METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR MONITORING ONLINE COMPUTER NETWORK BEHAVIOR AND CREATING ONLINE BEHAVIOR PROFILES
First Claim
1. A computer-implemented method for collecting network usage data about one or more users accessing a network and resources thereon without associating personally identifiable information with the usage data, comprising:
- maintaining an anonymized identifier relating to a user of a computer network, wherein the anonymized identifier does not reveal personal information of the user;
identifying first data relating to a network communication session between an external network system and the user;
identifying a record of a network request comprising a resource location identifier, the network request being related to the network communication session;
generating a second resource location identifier, wherein generating the second resource location identifier comprises stripping personally identifying data from the resource location identifier based on matching one or more patterns against the resource location identifier; and
storing the second resource location identifier in association with the anonymized identifier and the data relating to the network communication session.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A method and system for monitoring users on one or more computer networks, disassociating personally identifiable information from the collected data, and storing it in a database so that the privacy of the users is protected. In one embodiment, the system generates an anonymized identifier and associates that anonymized identifier with collected network data. An embodiment of the system may further anonymize data such as resource location identifiers, by identifying and removing personal information.
42 Citations
20 Claims
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1. A computer-implemented method for collecting network usage data about one or more users accessing a network and resources thereon without associating personally identifiable information with the usage data, comprising:
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maintaining an anonymized identifier relating to a user of a computer network, wherein the anonymized identifier does not reveal personal information of the user; identifying first data relating to a network communication session between an external network system and the user; identifying a record of a network request comprising a resource location identifier, the network request being related to the network communication session; generating a second resource location identifier, wherein generating the second resource location identifier comprises stripping personally identifying data from the resource location identifier based on matching one or more patterns against the resource location identifier; and storing the second resource location identifier in association with the anonymized identifier and the data relating to the network communication session. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. A computing system configured to collect anonymized network usage data relating to a user accessing one or more network servers and resources thereon, comprising:
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one or more communications interfaces configured to receive, from one or more data gathering computer devices, network usage data relating to usage of one or more user computing devices; and one or more processors configured to form second data comprising an aggregation of the received network usage data, the processors further configured to store the second data in a storage device; the second data being associated with an anonymized identifier that corresponds to a user associated with the one or more user computing devices, wherein the anonymized identifier comprises no personally identifying information of the user; wherein the extracted data comprises a resource location identifier, and wherein the processors are further configured to strip personally identifying data from the resource location identifier prior to storing the second data in the database. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
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18. Non-transitory computer storage that stores executable code that directs a computer system to perform a process that comprises:
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generating an anonymized identifier for a user, wherein the anonymized identifier does not reveal personal information of the user; collecting network traffic data between a user computing device associated with the user and at least one server, said network traffic including a uniform resource identifier that includes personal data of the user; generating a modified uniform resource identifier, wherein generating the modified uniform resource identifier comprises identifying the personal data of the user in the uniform resource identifier, and modifying the personal information from the uniform resource identifier to not include the personal data of the user; and storing the modified uniform resource identifier in association with the anonymized identifier. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20)
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Specification