Methods and apparatus to associate a mobile device with a panelist profile

• US 8,315,620 B1
• Filed: 05/27/2011
• Issued: 11/20/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 05/27/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nielsen Company (US) LLC (RR Donnelley & Sons Company)
• Original Assignee: The Nielsen Company LLC (MOOD Media Corporation)
• Inventors: Williamson, Ralph K., Hannaoui, Mohamad
• Primary Examiner(s): Mehrpour, Melody
• Application Number:
  US13/117,657
• Publication Number:
  US 20120302222A1
• Time in Patent Office: 543 Days
• Field of Search: 455/560, 455/426, 455/555, 455/445, 455/553, 455/554, 455/432, 455/427, 455/430, 455/12.1, 455/428, 455/56.1, 455/418
• US Class Current: 455/418
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/02 Protecting privacy or anonymity, e.g. protecting personally identifiable information [PII]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/08 Access security
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/20 Services signaling; Auxiliary data signalling, i.e. transmitting data via a non-traffic channel
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/24 Accounting or billing
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/50 Service provisioning or reconfiguring

Abstract

Methods and apparatus are disclosed to associate a mobile device with a panelist profile. An example method includes initializing a metering application on the mobile device to operate with partial functionality, parsing a message log with the metering application to identify an installation message, extracting a telephone number from the installation message and saving to a memory of the mobile device, sending an initialization message based on the extracted telephone number to prompt an authorization message, and enabling full functionality of the metering application in response to receiving the authorization message.

Claims

1. A method to conditionally enable a metering application on a mobile device, comprising:

initializing a metering application on the mobile device to operate with partial functionality;

parsing a message log with the metering application to identify an installation message;

extracting a telephone number from the installation message and saving to a memory of the mobile device;

sending an initialization message based on the extracted telephone number to prompt an authorization message; and

enabling full functionality of the metering application in response to receiving the authorization message.

2. A method as described in claim 1, wherein the message log comprises at least one of a text message history log and an e-mail history log.

3. A method as described in claim 1, wherein sensor recordings are disabled when the partial functionality is enabled.

4. A method as described in claim 3, wherein the sensor recordings comprise at least one of microphone recording, image recording, global positioning satellite recording, compass recording, or accelerometer recording.

5. A method as described in claim 3, wherein sensor recordings are enabled when the full functionality is enabled.

6. A method as described in claim 1, wherein the metering application is downloaded to the mobile device from at least one of an application repository or a website uniform resource locator.

7. A tangible machine accessible medium having instructions stored thereon that, when executed, cause a machine to, at least:

initialize a metering application on the mobile device to operate with partial functionality;

parse a message log with the metering application to identify an installation message;

extract a telephone number from the installation message and saving to a memory of the mobile device;

send an initialization message based on the extracted telephone number to prompt an authorization message; and

enable full functionality of the metering application in response to receiving the authorization message.

8. A tangible article of manufacture as described in claim 7, wherein the instructions, when executed, cause the machine to disable sensor recordings when the partial functionality is enabled.

9. A tangible article of manufacture as described in claim 7, wherein the instructions, when executed, cause the machine to enable sensor recordings when the full functionality is enabled.

10. A tangible article of manufacture as described in claim 7, wherein the instructions, when executed, cause the machine to download the metering application to the mobile device from at least one of an application repository or a website uniform resource locator.

11. An apparatus to conditionally enable a metering application on a mobile device, comprising:

a metering application on the mobile device to initialize with partial functionality;

an installation message parser to identify an installation message and extract a telephone number from the installation message; and

a mobile message generator to send an initialization message based on the extracted telephone number to prompt an authorization message that enables full functionality of the metering application.

12. An apparatus as described in claim 11, wherein the mobile device comprises at least one of a text message history log and an e-mail history log to be parsed by the installation message parser.

13. An apparatus as described in claim 11, further comprising a mobile uniform resource identifier generator to generate the initialization message.