Providing privacy within computer networks using anonymous cookies

• US 8,468,271 B1
• Filed: 02/02/2010
• Issued: 06/18/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 06/02/2009
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Juniper Networks Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Juniper Networks Incorporated
• Inventors: Panwar, Ramesh, Weinberg, David
• Primary Examiner(s): BAROT, BHARAT
• Application Number:
  US12/698,826
• Time in Patent Office: 1,232 Days
• Field of Search: 709202-203, 709/230, 709238-239, 709/242, 709/249, 370/401, 370466-467, 370/469, 713151-153
• US Class Current: 709/249
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6254 by anonymising data, e.g. decorrelating personal data from the owner's identification
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0269 based on user profile or attribute
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0277 Online advertisement
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0615 Anonymizing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/44 Distributed routing
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/32 including means for verifying the identity or authority of a user of the system or for message authentication, e.g. authorization, entity authentication, data integrity or data verification, non-repudiation, key authentication or verification of credentials

Abstract

In general, techniques are described for utilizing anonymous cookies within computer networks to protect customer identities. In particular, a network device is configured to communicate with an edge router of a service provider network that provides access to a public network having network destinations. The network device includes a control unit and an interface. The control unit executes a content delivery layer and a privacy services layer. The content delivery layer receives a network communication sent from one of the customer devices to the public network. The privacy services layer replaces a destination-specified cookie within the network communication with an anonymous cookie, each of which conform to an application layer protocol. The anonymous cookie also specifies a pseudonym for the one of the customer devices that originated the network communication. The at least one interface then forwards the network communication including the anonymous cookie to the network destination.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

with a network device coupled to a router located at an edge of a service provider network, receiving a network communication sent from a customer device of the service provider network to a network destination of a public network;

with the network device, removing at least one destination-specified cookie from the network communication set by the network destination, wherein the destination-specified cookie conforms to an application-layer protocol;

with the network device, generating a pseudonym for the customer device from which the network communication originated;

with the network device, inserting an anonymous cookie into the network communication, wherein the inserted anonymous cookie specifies the pseudonym generated for the customer device, and wherein the anonymous cookie conforms to an application-layer protocol; and

with the network device, forwarding the network communication including the inserted anonymous cookie to the network destination.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the application-layer cookie inserted into the communication is a network cookie that conforms to an industry-standard data layout that is independent of an application provided by the network destination.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein generating a pseudonym comprises mapping an identity of the customer device to one of a pool of a random identities maintained by the network device.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein generating a pseudonym comprises applying a one-way hash function to compute a temporary identity, wherein the one-way hash function receives as input parameters one or more of a media access control (MAC) address of the customer'"'"'s device and a date and time of day when the network communication was intercepted.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising, with the network device, generating the anonymous cookie to be inserted into the communication to include profile data associated with the customer device that originated the communication.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising, with the network device, generating the profile data to represent composite behavior for a cluster of a plurality of customers of the service provider network.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the cluster of the customers have one or more of:

a common geographical location;

or

a common subnet of the service provider.

8. The method of claim 6, further comprising, with the network device, selecting a size of the cluster for use in generating the profile data based on a subscription fee paid by the network destination of the intercepted network communication.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein selecting a size of the cluster comprises selecting a reduced size of the cluster of the plurality of customers used in generating the profile data when the destination has paid a premium subscription fee.

10. The method of claim 5, wherein the profile data specifies a plurality of categories and for each of the categories specifies preference data that indicates an interest of the customer for the category.

11. The method of claim 5, wherein, for each of the categories, the profile data represents the interest of the customer to include RFM data having a recently component, a frequency component and a monetary component.

12. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

with the network device, maintaining a transaction log for each of a plurality of customers of the service provider network, wherein the transaction log for each of the customers includes entries listing requests received by the service provider network; and

generating the profile data for each of the customers based on the requests recorded within the respective transaction log for the customer.

13. The method of claim 12,

wherein the transaction log associates each of the requests with one of a plurality of different marketing segments, and

wherein generating the profile data comprises generating the profile data to specify each of plurality of marketing segments and, for each of the categories, specifies preference data that indicates an interest of the customer for each of the marketing segments computed based on a total number of requests associated with each of the marketing segments within the transaction log.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising selecting a granularity for the marketing segments when generating the profile data to be included with in the anonymous cookie inserted in the network communication based on a subscription fee paid the destination of the intercepted network communication.

15. The method of claim 12,

wherein the transaction log specifies temporal data for each of the requests;

and

wherein generating the profile data includes generating the profile data to specify a degree of temporal relevance for the interest of the customer in each of the plurality of marketing segments.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising, with the network device, dynamically generating the profile data of the anonymous cookie to specify the degree of temporal relevance for the interest of the customer in each of the plurality of marketing segments when the destination of the intercepted network communication has paid a subscription fee of at least a predetermined level.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the network communication specifies a content request for content related to goods or services available from online entities, digital video, establishing a digital telephony session, and services provided to a mobile device.

18. The method of claim 1, further comprising, with the network device, encrypting the application-layer cookie inserted within the network communication with a cryptographic key.

19. The method of claim 1,

wherein the network destination comprises an advertising network, and

the method further comprises:

with the advertising network, receiving the network communication including the inserted anonymous cookie from the network device;

with the advertising network, selecting one or more advertisements based on profile data specified by the anonymous cookie inserted by the network device; and

with the advertising network, forwarding the selected advertisements to the customer device for display to a customer of the network service provider that operates the customer device.

20. The method of claim 1,

wherein the customer device comprises one of a plurality of customer devices, and

wherein the router located at the edge of the service provider network provides the customer devices access to content sourced by the network destination, and

the method further comprising:

storing, with the network device, metadata related to advertisement networks that source advertisements;

receiving, with the network device, request network communications via the router from the customer devices that request the content sourced by these network destinations and the advertisements sourced by the advertisement networks;

receiving, with the network device, response network communications via the router from the network destination that each include the content requested by a respective one of the content requests and from the advertisement networks that each include one of the advertisements sourced by the respective one of the advertisement networks;

analyzing, with the network device, the request and response network communications to build the metadata within the metadata database; and

providing, with the network device, an Application Programmer Interface (API) by which an advertisement agency accesses the metadata database.

21. The method claim 20, further comprising:

storing transaction logs for the customer devices;

updating the transaction logs for the customer devices to track the request and response network communications related to the respective one of the customer devices;

evaluating the transaction log to generate the metadata such that the metadata defines an effectiveness of the advertisement networks in targeting the customer devices; and

receiving via the API from the advertisement agency, prior to the advertising agency placing a new electronic advertisement with one of the advertisement networks, a query to analyze the metadata stored within the metadata database in order to select the one of the advertisement networks with which to place the new electronic advertisement.

22. The method of claim 21, further comprising storing profile data defining a profile for each of the customer devices, wherein the profile data includes demographic information for each of the customer devices, and

wherein evaluating the transaction logs comprises evaluating the transaction logs with respect to demographic information included within the profile data to generate metadata such that the metadata defines the effectiveness of the advertisement networks in targeting the customer devices in terms of the demographic information.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the demographic information comprises:

a gender of the customer;

a preferred time of day during which the customer tends to shop online;

a geographic location of the customer;

an average monetary spend value for online services and goods for the customer;

a number of family members in a household of the customer;

an estimated age for the customer, and

an gender of the customer.

24. The method of claim 21, further comprising storing profile data defining a profile for each of the customer devices, wherein the profile data specifies a plurality of marketing categories and preference data that indicates an interest of one or more customers operating each of the customer devices for each of the marketing categories, and

wherein evaluating the transaction logs comprises evaluating the transaction logs with respect to preference data specified by the profile data to generate the metadata based on the preference data such that the metadata defines the effectiveness of the advertisement networks in placing the advertisement under a plurality of revenue models, wherein each of the revenue models defines a manner in which advertisers pay the advertising networks with respect to the advertisements.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein the revenue models comprise a cost per impression (CPM) revenue model, a cost per click (CPC) revenue model and cost per action (CPA) revenue model.

26. The method of claim 20,

wherein the network communication comprises one of the request network communications,

wherein this one of the request network communications specifies actual identity information that identifies the one of the customer devices, and

the method further comprising:

removing the actual identify information from the one of the request network communications;

generating the pseudonym to mask the actual identity information specified by the one of the request network communications; and

inserting the pseudonym in place of the actual identity information in the one of the request network communications.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein generating the pseudonym includes mapping an identity of the customer device to one of a pool of a random identities maintained by the network device.

28. The method of claim 26, wherein generating the pseudonym includes applying a one-way hash function to compute a temporary identity, wherein the one-way hash function receives as input parameters one or more of a media access control (MAC) address of the customer'"'"'s device and a date and time of day when the network communication was intercepted.

29. A network device configured to communicate with a router located at an edge of a service provider network that provides a plurality of customer devices network access to a public network having network destinations, the network device comprising:

a control unit;

a content delivery layer executing on the control unit, the content delivery layer configured to receive a network communication sent from one of the customer devices of the service provider network to the public network;

a privacy services layer executing on the control unit, the privacy services layer configured to replace a destination-specified cookie within the network communication with a second anonymous cookie, wherein the destination-specified cookie and the anonymous cookie each conform to an application layer protocol, and wherein the anonymous cookie specifies a pseudonym for the one of the customer devices that originated the network communication; and

at least one interface to forward the network communication including the anonymous cookie to the network destination.

30. The network device of claim 29, wherein the application-layer cookie inserted into the communication is a network cookie that conforms to an industry-standard data layout that is independent of an application provided by the network destination.

31. The network device of claim 29, wherein the privacy services layer is further configured to remove the destination-specified cookie from the network communication set by the network destination, generate the pseudonym for the one of the customer devices from which the network communication originated, and insert the anonymous cookie into the network communication.

32. The network device of claim 31, wherein the privacy services layer is further configured to map an identity of the one of the customer devices to one of a pool of a random identities maintained by the network device.

33. The network device of claim 31, wherein the privacy services layer is configured to apply a one-way hash function to compute a temporary identity, wherein the one-way hash function receives as input parameters one or more of a media access control (MAC) address of the one of the customer devices and a date and time of day when the network communication was intercepted.

34. The network device of claim 29, wherein the privacy services layer is further configured to generate the anonymous cookie to include profile data associated with the one of the customer devices that originated the communication.

35. The network device of claim 34, wherein the privacy services layer is further configured to generate the profile data to represent composite behavior for a cluster of a plurality of customers of the service provider network.

36. The network device of claim 35, wherein the cluster of the customers have one or more of:

a common geographical location;

or

a common subnet of the service provider.

37. The network device of claim 35, wherein the privacy services layer is further configured to select a size of the cluster for use in generating the profile data based on a subscription fee paid by the network destination of the intercepted network communication.

38. The network device of claim 37, wherein the privacy services layer is further configured to select a reduced size of the cluster of the plurality of customers used in generating the profile data when the destination has paid a premium subscription fee.

39. The network device of claim 34, wherein the profile data specifies a plurality of categories and for each of the categories specifies preference data that indicates an interest of the customer for the category.

40. The network device of claim 34, wherein, for each of the categories, the profile data represents the interest of the customer to include RFM data having a recently component, a frequency component and a monetary component.

41. The network device of claim 34, further comprising a condensation layer executing on the control unit, the condensation layer configured to maintain a transaction log for each of a plurality of customers of the service provider network, wherein the transaction log for each of the customers includes entries listing requests received by the service provider network, and generate the profile data for each of the customers based on the requests recorded within the respective transaction log for the customer.

42. The network device of claim 41,

wherein the transaction log associates each of the requests with one of a plurality of different marketing segments, and

wherein the condensation layer is further configured to generate the profile data to specify each of plurality of marketing segments and, for each of the categories, specifies preference data that indicates an interest of the customer for each of the marketing segments computed based on a total number of requests associated with each of the marketing segments within the transaction log.

43. The network device of claim 42, wherein the condensation layer is further configured to select a granularity for the marketing segments when generating the profile data to be included with in the anonymous cookie inserted in the network communication based on a subscription fee paid the destination of the intercepted network communication.

44. The network device of claim 41,

wherein the transaction log specifies temporal data for each of the requests;

and

wherein the condensation layer is further configured to generate the profile data to specify a degree of temporal relevance for the interest of the customer in each of the plurality of marketing segments.

45. The network device of claim 44, wherein the condensation layer is further configured to dynamically generate the profile data of the anonymous cookie to specify the degree of temporal relevance for the interest of the customer in each of the plurality of marketing segments when the destination of the intercepted network communication has paid a subscription fee of at least a predetermined level.

46. The network device of claim 29, wherein the network communication specifies a content request for content related to goods or services available from online entities, digital video, establishing a digital telephony session, and services provided to a mobile device.

47. The network device of claim 29, wherein the privacy services layer is further configured to encrypt the application-layer cookie inserted within the network communication with a cryptographic key.

48. The network device of claim 29,

wherein at least one of the network destinations comprises an advertising network, and

wherein the advertising network receives the network communication including the inserted anonymous cookie from the network device, selects one or more advertisements based on profile data specified by the anonymous cookie inserted by the network device, and forwards the selected advertisements to the one of the customer devices for display to a customer of the network service provider that operates the one of the customer devices.

49. The network device of claim 29,

wherein the network destinations store content,

wherein the network device further comprises:

a metadata database that stores metadata related to advertisement networks that source advertisements,

wherein the interface receives request network communications via the router from the customer devices, wherein the request network communications request the content sourced by these network destinations and the advertisements sourced by the advertisement networks,

wherein the interface receives response network communications via the router from the network destinations that each include the content requested by a respective one of the content requests and from the advertisement networks that each include one of the advertisements sourced by the respective one of the advertisement networks, and

wherein the control unit further analyzes the request and response network communications to build the metadata within the metadata database and provides an Application Programmer Interface (API) by which an advertisement agency accesses the metadata database.

50. The network device claim 49, further comprising a history database that stores transaction logs for each of the customer devices,

wherein the control unit updates the transaction logs for each of the respective customer device to track the request and response network communications related to each of the respective customer devices,

wherein the control unit includes an evaluation module that evaluates the transaction logs to generate the metadata such that the metadata defines an effectiveness of the advertisement networks in targeting the customer devices;

and

wherein the API receives from the advertisement agency, prior to placing a new electronic advertisement with one of the advertisement networks, a query to analyze the metadata stored within the metadata database in order to select the one of the advertisement networks with which to place the new electronic advertisement.

51. The network device of claim 50, further comprising a profile database that stores profile data defining a profile for each of the customer devices, wherein the profile data includes demographic information for each of the customer devices, and

wherein the evaluation module evaluates the transaction logs with respect to demographic information included within the profile data to generate metadata such that the metadata defines the effectiveness of the advertisement networks in targeting the customer devices in terms of the demographic information.

52. The network device of claim 51, wherein the demographic information comprises:

a gender of the customer;

a preferred time of day during which the customer tends to shop online;

a geographic location of the customer;

an average monetary spend value for online services and goods for the customer;

a number of family members in a household of the customer;

an estimated age for the customer, and

an gender of the customer.

53. The network device of claim 50, further comprising a profile database that stores profile data defining a profile for each of the customer devices, wherein the profile data specifies a plurality of marketing categories and preference data that indicates an interest of one or more customers operating each of the customer devices for each of the marketing categories, and

wherein the evaluation module evaluates the transaction logs with respect to preference data specified by the profile data to generate the metadata based on the preference data such that the metadata defines the effectiveness of the advertisement networks in placing the advertisement under a plurality of revenue models, wherein each of the revenue models defines a manner in which advertisers pay the advertising networks with respect to the advertisements.

54. The network device of claim 53, wherein the revenue models comprise a cost per impression (CPM) revenue model, a cost per click (CPC) revenue model and cost per action (CPA) revenue model.

55. The network device of claim 49,

wherein the network communication comprises one of the request network communications that request the advertisements sourced by the advertisement networks,

wherein this one of the request network communications specifies actual identity information that identifies the one of the customer devices, and

wherein the control unit removes the actual identify information from the one of the request network communications forwarded to the network device, generates the pseudonym to mask the actual identity information specified by each of the request network communications and inserts the pseudonym in place of the actual identity information in the one of the request network communications.

56. The network device of claim 55, wherein the control unit maps an identity of the customer device to one of a pool of a random identities maintained by the network device.

57. The network device of claim 55, wherein the control unit applies a one-way hash function to compute a temporary identity, wherein the one-way hash function receives as input parameters one or more of a media access control (MAC) address of the customer'"'"'s device and a date and time of day when each of the request network communications was intercepted.

58. The network device of claim 55,

wherein the destination-specified cookie is set by the respective one of the advertisement networks,

wherein the privacy services layer removes the destination-specified cookie set by the respective one of the advertisement networks, generates the anonymous cookie that specifies the one of the pseudonyms generated for the respective one of the customer devices that originated the respective one of the request network communications that includes the destination-specified cookie, and inserts the anonymous cookie into the one of the request network communications that includes the destination-specified cookie set by the respective one of the advertisement networks such that the anonymous cookie replaces the destination-specified cookie set by the respective one of the advertisement networks.

59. The network device of claim 58, further comprising a profile database that stores profile data defining a profile for each of the customer devices, and

wherein the control unit generates the anonymous cookie to further specify the profile corresponding to the respective customer devices that originated the network communications that include the destination-specified cookie.

60. A system comprising:

a service provider network that provides a plurality of customers network access to a public network having network destinations, wherein the service provider network includes a router located at an edge of the service provider network; and

a network device configured to communicate with the router of the service provider network, the network device comprising;

a content delivery layer configured to receive a network communication sent from one of the customers of the service provider network to the public network;

a privacy services layer configured to replace a first destination-specified cookie within the network communication with an anonymous cookie, wherein the destination-specified cookie and the anonymous cookie each conform to an application-layer protocol, and wherein the second application-layer cookie specifies a pseudonym for the customer that originated the network communication; and

at least one network interface to forward the network communication including the anonymous cookie to the network destination.

61. The system of claim 60, further comprising:

a plurality of advertisement networks that source electronic advertisements placed by at least one advertisement agency,

wherein the network destinations source content,

wherein the router is configured to communicate with the plurality of customer devices,

wherein the network device comprises an edge advertisement management system (EAMS), the EAMS further comprises a metadata database that stores metadata related to the advertisement networks,

wherein the router receives request network communications from the customer devices that request the content sourced by the network destinations and the advertisements sourced by the advertisement networks,

wherein the router receives response network communications from the network destinations that each include the content requested by a respective one of the content requests and from the advertisement networks that each include one of the advertisements sourced by the respective one of the advertisement networks,

wherein the router forwards the request and response network communications to the EAMS,

wherein the EAMS further analyzes the forwarded network communications to build the metadata within the metadata database, and

wherein the EAMS includes an interface by which the advertisement agency accesses the metadata database.

62. The system claim 61,

wherein the interface comprises a Application Programming Interface (API),

wherein the EAMS further includes a history database that stores transaction logs for each of the customer devices,

wherein the EAMS updates the transaction logs for each of the respective customer device to track the request and response network communications related to each of the respective customer devices;

wherein the EAMS further includes an evaluation module that evaluates the transaction logs to generate the metadata such that the metadata defines an effectiveness of the advertisement networks in targeting the customer devices; and

wherein the advertisement agency, prior to placing a new electronic advertisement with one of the advertisement networks, interacts with the API to analyze the metadata stored within the metadata database in order to select the one of the advertisement networks with which to place the new electronic advertisement.

63. The system of claim 62,

wherein the EAMS further includes a profile database that stores profile data defining a profile for each of the customer devices,

wherein the profile data includes demographic information for each of the customer devices, and

wherein the evaluation module evaluates the transaction logs with respect to demographic information included within the profile data to generate metadata such that the metadata defines the effectiveness of the advertisement networks in targeting the customer devices in terms of the demographic information.

64. The system of claim 63, wherein the demographic information comprises:

a gender of the customer;

a preferred time of day during which the customer tends to shop online;

a geographic location of the customer;

an average monetary spend value for online services and goods for the customer;

a number of family members in a household of the customer;

an estimated age for the customer, and

an gender of the customer.

65. The system of claim 62,

wherein the EAMS further includes a profile database that stores profile data defining a profile for each of the customer devices,

wherein the profile data specifies a plurality of marketing categories and preference data that indicates an interest of one or more customers operating each of the customer devices for each of the marketing categories, and

wherein the evaluation module evaluates the transaction logs with respect to preference data specified by the profile data to generate the metadata based on the preference data such that the metadata defines the effectiveness of the advertisement networks in placing the advertisement under a plurality of revenue models, wherein each of the revenue models defines a manner in which advertisers pay the advertising networks with respect to the advertisements.

66. The system of claim 65, wherein the revenue models comprise a cost per impression (CPM) revenue model, a cost per click (CPC) revenue model and cost per action (CPA) revenue model.

67. A computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions that cause a processor to:

with a network device coupled to a router located at an edge of a service provider network, receive a network communication sent from a customer device of the service provider network to a network destination of a public network;

with the network device, remove at least one destination-specified cookie from the network communication set by the network destination, wherein the destination-specified cookie conforms to an application-layer protocol;

with the network device, generate a pseudonym for the customer device from which the network communication originated;

with the network device, insert an anonymous cookie into the network communication, wherein the inserted anonymous cookie specifies the pseudonym generated for the customer device, and wherein the anonymous cookie conforms to an application-layer protocol; and

with the network device, forward the network communication including the inserted anonymous cookie to the network destination.