server for customers included in the customer sample, but to not retrieve log data for any customer not included in the customer sample.

8. A method as defined in claim 1 further comprising using the customer identification information to configure the network server to automatically provide log data for customers included in the customer sample, but to not automatically provide log data for any customer not included in the customer sample.

9. A method as defined in claim 1 wherein processing the log data comprises:

obtaining first log data associated with a first customer using the customer identification information included in the customer sample, the first log data associated with first customer identification information representative of the first customer; and

associating the first log data with a first demographic classification and a first usage classification in the audience measurement data, the first demographic classification and the first usage classification corresponding to the first customer.

10. A method as defined in claim 9 wherein the anonymous audience measurement data includes the first demographic classification and the first usage classification associated with the first customer, but does not include the first customer identification information.

11. A method as defined in claim 10 further comprising including an anonymous identifier in the anonymous audience measurement data to replace the first customer identification information.

12. A method as defined in claim 1 further comprising:

determining whether the log data obtained from the network server corresponds to the usage profile; and

when the log data does not correspond to the usage profile, further sampling the customer data stored in the customer database to update the customer sample.

13. A method as defined in claim 12 further comprising, when the log data does not correspond to the usage profile, randomly removing customers from the customer sample associated with a usage category exceeding a target population percentage.

14. A tangible article of manufacture storing machine readable instructions which, when executed, cause a machine to:

obtain a demographic profile and a network usage profile from an audience measurement entity;

sample customer data stored in a customer database not accessible by the audience measurement entity to generate a customer sample representative of the demographic profile and the network usage profile without customer intervention, the customer sample including customer identification information;

process log data obtained from a network server not accessible by the audience measurement entity using the customer identification information to determine audience measurement data associated with customers in the customer sample; and

remove the customer identification information from the audience measurement data to prepare anonymous audience measurement data for the audience measurement entity.

15. A tangible article of manufacture as defined in claim 14 wherein the demographic profile comprises a plurality of demographic categories, each demographic category comprising a plurality of target segments associated respectively with a first plurality of target population percentages, and the usage profile comprises a plurality of usage categories associated respectively with a second plurality of target population percentages, and wherein the machine readable instructions, when executed, further cause the machine to:

index the customer data stored in the customer database according to the plurality of demographic categories to determine indexed customer data; and

randomly sample the indexed customer data based on the first plurality of target population percentages associated with each demographic category to randomly select a plurality of customers representative of the demographic profile.

16. A tangible article of manufacture as defined in claim 14 wherein the demographic profile comprises a plurality of demographic categories, each demographic category comprising a plurality of target segments associated respectively with a first plurality of target population percentages, and the usage profile comprises a plurality of usage categories associated respectively with a second plurality of target population percentages, and wherein the machine readable instructions, when executed, further cause the machine to:

index the customer data stored in the customer database according to the plurality of demographic categories and the plurality of usage categories to determine indexed customer data; and

randomly sample the indexed customer data based on the first plurality of target population percentages associated with each demographic category and the second plurality of target population percentages associated with the plurality of usage categories to randomly select a plurality of customers representative of the demographic profile and the usage profile.

17. A tangible article of manufacture as defined in claim 14 wherein the machine readable instructions, when executed, further cause the machine to:

obtain first log data associated with a first customer using the customer identification information included in the customer sample, the first log data associated with first customer identification information representative of the first customer; and

associate the first log data with a first demographic classification and a first usage classification in the audience measurement data, the first demographic classification and the first usage classification corresponding to the first customer.

18. A tangible article of manufacture as defined in claim 14 wherein the machine readable instructions, when executed, further cause the machine to:

determine whether the log data obtained from the network server corresponds to the usage profile; and

when the log data does not correspond to the usage profile, further sample the customer data stored in the customer database to update the customer sample.

19. An apparatus to provide anonymous audience measurement data to an audience measurement entity, the apparatus comprising:

a customer sample generator to sample customer data stored in a customer database not accessible by the audience measurement entity to generate a customer sample representative of a demographic profile and a network usage profile without customer intervention, the demographic profile and the network usage profile obtained from the audience measurement entity, the customer sample including customer identification information;

a measurement data sampler to obtain log data from a network server not accessible by the audience measurement entity using the customer identification information and to determine audience measurement data associated with customers in the customer sample using the obtained log data, the audience measurement data including the customer identification information; and

a privacy unit to remove the customer identification information from the audience measurement data to prepare the anonymous audience measurement data for the audience measurement entity.

20. An apparatus as defined in claim 19 wherein the demographic profile comprises a plurality of demographic categories, each demographic category comprising a plurality of target segments associated respectively with a first plurality of target population percentages, and the usage profile comprises a plurality of usage categories associated respectively with a second plurality of target population percentages, and wherein the customer sample generator is to:

index the customer data stored in the customer database according to the plurality of demographic categories to determine indexed customer data; and

randomly sample the indexed customer data based on the first plurality of target population percentages associated with each demographic category to randomly select a plurality of customers representative of the demographic profile.

21. An apparatus as defined in claim 19 wherein the customer identification information comprises at least one of a phone number, an Internet protocol (IP) address, a username, a personal identification number or a cookie identifier associated with each customer included in the customer sample, and wherein the measurement data sampler is to:

obtain first log data associated with a first customer using first customer identification information corresponding to the first customer that is included in the customer identification information and the first log data; and

associate the first log data with a first demographic classification and a first usage classification in the audience measurement data, the first demographic classification and the first usage classification corresponding to the first customer.

22. An apparatus as defined in claim 21 wherein the privacy unit is to remove the first customer identification information from the audience measurement data, but keep the first demographic classification and the first usage classification in the audience measurement data.

23. An apparatus as defined in claim 19 further comprising a profile verifier to:

determine whether the log data obtained from the network server corresponds to the usage profile; and

when the log data does not correspond to the usage profile, cause the customer sample generator to further sample the customer data stored in the customer database to update the customer sample.