Systems and methods for providing anonymized user profile data

• US 8,639,920 B2
• Filed: 05/11/2010
• Issued: 01/28/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 05/11/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Experian Marketing Solutions, LLC (Experian plc), Fritz Schã¤Fer Gesellschaft Mit Beschrã¤Nkter Haftung (Fritz Schã¤Fer KG Einrichtungssysteme)
• Original Assignee: Experian Marketing Solutions Incorporated (Experian plc)
• Inventors: Stack, Brian, Lientz, Andrew, Chamberlain, Simon, Abdous, Yacine, Kahn, Ray
• Primary Examiner(s): Pwu, Jeffrey
• Assistant Examiner(s): TRUONG, THONG P
• Application Number:
  US12/777,998
• Publication Number:
  US 20110060905A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,358 Days
• Field of Search: 713/150, 713/154, 726/4, 726/26, 726/27, 726/30
• US Class Current: 713/150
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/10 Protecting distributed programs or content, e.g. vending or licensing of copyrighted material protection in video systems or pay television H04N7/16 ; Digital rights management [DRM]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 2220/10 Usage protection of distributed data files
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0201 Market modelling; Market analysis; Collecting market data
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0269 based on user profile or attribute

Abstract

Embodiments facilitate confidential and secure sharing of anonymous user profile data to improve the delivery of customized content. Embodiments of the invention provide a data appliance to an entity such as a business to convert profile data about the business'"'"'s customers into anonymous identifiers. A similar data appliance is provided to a content provider in one embodiment to generate identifiers for its user profile data. Because the anonymous identifiers are generated with the same anonymization method, identical identifiers are likely generated from profile data of the same users. Therefore, the identifiers can be used to anonymously match the customers of the business to the users of the content provider. Therefore, data can be shared to improve customized content such as advertisements that the business wishes to place with the content provider without requiring the business to disclose customer data in an unencrypted form, and any non-matched data can remain confidential.

Claims

1. A system for anonymously sharing user profile data among a plurality of entities, comprising:

a server having one or more hardware computer processors and configured to;

receive, from each of a plurality of data appliances, a respective plurality of encrypted identifiers for a respective plurality of users, wherein the plurality of data appliances are located at the plurality of entities and each data appliance comprises one or more computing devices;

periodically distribute market segment data to each of the plurality of data appliances, wherein the market segment data comprises at least supplemental user profile data associated with each of the respective plurality of encrypted user identifiers for the respective plurality of users;

wherein the plurality of data appliances comprises;

a first data appliance that is configured to;

receive, from a first entity, first user profile data for a first group of users associated with the first entity, the first user profile data including names and addresses of the first group of users;

encrypt the first user profile data for each of the first group of users into a respective plurality of first encrypted identifiers using an encryption technique; and

send the plurality of first encrypted identifiers to the server; and

a second data appliance that is configured to;

receive, from a second entity, second user profile data for a second group of users associated with the second entity, the second user profile data including names and addresses of the second group of users;

encrypt the second user profile data for each of the second group of users into a respective plurality of second encrypted identifiers using the same encryption technique used by the first data appliance, so that common user profile data between the first and second user profile data are converted into identical encrypted identifiers;

receive, from the server, the market segment data; and

use the plurality of second encrypted identifiers to retrieve, from the market segment data, supplemental user profile data associated with users in both the first and second groups of users, based on matching of at least one of the second encrypted identifiers to at least one of the first encrypted identifiers.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the encryption technique is a cryptographic hash function.

3. A system for anonymously sharing user profile data among a plurality of entities, comprising:

a server comprising one or more computing devices and configured to;

receive, from each of a plurality of data appliances, encrypted data for a respective group of persons associated with a respective entity, wherein the plurality of data appliances are located at the plurality of entities and each data appliance comprises one or more computing devices;

supplement marketing data associated with a plurality of individuals with the encrypted data from each of the plurality of data appliances; and

transmit the marketing data including the encrypted data from each of the plurality of data appliances to each of the plurality of data appliances,

wherein the plurality of data appliances comprises;

a first data appliance that is configured to;

receive, from a first entity, first personal identifiable information related to a first group of persons;

transform the first personally identifiable information into first encrypted data via an encryption process, the first encrypted data comprising an identifier for each of the first group of persons; and

send the first encrypted data to the server; and

a second data appliance that is configured to;

receive, from a second entity, second personally identifiable information related to a second group of persons;

transform the second personally identifiable information into second encrypted data with the encryption process used by the first data appliance, the second encrypted data comprising an identifier for each of the second group of persons;

receive from the server the first encrypted data; and

use the first and second encrypted data to anonymously generate list data related to common persons between the first and second groups of persons, wherein the list data is used to customize information provided by the second entity.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the second data appliance is further configured to generate the list data by matching the identifiers in the first encrypted data to the identifiers in the second encrypted data.

5. The system of claim 3, wherein the first personally identifiable information comprise names and addresses related to the first group of persons.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the first data appliance is further configured to complete missing portions in the addresses in the first personally identifiable information before transforming the first personally identifiable information into the first encrypted data.

7. The system of claim 3, wherein the first data appliance is further configured to delete the first personally identifiable information after transforming the first personally identifiable information into the first encrypted data.

8. The system of claim 3, wherein the first data appliance is further configured to append segment data to the first encrypted data before sending the encrypted data to the server.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the second data appliance is further configured to:

receive, from the second entity, in addition to the second personally identifiable information, identifiers used by the second entity to identify the second groups of persons; and

use the list data to create a mapping of user identifiers received from the second entity to the segment data from the first entity.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the mapping is used to anonymously track responses to online advertisements and emails.

11. The system of claim 8, wherein the second data appliance is further configured to identify additional persons referenced in the second encrypted data with personally identifiable information matching a criterion specified in the segment data, the additional persons not among the common persons in the list data.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the criterion is residing within an area with a common postal code.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the criterion is a type of consumer.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein the criterion is an indication of consumer interest shown to a product.

15. The system of claim 3, wherein the data appliance is configured to delete the first and second encrypted data after generating the list data related to common persons.

16. A method for sharing anonymized user profile data, the method comprising:

receiving at a first data appliance, first personally identifiable information related to a first group of persons, wherein the first data appliance comprises one or more computing devices;

transforming the first personally identifiable information into first encrypted data via an encryption process, the first encrypted data comprising an identifier for each of the first group of persons;

transmitting the first encrypted data from the first data appliance to a second data appliance, wherein the second data appliance comprises one or more second computing devices;

receiving, at the second data appliance, the first encrypted data;

receiving, at the second data appliance, second personally identifiable information related to a second group of persons;

transforming the second personally identifiable information into second encrypted data with the encryption process, the second encrypted data comprising an identifier for each of the second group of persons;

receiving, from a server, market segment data, the market segment data comprising information related to at least the first group of persons or the second group of persons; and

using the first and second encrypted data and the market segment data to anonymously generate list data related to common persons between the first and second groups of persons, wherein the list data is used to customize information provided by the second entity.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the using further comprises generating the list data by matching the identifiers in the first encrypted data to the identifiers in the second encrypted data.

18. The method of claim 16 wherein the first personally identifiable information comprise names and addresses related to the first group of persons.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

completing missing portions in the addresses in the first personally identifiable information before transforming the first personally identifiable information into the first encrypted data.

20. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

deleting the first personally identifiable information after transforming the first personally identifiable information into the first encrypted data.

21. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

appending segment data to the first encrypted data before sending the encrypted data to the server.

22. The method of claim 21, further comprising:

receiving, from the second entity, in addition to the second personally identifiable information, identifiers used by the second entity to identify the second groups of persons; and

using the list data to create a mapping of user identifiers received from the second entity to the segment data from the first entity.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the mapping is used to anonymously track responses to online advertisements and emails.

24. The method of claim 21, wherein the second data appliance is further configured to identify additional persons referenced in the second encrypted data with personally identifiable information matching a criterion specified in the segment data, the additional persons not among the common persons in the list data.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein the criterion is residing within an area with a common postal code.

26. The method of claim 24, wherein the criterion is a type of consumer.

27. The method of claim 24, wherein the criterion is an indication of consumer interest shown to a product.

28. The method of claim 16, wherein the data appliance is configured to delete the first and second encrypted data after generating the list data related to common persons.