Privacy centric feature analysis for mobile devices

• US 9,775,026 B1
• Filed: 03/31/2017
• Issued: 09/26/2017
• 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
• Application Number:
  US15/476,353
• Time in Patent Office: 179 Days
• 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 by a score 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;

generating a score for an item of protected information available to the mobile device;

matching the score for the item of protected information to a non-unique sharable feature from the plurality of mapped features; and

sending the non-unique sharable feature.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the privacy compliance instructions further comprise instructions for sending the score.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

sending an identifier.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein generating the score comprises generating a collective score characterizing at least two items of protected information available to the mobile device.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the score comprises a category.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the score comprises a range.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving the non-unique sharable feature from the mobile device;

selecting content based on the non-unique sharable feature; and

sending the selected content to the mobile device.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving the non-unique sharable feature from the mobile device;

customizing content based on the non-unique sharable feature; and

sending the customized content to the mobile device.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein matching the score comprises one selected from a group consisting of:

inexact matching, approximate matching, and probabilistic matching.

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 by a score 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;

generating a score for an item of protected information available to the mobile device;

matching the score for the item of protected information to a non-unique sharable feature from the plurality of mapped features; and

sending the non-unique sharable feature.

11. The medium of claim 10, wherein the privacy compliance instructions further comprise instructions for sending the score.

12. The medium of claim 10, further comprising:

sending an identifier.

13. The medium of claim 10, wherein generating the score comprises generating a collective score characterizing at least two items of protected information available to the mobile device.

14. The medium of claim 10, wherein the score comprises a category.

15. The medium of claim 10, wherein the score comprises a range.

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

receiving the non-unique sharable feature from the mobile device;

selecting content based on the non-unique sharable feature; and

sending the selected content to the mobile device.

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

receiving the non-unique sharable feature from the mobile device;

customizing content based on the 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 by a score 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;

generating a score for an item of protected information available to the mobile device;

matching the score for the item of protected information to a non-unique sharable feature from the plurality of mapped features; and

sending the non-unique sharable feature.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the instructions further comprise instructions for:

receiving the non-unique sharable feature from the mobile device;

selecting content based on the non-unique sharable feature; and

sending the selected content to the mobile device.

20. The system of claim 18, wherein the instructions further comprise instructions for:

receiving the non-unique sharable feature from the mobile device;

customizing content based on the non-unique sharable feature; and

sending the customized content to the mobile device.