Systems and methods for user identification, user demographic reporting and collecting usage data using biometrics

• US 20040015714A1
• Filed: 02/05/2003
• Published: 01/22/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 03/22/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: comScore, Inc.
• Original Assignee: comScore Networks, Inc. (comScore, Inc.)
• Inventors: Brown, Michael, Abraham, Magid, Heyman, Steve
• Granted Patent: US 7,260,837 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 713/200
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3821 Electronic credentials
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• 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 67/563 Data redirection of data network streams
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/63 Routing a service request depending on the request content or context
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/04 Protocols for data compression, e.g. ROHC
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99942 Manipulating data structure, e.g. compression, compaction, compilation

Abstract

Several ways of identifying users and collecting demographic information and market information are disclosed, including branding a browser with a unique identification in each user request, identifying a user by his key strokes or mouse clicks, gathering demographic information using multiple data sets and by monitoring network traffic. Additionally, user requested content is distinguished from other, non-user content, and the performance of a server can be monitor and analyzed from a client a client perspective. Further, an Internet user'"'"'s Internet data is routed to a known domain on the Internet, from which it is routed on to the intended recipient. The domain includes proxy servers which proxy the user'"'"'s data requests to the domain, and database servers, which filter and build a database of the user'"'"'s Internet usage. Particular data concerning certain behaviors of interest, such as purchasing data, is filtered into the database, and can form the basis for numerous market measures.

Claims

1. A method of collecting data relating to a user'"'"'s usage over a network, the user utilizing a computing device to send and receive data sets over the network, the computing device having an address on the network, the data representative of the address of the computing device on the network, comprising:

establishing a connection between a computing device and the network;

identifying a user of the computer device, wherein the computing device has at least one input device, and wherein the user identifying step further includes;

monitoring at least one characteristic of input device operation by a user to provide data on at least one mannerism of the user in operating the input device;

accumulating said data on said at least one mannerism of the user in operating the input device to provide accumulated mannerism data for a give session;

comparing said accumulated mannerism data to a database that associates mannerisms with at least one user, to provide a comparison result; and

providing an indication of an identity of a user using the input device of the computer based on said comparison result;

readdressing data sets sent from the computing device to indicate that the data sets originated in the known domain;

recording at least part of the data sets together with the identity of the user; and

sending the readdressed data onto the network.

2. A method according to claim 1, further comprising configuring software running on the computing device to address all data sets to a known proxy server in the known domain.

3. A method according to claim 1, wherein the step of recording at least part of the data sets comprises building a database including at least part of the data sets, wherein the step of building a database includes building a database having at least one field selected from the group consisting of user age, user income level, user education level, household size, time of transmission of the data set, location of computing device, date of transmission of the data set, currency paid, type of product purchased, type of service purchased, network address of the intended recipient of a data set, click-through address, banner advertisement impression, and permission e-mail received, and combinations thereof.

4. A method according to claim 1, further comprising:

negotiating a first encryption key with the computing device; and

negotiating a second encryption key with an intended recipient of a data set sent by the computing device.

5. A method in accordance with claim 4, further comprising:

decoding an encrypted data set from the computing device with the first encryption key;

encrypting the decoded data set with the second encryption key; and

transmitting the data set encrypted with the second encryption key to the intended recipient via the network.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein said monitoring step includes measuring time between successive, predefined input device entries.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein said monitoring step includes measuring dwell time on individual input device entries.

8. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of supplementing the data in the mannerisms database with the data accumulated over a given session after a user associated with the multiple session data has been identified.

9. A method of identifying a user of a computer device having at least one input device, said computing device being connected to a network, comprising:

monitoring at least one characteristic of input device operation by a user to provide data on at least one mannerism of the user in operating the input device;

accumulating said data on said at least one mannerism of the user in operating the input device to provide accumulated mannerism data for a given session;

comparing said accumulated mannerism data to a database that associates mannerisms with at least one user, to provide a comparison result; and

providing an indication of an identity of a user using the input device of the computer based on said comparison result.

10. The method according to claim 9, wherein said monitoring step includes measuring time between successive, predefined input device entries.

11. The method according to claim 9, wherein said monitoring step includes measuring dwell time on individual input device entries.

12. The method according to claim 9, further comprising the step of supplementing the data in the mannerisms database with the data accumulated over a given session after a user associated with the multiple session data has been identified.

13. A method of monitoring of the performance of at least one network server, comprising:

providing a network device between said at least one network server and browser software of a user;

requesting content from the network server via the browser software;

intercepting the request by the network device;

logging, in the network device information about the request;

requesting, by the network device, the content from the network server;

receiving, in the network device, a response to the request from the network server on behalf of the network browser; and

inserting script into the response that directs the browser software to report information about the request and the response from the user perspective.

14. The method according to claim 13, further comprising:

encapsulating, by the network device, server-side performance information in an outgoing message; and

combining client side statistics with the server side data for processing and storage.