Methods and apparatus to collect distributed user information for media impressions and search terms

• US 8,930,701 B2
• Filed: 08/28/2013
• Issued: 01/06/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 08/30/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: The Nielsen Company LLC (MOOD Media Corporation)
• Original Assignee: The Nielsen Company LLC (MOOD Media Corporation)
• Inventors: Burbank, John R., Alla, Madhusudhan Reddy
• Primary Examiner(s): McNally, Michael S
• Application Number:
  US14/127,414
• Publication Number:
  US 20140298025A1
• Time in Patent Office: 496 Days
• Field of Search: 713/171
• US Class Current: 713/171
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6245 Protecting personal data, e.g. for financial or medical purposes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2101 Auditing as a secondary aspect
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2107 File encryption
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2135 Metering
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0256 User search
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0277 Online advertisement
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/00 Information and communication technology [ICT] specially adapted for implementation of business processes of specific business sectors, e.g. utilities or tourism healthcare informatics G16H
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/52 for supporting social networking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0414 during transmission, i.e. party's identity is protected against eavesdropping, e.g. by using temporary identifiers, but is known to the other party or parties involved in the communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0428 wherein the data content is protected, e.g. by encrypting or encapsulating the payload
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3247 involving digital signatures
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/02 Protecting privacy or anonymity, e.g. protecting personally identifiable information [PII]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/71 Hardware identity
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/72 Subscriber identity
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/75 Temporary identity

Abstract

Disclosed examples involve decoding information from a mobile device into a plurality of encrypted identifiers identifying at least one of the mobile device or a user of the mobile device, sending ones of the encrypted identifiers to corresponding database proprietors, receiving a plurality of user information corresponding to the ones of the encrypted identifiers from the corresponding database proprietors, and associating the plurality of user information with at least one of a search term collected at the mobile device or a media impression logged for media presented at the mobile device.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving a plurality of encrypted identifiers and a media identifier collected at a mobile device, the encrypted identifiers identifying at least one of the mobile device or a user of the mobile device, and the media identifier indicative of media presented at the mobile device;

sending a first one of the encrypted identifiers to a first database proprietor associated with the first one of the encrypted identifiers;

sending a second one of the encrypted identifiers to a second database proprietor associated with the second one of the encrypted identifiers;

receiving first user information associated with the first one of the encrypted identifiers from the first database proprietor;

receiving second user information associated with the second one of the encrypted identifiers from the second database proprietor; and

associating at least one of the first user information or the second user information with a media impression logged for the media identifier.

2. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein the first database proprietor is a social network service, the first encrypted identifier is a username of the user registered with the social network service, and the first user information is demographic information corresponding to the user and stored by the social network service.

3. A method as defined in claim 2, wherein the second database proprietor is a wireless service provider of the mobile device, the second encrypted identifier is a device identifier used by the wireless service provider to identify the mobile device and to associate the second user information with the user of the mobile device, and the second user information is demographic information corresponding to the user and stored by the wireless service provider.

4. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein receiving the plurality of encrypted identifiers comprises receiving the plurality of encrypted identifiers encoded in a single identifier from the mobile device.

5. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein receiving the plurality of encrypted identifiers comprises receiving database proprietor identifiers in association with corresponding ones of the encrypted identifiers, and further comprising:

determining to send the first one of the encrypted identifiers to the first database proprietor based on a first one of the database proprietor identifiers associated with the first one of the encrypted identifiers and indicative of the first database proprietor; and

determining to send the second one of the encrypted identifiers to the second database proprietor based on a second one of the database proprietor identifiers associated with the second one of the encrypted identifiers and indicative of the second database proprietor.

6. An apparatus comprising:

a decoder to;

obtain encrypted identifiers identifying at least one of the mobile device or a user of the mobile device, and

send respective ones of the encrypted identifiers to corresponding database proprietors; and

a server to;

receive user information corresponding to the respective ones of the encrypted identifiers from the corresponding database proprietors, and

associate the user information with a search term collected at the mobile device.

7. An apparatus as defined in claim 6, wherein the decoder is further to decode information from a mobile device into the respective ones of the encrypted identifiers.

8. An apparatus as defined in claim 6, wherein the server is separate from the mobile device and in communication with the mobile device.

9. An apparatus as defined in claim 6, wherein the database proprietors include a social network service and a wireless service provider, a first one of the encrypted identifiers comprising a username of the user registered with the social network service, and a second one of the encrypted identifiers comprising a device identifier used by the wireless service provider to identify the mobile device.

10. An apparatus as defined in claim 9, wherein the user information includes first demographic information of the user stored by the social network service, and second demographic information of the user stored by the wireless service provider.

11. An apparatus as defined in claim 6, wherein the search term corresponds to a search performed at the mobile device to at least one of search information on the Internet, search for a product, search for a website, or search a website.

12. An apparatus as defined in claim 6, wherein the decoder is to send the encrypted identifiers to the corresponding database proprietor based on respective database proprietor identifiers received in association with corresponding ones of the encrypted identifiers, the respective database proprietor identifiers identifying corresponding ones of the database proprietors.

13. A method to monitor usage of a mobile device, the method comprising:

installing an application having a data collector on a mobile device;

collecting, via the data collector, a media identifier indicative of media presented at the mobile device;

encrypting a user identifier that identifies the user of the mobile device, the encrypting of the user identifier based on a first encryption key corresponding to a first database proprietor having first user information associated with the user identifier;

encrypting a device identifier that identifies the mobile device, the encrypting of the device identifier based on a second encryption key corresponding to a second database proprietor having second user information associated with the device identifier; and

sending the encrypted user identifier, the encrypted device identifier, and the media identifier to a data collection server.

14. A method as defined in claim 13, further comprising encoding the encrypted user identifier and the encrypted device identifier in a single identifier, wherein sending the encrypted user identifier and the encrypted device identifier to the data collection server comprises sending the single identifier to the data collection server.

15. A method as defined in claim 13, further comprising associating a first database proprietor identifier with the encrypted user identifier, and associating a second database proprietor identifier with the encrypted device identifier, the first database proprietor identifier indicative of the encrypted user identifier corresponding to the first database proprietor, and the second database proprietor identifier indicative of the encrypted device identifier corresponding to the second database proprietor.

16. A method as defined in claim 13, wherein the first database proprietor is a social network service, and the second database proprietor is a wireless service provider.

17. A method as defined in claim 13, wherein the first and second user information comprise demographic information collected from the user of the mobile device by the first and second database proprietors.