Privacy centric feature analysis for mobile devices

• US 9,554,269 B1
• Filed: 02/19/2016
• Issued: 01/24/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 03/15/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Quantcast
• Original Assignee: Quantcast
• Inventors: Feldman, Konrad S., Vogel Fernandez de Castro, Daniel, Blum, Michael R.
• Primary Examiner(s): MILLER, BRANDON J
• Application Number:
  US15/048,987
• Time in Patent Office: 340 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/02 Protecting privacy or anonymity, e.g. protecting personally identifiable information [PII]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/021 Services related to particular areas, e.g. point of interest [POI] services, venue services or geofences
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/023 using mutual or relative location information between multiple location based services [LBS] targets or of distance thresholds
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services

Abstract

Privacy centric feature analysis. A secure set of multiple mapped features is selected and provided to a mobile device. Each mapped feature maps a sharable feature to a matching criterion for an item of protected information and no combination of mapped features for a secure set are unique to an individual item of protected information. Privacy compliance instructions enable the mobile device to select a mapped feature from a received set of mapped features by identifying an item of protected information available to the mobile device which corresponds to a matching criterion found in the received set of mapped features. The sharable feature of the selected mapped feature is identified and sent to a privacy compliant destination. Advantageously, the analysis system protects the privacy of the mobile device user because it does not require the mobile device to relay protected information for the selection of customized content or relevant advertisements.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for feature analysis, the method comprising:

providing a plurality of mapped features to a mobile device, each mapped feature comprising an item of protected information mapped to a non-unique sharable feature; and

providing privacy compliance instructions to the mobile device for execution at the mobile device wherein the privacy compliance instructions comprise instructions for;

matching an item of protected information available to the mobile device to a mapped feature from the provided plurality of mapped features, the matching mapped feature'"'"'s item of protected information matching the item of protected information available to the mobile device; and

sending the matching mapped feature'"'"'s non-unique sharable feature.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein:

sending the matching mapped feature'"'"'s non-unique sharable feature comprises sending an identifier.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein:

at least one mapped feature maps multiple non-contiguous geographic locations to a non-unique sharable feature.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein:

at least one mapped feature maps an item of protected information comprising a geographic location to a non-unique sharable feature which is not a geographic location.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein:

the item of protected information available to the mobile device comprises a predicted future geographic location of the mobile device.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein:

at least one mapped feature comprises an item of protected information mapped to a plurality of non-unique sharable features; and

sending comprises sending the plurality of non-unique sharable features of the at least one mapped feature if the at least one mapped feature'"'"'s item of protected information is matched to the item of protected information available to the mobile device.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the privacy compliance instructions further comprise instructions for:

rating the identified item of protected information; and

sending the rating.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

receiving the matching mapped feature'"'"'s non-unique sharable feature from the mobile device;

selecting content based on the matching mapped feature'"'"'s non-unique sharable feature; and

sending the selected content to the mobile device.

9. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

receiving the matching mapped feature'"'"'s non-unique sharable feature from the mobile device;

customizing content based on the matching mapped feature'"'"'s non-unique sharable feature; and

sending the customized content to the mobile device.

10. A non-transitory computer readable medium with computer executable instructions stored thereon executed by a processor to perform a method, the method comprising:

providing a plurality of mapped features to a mobile device, each mapped feature comprising an item of protected information mapped to a non-unique sharable feature; and

providing privacy compliance instructions to the mobile device for execution at the mobile device wherein the privacy compliance instructions comprise instructions for;

matching an item of protected information available to the mobile device to a mapped feature from the provided plurality of mapped features, the matching mapped feature'"'"'s item of protected information matching the item of protected information available to the mobile device; and

sending the matching mapped feature'"'"'s non-unique sharable feature.

11. The medium of claim 10 wherein sending the matching mapped feature'"'"'s non-unique sharable feature comprises sending an identifier.

12. The medium of claim 10 wherein:

at least one mapped feature maps multiple non-contiguous geographic locations to a non-unique sharable feature.

13. The medium of claim 10 wherein:

at least one mapped feature maps an item of protected information comprising a geographic location to a non-unique sharable feature which is not a geographic location.

14. The medium of claim 10 wherein:

the item of protected information available to the mobile device comprises a predicted future geographic location of the mobile device.

15. The medium of claim 10 wherein the privacy compliance instructions further comprise instructions for:

rating the identified item of protected information; and

sending the rating.

16. The medium of claim 10, the method further comprising:

receiving the matching mapped feature'"'"'s non-unique sharable feature from the mobile device;

selecting content based on the matching mapped feature'"'"'s non-unique sharable feature; and

sending the selected content to the mobile device.

17. The medium of claim 10, the method further comprising:

receiving the matching mapped feature'"'"'s non-unique sharable feature from the mobile device;

customizing content based on the matching mapped feature'"'"'s non-unique sharable feature; and

sending the customized content to the mobile device.

18. A system comprising:

a processor; and

,

a non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing processor-executable computer program instructions, the instructions comprising instructions for;

providing a plurality of mapped features to a mobile device, each mapped feature comprising an item of protected information mapped to a non-unique sharable feature; and

providing privacy compliance instructions to the mobile device for execution at the mobile device wherein the privacy compliance instructions comprise instructions for;

matching an item of protected information available to the mobile device to a mapped feature from the provided plurality of mapped features, the matching mapped feature'"'"'s item of protected information matching the item of protected information available to the mobile device; and

sending the matching mapped feature'"'"'s non-unique sharable feature.

19. The system of claim 18 wherein:

at least one mapped feature maps multiple non-contiguous geographic locations to a non-unique sharable feature.

20. The system of claim 18 wherein:

at least one mapped feature maps an item of protected information comprising a geographic location to a non-unique sharable feature which is not a geographic location.