Systems and methods to emulate user network activity

• US 8,463,897 B2
• Filed: 10/09/2008
• Issued: 06/11/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 10/09/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Weerasinghe, Srilal
• Primary Examiner(s): KIM, TAE K
• Application Number:
  US12/248,162
• Publication Number:
  US 20100094612A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,706 Days
• Field of Search: 705/14, 707/7, 709/224, 709/225, 709/223, 380/255, 725/9, 725/14, 725/19
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3495 for systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/875 Monitoring of systems including the internet
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0876 Network utilisation, e.g. volume of load or congestion level
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/234 for tracking messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34

Abstract

Systems and methods to emulate user network activity to change the profiling of users of the network are disclosed. A method includes monitoring network activity corresponding to a particular user. The method includes automatically generating emulated user network activity when a usage pattern is detected in the monitored network activity. The emulated user network activity may be detectable by a user tracking engine as the network activity of the particular user and the user tracking engine may attempt to profile the emulated user activity.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method comprising:

monitoring, at a processor, one or more network activities corresponding to a particular user;

detecting, at the processor, a period of inactivity by the particular user based on the monitoring; and

in response to detecting the period of inactivity by the particular user, automatically generating, at the processor, additional network activity that is different from the one or more network activities of the particular user, wherein the additional network activity prevents a remote user tracking engine from identifying a usage pattern corresponding to the one or more network activities of the particular user, wherein automatically generating the additional network activity comprises;

automatically generating a plurality of email messages containing predetermined keywords; and

automatically sending each of the plurality of email messages to at least one of a plurality of email addresses.

2. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein automatically generating the additional network activity further comprises at least one of:

initiating at least one messaging session;

sending a request to a video server of an Internet Protocol Television system to receive streaming media content;

submitting at least one search query to a search engine; and

sending a first request to receive website data corresponding to at least one uniform resource locator and sending a second request to receive data corresponding to at least one link that is received in the website data.

3. The computer implemented method of claim 2, wherein the additional network activity involves traversal of a network in a pre-determined automated manner.

4. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the additional network activity is generated at a mobile communications device.

5. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the additional network activity is generated at a set top box device, and the additional network activity further comprises:

automatically sending a request to a video server to change a received channel;

automatically selecting an advertisement included in multimedia content; and

automatically sending a hypertext transfer protocol request corresponding to a link in the selected advertisement to retrieve information concerning an advertised product.

6. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the additional network activity is generated at a server network associated with a website, and wherein automatically generating the additional network activity further comprises:

generating search queries; and

transmitting the search queries to a search engine.

7. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the additional network activity is generated at a server that enables multiple users to access a public network to modify profiling of the multiple users.

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

selecting at least one keyword from a first list of keywords; and

generating at least a first portion of the additional network activity based on the at least one keyword.

9. The computer implemented method of claim 8, wherein the first list of keywords includes keywords that are substantially uncorrelated to a preference or demographic associated with the particular user.

10. The computer implemented method of claim 8, wherein the first list of keywords includes keywords that correlate to one or more predetermined user profiles configured to cause the remote user tracking engine to determine an inaccurate profile of the particular user.

11. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein automatically generating the additional network activity further comprises automatically sending a plurality of requests to access network resources via a public network.

12. The computer implemented method of claim 11, wherein automatically sending the plurality of requests to access network resources comprises automatically generating a hypertext transfer protocol request to a network resource and sending the hypertext transfer protocol request via the public network.

13. The computer implemented method of claim 12, wherein automatically generating the hypertext transfer protocol request comprises automatically selecting a link to the network resource from a previously accessed network resource.

14. The computer implemented method of claim 13, wherein the previously accessed network resource is identified by a search results list corresponding to a query submitted to a search engine.

15. The computer implemented method of claim 12, wherein the automatically generated hypertext transfer protocol request comprises header information configured to mimic an end-user computing device.

16. A system comprising:

a processor; and

a memory accessible to the processor, the memory including;

an anti-profiling component that is executable by the processor to;

monitor one or more network activities corresponding to a particular user;

detect a period of inactivity by the particular user based on the monitoring; and

in response to detecting the period of inactivity by the particular user, automatically generate additional network activity that is different from the one or more network activities of the particular user, wherein the additional network activity prevents a remote user tracking engine from identifying a usage pattern corresponding to the one or more network activities of the particular user; and

a web search emulation component configured to submit at least one user query to a search engine and to submit a hypertext transfer protocol request corresponding to at least one link from search results generated by the search engine.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the remote user tracking engine associates content or keywords with user profiles based on web browsing activities, email messaging, search engine queries, or instant messaging sessions, and wherein the anti-profiling component is configured to obfuscate the one or more network activities of the particular user by generating a plurality of requests to network resources that are not associated with the one or more network activities of the particular user.

18. The system of claim 16, further comprising an instant messaging emulation component that is responsive to the anti-profiling component to establish an instant messaging session via a public network.

19. The system of claim 16, further comprising a web browsing emulation component that is responsive to the anti-profiling component and configured to emulate at least one user web browsing session.

20. The system of claim 16, further comprising:

a first list of approved keywords stored at the memory, wherein the anti-profiling component is configured to access the first list prior to generating the additional network activity; and

a second list of prohibited keywords stored at the memory, wherein the anti-profiling component is configured to access the second list prior to generating the additional network activity.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein the anti-profiling component is configured to generate the additional network activity using a whitelist that includes the first list of approved keywords and using a blacklist that includes the second list of prohibited keywords.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein the whitelist further includes a list of approved uniform resource locators and wherein the blacklist further includes a list of prohibited uniform resource locators.

23. The system of claim 16, further comprising a streaming media component configured to send a request to a video server of an Internet Protocol television system to receive streaming media content.

24. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform a method, the method comprising:

monitoring, at the processor, one or more network activities corresponding to a particular user;

detecting, at the processor, a period of inactivity by the particular user based on the monitoring; and

in response to detecting the period of inactivity by the particular user, automatically generating, at the processor, additional network activity that is different from the one or more network activities of the particular user to prevent a remote user tracking engine from identifying a usage pattern corresponding to the one or more network activities of the particular user, wherein automatically generating the additional network activity comprises sending a request to a video server of an Internet Protocol television system to receive streaming media content.

25. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 24, wherein automatically generating the additional network activity further comprises at least one of:

generating and sending a plurality of email messages, wherein each of the plurality of email messages is sent to at least one of a plurality of email addresses;

establishing an instant messaging session via a public network;

generating and sending one or more requests to access a network resource via the public network; and

sending a channel change request to a video server.

26. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 25, wherein the additional network activity is generated based at least in part on at least one of a whitelist and a blacklist, wherein the whitelist includes a first list of approved keywords and approved uniform resource locators, and wherein the blacklist includes a second list of prohibited keywords and prohibited uniform resource locators.