Anonymized personalization of network content

• US 9,060,031 B1
• Filed: 10/18/2012
• Issued: 06/16/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 10/18/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Taylor, Brett R., Hill, Peter F.
• Primary Examiner(s): JEAN GILLES, JUDE
• Application Number:
  US13/655,332
• Time in Patent Office: 971 Days
• Field of Search: 709/224, 709/220, 709/222, 709/203, 709/235, 709/204, 709/217, 709/227
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/907 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6254 by anonymising data, e.g. decorrelating personal data from the owner's identification
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/4594 Address books, i.e. directories containing contact information about correspondents telephone directories in user terminals H04M1/27453
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/01 Protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• 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 67/56 Provisioning of proxy services store-and-forward switching systems in data switching networks H04L12/54
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/563 Data redirection of data network streams

Abstract

Features are disclosed for modifying identifying data including, but not limited to, demographic information, user identifiers, and device identifiers, according to user-definable preferences prior to transmitting content requests to content servers. The information may be modified to protect a user'"'"'s privacy. In addition, the modified information may allow the content provider to serve a customized or targeted version of content that is more relevant to the user than a version that may otherwise be generated without the aid of identifying data. Users may elect to share some, all, or none of their identifying data with content providers, or users may elect to generalize their specific identifying data. Additional features include providing generalized or customized identifying data to cooperating content providers. Custom headers and other data fields may be provided to content providers, and content providers may choose to use information in the custom data fields or ignore it.

Claims

1. A system for anonymizing content requests, the system comprising:

one or more processors;

a computer-readable memory; and

executable instructions stored in the computer-readable memory, wherein the one or more processors are programmed by the executable instructions to at least;

receive, from a client device, a request for a content item hosted by a content server, the request comprising tracking information associated with a user of the client device, the tracking information previously provided to the client device by the content server;

modify the request to generate a modified request comprising, in place of the tracking information, user information that is substantially anonymous, wherein the user information may be used to customize content for the user; and

transmit the modified request to the content server, the modified request excluding the tracking information.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the content item comprises a network-accessible content page.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the request comprises a cookie, and wherein the cookie comprises the tracking information.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the request comprises a query string, and wherein the query string comprises the tracking information.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the user information is based at least in part on a preference of the user.

6. A computer-implemented method for managing content requests, the computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving from a client device, in association with a request for a content item hosted by a content server, identifying information associated with the client device or a user of the client device, wherein the identifying information is provided by the content server; and

in response to receiving the request;

modifying the request to generate a modified request incorporating, in place of at least a portion of the identifying information, non-user-identifying information associated with the user;

retrieving, by an intermediary system comprising one or more computing devices, the content item from the content server using the modified request; and

transmitting the content item to the client device.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, wherein the content item comprises a content page, image, video, or document.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 6 further comprising receiving a cookie from the client device, wherein the cookie comprises the identifying information.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, wherein the request comprises a query string, and wherein the query string comprises the identifying information.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, wherein the identifying information is transmitted to the client device during a prior browsing session.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, wherein the identifying information comprises an identifier of the user or an identifier of the client device.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, wherein the non-user-identifying information comprises data regarding a demographic characteristic of the user.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, wherein the non-user-identifying information is based at least in part on a preference of the user.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, further comprising generating the non-user-identifying information by removing a portion of identifying information.

15. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, wherein the non-user-identifying information is transmitted in a custom data field.

16. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, wherein the non-user-identifying information is transmitted in a custom Hypertext Transfer Protocol header.

17. The computer-implemented method of claim 16, further comprising notifying the content server of the custom Hypertext Transfer Protocol header.

18. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, further comprising analyzing a plurality of identifying information generated by the content server to determine a structure of the identifying information.

19. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, further comprising analyzing a plurality of prior content requests received from the client device to determine the non-user-identifying information.

20. A non-transitory computer storage medium comprising a browser module configured to execute a process on a client device, the process comprising:

receiving, from a content server in response to a request for a first content item hosted by the content server, a cookie comprising identifying information associated with the client device or a user of the client device;

modifying the cookie to generated a modified version of the cookie based on data regarding a cookie structure used by the content server, the modified cookie comprising, in place of at least a portion of the identifying information, user information that is substantially anonymous;

transmitting, to the content server, a second request for a second content item, the second request comprising the modified version of the cookie; and

receiving, from the content server, the requested content item.

21. The non-transitory computer storage medium of claim 20, wherein the identifying information comprises tracking information regarding the user or the client device.

22. The non-transitory computer storage medium of claim 21, wherein the modified version of the cookie comprises user demographic information.

23. The non-transitory computer storage medium of claim 20, wherein the modifying comprises replacing at least a portion of the identifying information.

24. The non-transitory computer storage medium of claim 20, wherein the modifying comprises removing the identifying information and adding the user demographic information.

25. A system for managing content requests, the system comprising one or more processors programmed to at least:

receive, from a user of a browser application executing on a client device, a request for content offered by a content server, the request comprising identifying information associated with the user or the client device;

determine a category for the content server, wherein the category is associated with one or more content servers and one or more user privacy preferences;

modify the request to incorporate, in place of at least a portion of the identifying information, demographic information associated with the user according to at least a first user privacy preference associated with the category, wherein the demographic information is substantially anonymous; and

transmit the modified request to the content server.

26. The system of claim 25, wherein the demographic information is transmitted in a cookie.

27. The system of claim 25, wherein the demographic information is transmitted in a Hypertext Transfer Protocol header.

28. The system of claim 25, wherein modifying the request is performed by a client device.

29. The system of claim 25, wherein modifying the request is performed by an intermediary system.

30. A computer-implemented method for managing content requests, the computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving from a content server, in association with a first content item, a cookie;

in response to receiving the cookie;

storing the cookie at an intermediary system comprising one or more computing devices; and

transmitting the first content item without the cookie to a destination client device associated with a user;

receiving, from a requesting client device associated with the user, a request for a second content item offered by the content server, wherein the request for the second content item does not include the cookie; and

retrieving, on behalf of the user, the second content item from the content server, wherein retrieving comprises transmitting the cookie to the content server.

31. The computer-implemented method of claim 30, wherein the requesting client device is the destination client device.

32. The computer-implemented method of claim 30, wherein the requesting client device is separate from the destination client device.

33. The computer-implemented method of claim 30, further comprising replacing at least a portion of identifying information in the cookie with user demographic information associated with the user.