Method and device for assisting unsubscribing from an electronic newsletter.

Abstract

The invention relates to a method for assisting unsubscribing from a periodic electronic newsletter, said newsletter being received by a user's electronic terminal in the form of emails, said method being implemented by an unsubscribe assistance device and characterized in that it comprises the following steps: identifying an email received by said terminal as an email from said newsletter; and providing the user with an unsubscribe option for said newsletter. Figure 1 for the abstract

Description

Title of the invention: Method and device for assisting in unsubscribing from an electronic newsletter.

[0001] 1. Field of the invention

[0002] The invention relates to the field of telecommunications and more particularly concerns communication services executed on an electronic terminal such as a personal computer.

[0003] 2. Prior Art

[0004] It is estimated that around 300 to 500 billion emails are sent worldwide every day. The environmental impact of a single email is negligible due to its small size in terms of data and the amount of energy required to transmit it (around 4g of CO2). However, when you consider the enormous amount of emails sent worldwide every day, the total carbon footprint becomes significant.

[0005] Electronic newsletters can represent a significant portion of email traffic. However, some of these publications may not be requested or no longer desired by the user. Currently, the law requires a sender of an electronic newsletter to provide an "unsubscribe" link in its content so that a subscriber can no longer receive these unwanted or no longer desired emails. However, the unsubscribe rate remains very low. Indeed, the unsubscribe process can be seen by the subscriber as a waste of time. It is often easier for them to continue receiving emails without reading them. The subscriber may also be tempted to report the newsletter email as unwanted email (i.e., "spam").However, it is better to unsubscribe rather than mark the newsletter email as spam, because improperly marking legitimate emails as spam can harm legitimate senders and confuse "anti-spam" filters for other users.

[0006] It is clear that there is no technical solution to help a user unsubscribe from an electronic newsletter.

[0007] 3. Statement of the invention

[0008] The invention improves the state of the art and proposes for this purpose a method for assisting in unsubscribing from an electronic newsletter, said newsletter being received by an electronic terminal of a user in the form of emails, said method being implemented by an unsubscription assistance device and characterized in that it comprises the following steps: - characterization of an email received by said terminal as an email of said bulletin; - proposal to unsubscribe from said newsletter returned to said user.

[0009] Advantageously, the solution makes it possible to automatically process emails received by a user's electronic terminal in order to detect those sent by an electronic newsletter and to propose, if necessary, an unsubscription from the electronic newsletter. Note that the emails sent by the electronic newsletter may be sent at regular time intervals (periodically) or not.

[0010] An advantage of the proposed solution is that it is simple to implement since it is sufficient, in addition to the terminal already available to the user, to have a computing machine (possibly the one already present in the terminal) to characterize a received email.

[0011] According to a particular embodiment of the invention, a method as described above is characterized in that the characterization of said email received by said terminal as an email of said bulletin is determined as a function of the result of an analysis of the content and / or the title of said email received.

[0012] This embodiment makes it possible to determine that an email received by an electronic terminal corresponds to an email from an electronic newsletter. Concretely, the method determines that an email corresponds to an email from an electronic newsletter based on the result of an analysis of the content and / or the title of the email received, for example, when the email includes particular content such as a hyperlink named “unsubscribe” or a title comprising one or more words (newsletter, monitoring, advertising, catalog, etc.) indicating unambiguously that the email corresponds to a publication of an electronic newsletter.

[0013] According to a particular embodiment of the invention, a method as described above is characterized in that the characterization of said email received by said terminal as an email of said bulletin is determined as a function of the email address of the sender of said received email.

[0014] This embodiment makes it possible to determine that an email received by an electronic terminal corresponds to an email from an electronic newsletter. Concretely, the method determines that an email corresponds to an email from an electronic newsletter based on the email address of the sender of the received email. This is the case, for example, when the address includes a particular term such as newsletter, monitoring, advertising, catalog, etc. or when the sender corresponds to a known electronic newsletter and / or online monitoring service.

[0015] According to a particular embodiment of the invention, a method as described above is characterized in that the unsubscribe proposal is returned based on at least one action carried out by the user on at least one email received from said newsletter.

[0016] This embodiment makes it possible to condition a proposal to unsubscribe from an electronic newsletter by the performance of one or more specific actions by the user at the level of one or more emails of the electronic newsletter received. Concretely, the method observes the activity of the user in order to identify whether or not the user uses / is interested in the electronic newsletter.

[0017] According to a particular embodiment of the invention, a method as described above is characterized in that the unsubscription proposal is followed by a step of unsubscribing from said bulletin when said user validates said proposal.

[0018] This embodiment makes it possible to automate the unsubscription process when the user wishes. To do this, the method can, for example, simulate a click on an unsubscribe hyperlink present in one of the emails of the electronic newsletter received.

[0019] According to a particular embodiment of the invention, a method as described above is characterized in that said at least one action belongs to the group comprising at least: the deletion; reading; the marking; opening and / or preview; archiving; printing; the copy of all or part of the content of said email; moving a cursor of a pointing device within the content of said email rendered at a display device; moving the content of said email to a display device; the selection of all or part of the content of said email; the development or full screen of a display window displaying the content of said email; etc.

[0020] Note that the selection of all or part of the content of said email may correspond to highlighting / selecting all or part of the content of one of the emails of the electronic newsletter received and / or clicking on a hyperlink contained in one of the newsletter emails received.

[0021] Also note that tagging may involve giving a rating of interest (e.g., 3 out of 5 stars, or "like") or a priority (high or low) to the content of the newsletter email.

[0022] According to a particular embodiment of the invention, a method as described above is characterized in that said at least one action corresponds to the reading, by said user, of said at least one email received from said bulletin and that the unsubscription proposal is furthermore returned as a function of the time spent by said user reading the content of said at least one email from said bulletin received.

[0023] This embodiment makes it possible to condition a proposal to unsubscribe from an electronic newsletter by the time spent by the user reading the content of the email(s) received from the electronic newsletter. When the reading time, cumulative or not, of one or more emails received from the electronic newsletter does not exceed a threshold (for example in seconds, minutes, hours or days) during a predefined period of time, then the method considers that the user is not or is only slightly interested in the content of the electronic newsletter and proposes unsubscribing.

[0024] According to a particular embodiment of the invention, a method as described above is characterized in that the unsubscription proposal is returned as a function of the value of an interest score associated with said bulletin.

[0025] This embodiment makes it possible to condition a proposal to unsubscribe from an electronic newsletter by the value of an interest score. This score is, for example, obtained as a function of the user's activity on the electronic newsletter emails received. It can be calculated as a function of: - the reading time, by the user, of the electronic newsletter email(s); - interactions on the content(s) of the electronic newsletter email(s); - the time taken to delete the newsletter email(s). For example, the average time calculated between the receipt of several newsletter emails and their manual deletion by the user; - time limit for opening the electronic newsletter email(s); - the type of marking of the newsletter email(s) (e.g. high or low importance, personal, etc. - etc.

[0026] This score can also be obtained by the method from a third-party device such as a database.

[0027] The invention also relates to a device for assisting in unsubscribing from an electronic newsletter, said newsletter being received by an electronic terminal of a user in the form of emails, characterized in that it comprises: - a module for characterizing an email received by said terminal as an email of said bulletin; - a module proposing unsubscription from said newsletter returned to said user.

[0028] The term module can correspond to a software component as well as to a hardware component or a set of hardware and software components, a software component itself corresponding to one or more computer programs or sub-programs or more generally to any element of a program capable of implementing a function or a set of functions as described for the modules concerned. In the same way, a hardware component corresponds to any element of a hardware assembly capable of implementing a function or a set of functions for the module concerned (integrated circuit, smart card, memory card, etc.).

[0029] The invention also relates to a computer program comprising instructions for implementing the above method according to any of the particular embodiments described above, when said program is executed by a processor. The method can be implemented in various ways, in particular in hard-wired form or in software form. This program can use any programming language, and be in the form of source code, object code, or intermediate code between source code and object code, such as in a partially compiled form, or in any other desirable form.

[0030] The invention also relates to a recording medium or information medium readable by a computer, and comprising instructions of a computer program as mentioned above. The recording media mentioned above can be any entity or device capable of storing the program. For example, the medium can comprise a storage means, such as a ROM, for example a CD ROM or a microelectronic circuit ROM, or a magnetic recording means, for example a hard disk. Furthermore, the recording media can correspond to a transmissible medium such as an electrical or optical signal, which can be conveyed via an electrical or optical cable, by radio or by other means. The programs according to the invention can in particular be downloaded from a network such as the Internet.

[0031] Alternatively, the recording media may correspond to an integrated circuit in which the program is incorporated, the circuit being adapted to execute or to be used in the execution of the method in question.

[0032] This device for assisting in unsubscribing from an electronic newsletter and this computer program have characteristics and advantages similar to those described previously in relation to the method for assisting in unsubscribing from an electronic newsletter.

[0033] 4. List of figures

[0034] Other characteristics and advantages of the invention will appear more clearly on reading the following description of particular embodiments, given as simple illustrative and non-limiting examples, and the appended drawings, among which:

[0035] [Fig-1] [Fig.l] illustrates an example of an implementation environment of the invention according to a particular embodiment of the invention,

[0036] [Fig.2] [Fig.2] illustrates the architecture of a device suitable for the implementation of the unsubscription assistance method, according to a particular embodiment of the invention,

[0037] [Fig.3] [Fig.3] illustrates the main steps of the unsubscribe assistance process according to a particular embodiment of the invention.

[0038] 5. Description of an embodiment of the invention

[0039] [Fig.l] illustrates an example of an environment for implementing the invention according to a particular embodiment. The environment represented in [Fig.l] comprises at least one terminal 101 which integrates a device for assisting with unsubscribing capable of implementing the method for assisting with unsubscribing according to the present invention.

[0040] The unsubscription assistance method can operate permanently and autonomously upon activation of the device or following a user action.

[0041] The terminal 101 is for example a terminal of the smartphone type (smartphone in English), tablet, connected television, connected object, on-board computer of a car, personal computer, server, gateway, etc.

[0042] One or more graphics / display rendering peripherals (105) may be included by the terminal 101 or connected (connected wired via a VGA, HDMI, USB, etc. cable or wirelessly via WiFi®, Bluetooth®, etc. technology). This or these rendering peripherals may be a display screen or a video projector.

[0043] According to a particular embodiment of the invention, the graphic rendering peripheral(s) can be connected to the terminal 101 via the network 102.

[0044] Similarly, one or more input / pointing devices (103a, 103b) may be included by the terminal 101 or connected (connected wired via a VGA, HDMI, USB, etc. cable or wirelessly via WiFi®, Bluetooth®, etc. technology). This or these pointing devices may be a keyboard, a mouse, a touch surface, a camera (via eye tracking technologies) (104), a microphone (via voice commands) or any other device capable of providing location and action data at the level of an element displayed by a display device of the terminal 101.

[0045] The terminal 101 may further comprise one or more audio playback peripherals 106, for example one or more loudspeakers capable of vocally playing back text-type content.

[0046] According to a particular embodiment of the invention, the unsubscription assistance device may be located in the network and / or distributed over one or more computer machines such as computers, terminals or servers.

[0047] [Fig. 2] illustrates a device S configured to implement the unsubscription assistance method according to a particular embodiment of the invention. The device S has the conventional architecture of a computer, and notably comprises a memory MEM, a processing unit UT, equipped for example with a processor PROC, and controlled by the computer program PG stored in memory MEM. The computer program PG comprises instructions for implementing the steps of the unsubscription assistance method as described later in support of [Fig. 3], when the program is executed by the processor PROC.

[0048] At initialization, the code instructions of the computer program PG are for example loaded into a memory before being executed by the processor PROC. The processor PROC of the processing unit UT notably implements the steps of the unsubscription assistance method according to any one of the particular embodiments described in relation to [Fig. 3] and according to the instructions of the computer program PG.

[0049] The device S comprises a CARAC characterization module capable of determining / identifying that an email received by the terminal 101 comes from an electronic newsletter. To do this, the CARAC module can analyze the content and / or the title of the email in order to search for the presence of keywords indicating the nature of the email. For example, if the email includes particular content such as a hyperlink named “unsubscribe” or a title comprising one or more words such as “newsletter” or “watch”, then the email can be characterized as an email received from an electronic newsletter. Alternatively or cumulatively, the CARAC module can analyze the address of the sender of the email in order to search for keywords such as “newsletter” or “watch” indicating that the email comes from an electronic newsletter service.

[0050] The device S further comprises a proposal / suggestion module SUG capable of proposing unsubscription to a newsletter.

[0051] [Fig. 3] illustrates steps of the assistance method according to a particular embodiment of the invention. In this example the method is executed by the terminal 101.

[0052] During the first step (GET step) the method obtains an email. The email is for example obtained from a messaging server or from a digital storage space located in the network or on the terminal 101. Once the email is obtained, the method processes it in order to characterize it (DETER step), that is to say to determine its nature. More precisely, the method seeks to determine whether the email is an email sent by an electronic newsletter service. This characterization can be carried out by the method according to the value of a parameter associated with the email, a parameter indicating unambiguously whether or not it is an email sent by an electronic newsletter service (for example a parameter whose value is "newsletter") or via the analysis of the content and / or the title of the email. Concretely, the analysis can correspond to the search for keywords indicating the nature of the email.For example, if the email includes specific content such as a hyperlink labeled "unsubscribe" or a title including one or more words such as "newsletter" or "watch" then the email can be characterized as an email received from a newsletter.

[0053] Alternatively or cumulatively, the analysis may focus on the address of the sender of the email in order to search for keywords such as "newsletter" or "monitoring" indicating that the email comes from an electronic newsletter service (for example: newsletter.site@thecompany.com).

[0054] Alternatively or cumulatively, the analysis may further relate to the frequency of receipt of emails received from the same sender. For example, if every Monday the user receives an email from the same sender, this may indicate that the email corresponds to an electronic newsletter. According to a variant, the method may further compare the titles of the emails received from this sender so as to verify that the title of the emails does not change or changes only slightly. Indeed, electronic newsletters generally use the same title with a variable part which may correspond to the number of the week. According to a particular embodiment, “Levenshtein” type distance calculation techniques may also be used to measure the proximity / similarity between two character strings. As a reminder, the Levenshtein distance makes it possible to give a measure of the difference between two character strings.It is equal to the minimum number of characters that must be deleted, inserted or replaced to move from one string to another.

[0055] When the email is determined to be an email from an electronic newsletter service, the method renders (REST step) vocally and / or graphically to the user of the terminal 101 a proposal to unsubscribe from the electronic newsletter which sent the email(s) received during the GET step.

[0056] According to a particular embodiment of the invention, when the user validates the unsubscription proposal, the method takes care of the unsubscription (step DESA - automation of unsubscription) by carrying out the actions necessary for the user to unsubscribe from the electronic newsletter. For example, the method can simulate a click on an unsubscribe hyperlink present in one of the emails of the electronic newsletter. The method can also, when the unsubscription process so requests, complete an electronic form with data from the user, the data being, for example, obtained from the terminal 101 or from a server located in the network.

[0057] According to a particular embodiment of the invention, the restitution (graphic and / or vocal) of the proposal to unsubscribe from the electronic newsletter is conditioned by the performance of one or more specific actions by the user at the level of one or more emails of the electronic newsletter received. Concretely, the method observes the activity of the user in order to identify whether or not the user uses / is interested in the emails of the electronic newsletter. The actions may for example correspond to: - the deletion of an email; - the reading of an email; - marking an email; - opening and / or previewing an email; - archiving an email; - printing an email; - copying / pasting all or part of the content of an email from the electronic newsletter; - navigation (moving the cursor of a pointing device) within the content of an electronic newsletter email rendered at a display device; - moving the content of said email to a display device; - the development or full screen of a display window displaying the content of said email; - the selection of all or part of the content of an email from the electronic newsletter; - etc.

[0058] Thus, according to a first example, when the user deletes or marks as "read" without opening all or part of the emails from the electronic newsletter, the method can consider that the content of this or these emails does not interest the user. The method then proposes, graphically and / or vo- The user can then unsubscribe from the newsletter.

[0059] According to a second example, when the user opens the email(s), reads them and / or archives them in a computer directory and / or prints them, the method may consider that the content of this or these emails interests the user. In this case, the method does not offer the user the option of unsubscribing from the electronic newsletter.

[0060] Alternatively or cumulatively, the rendering of the proposal to unsubscribe from the electronic newsletter may be conditioned by the time spent (in second(s), minute(s), hour(s), day(s)) by the user reading the content and / or listening to the vocalized content of the email(s) of the electronic newsletter. The reading time is for example determined via an eye tracking technique, i.e. the study of the user's gaze (in English "eye tracking") captured by the camera 104, coupled with an event obtained from the terminal 101 (for example an event of the operating system) indicating that an email of the electronic newsletter is displayed at a given location on the display surface of the display device 105. The method can then evaluate the time spent by the user reading an email of the electronic newsletter rendered by the display device 105.Thus, when the reading time, cumulative or not, of one or more emails received from the electronic newsletter does not exceed a threshold (for example 5 minutes) during a predefined period of time (for example 6 months), then the method can consider that the user is not or has little interest in the content of the electronic newsletter. In this case, the method offers the user to unsubscribe from the electronic newsletter. Note that the predefined time period can correspond to a sliding time window (the start of the period / time window can vary over time) and be of variable or fixed size / duration.

[0061] Note that selecting all or part of the content may involve highlighting all or part of the content of one of the newsletter emails received and / or clicking on a hyperlink contained in one of the newsletter emails received.

[0062] According to a particular embodiment of the invention, the restitution (graphic and / or vocal) of the proposal to unsubscribe from the electronic newsletter is conditioned by the value of an interest score. This score is, for example, obtained based on the user's activity observed in the electronic newsletter emails received. It can be calculated based on: - the time spent by the user reading the electronic newsletter email(s); - interactions on the content(s) of the e-mail bulletin(s) information electronics; - the time taken to delete the newsletter email(s). For example, the average time calculated between the receipt of several newsletter emails and their manual deletion by the user; - time limit for opening the electronic newsletter email(s); - the type of marking of the newsletter email(s) (e.g. high or low importance, personal, etc. - etc.

[0063] We will now describe the calculation of an interest score in the case where 4 emails of the electronic newsletter have already been obtained / received by the terminal 101. Action Email #1 Email #2 Email #3 Email #4 Total reading 2 1 1 0 4 archiving 0 0 1 0 1 deletion 0 -1 0 -1 -2 printing 1 0 0 0 1 C 1

[0064] The table above indicates the number of times a given action was performed by the user on each email received from the periodic electronic newsletter. For example, the user read (fully or partially) the first email twice, the second and third emails once, and did not read the fourth email. An overall reading score for the electronic newsletter is then calculated using the 4-point method (2+1+1+0).

[0065] The same exercise can be performed for archiving, deleting and printing actions.

[0066] Note that an email can be considered as read by the user when the time spent reading the content of the email exceeds a threshold (for example 1 minute).

[0067] Also note that the deletion action is counted negatively. Indeed, deletion indicates a potential disinterest from the user. Thus, the overall deletion score calculated by the method is equal to -2 (0-1+0-1) emails 2 and 4 having been deleted by the user.

[0068] Of course, this list of actions is given for purely indicative purposes and is in no way limiting. Many other user actions can be considered by the method for calculating the interest score. Similarly, other values and possible weightings associated with each action can be chosen.

[0069] The method then calculates the interest score C. To do this, the method calculates the sum S of the overall scores of the actions and divides it by the number N of emails.

[0070] The interest score is therefore equal to: C = S / N.

[0071] In this example, the interest score corresponds to (4+1-2+1) / 4 or C = 1. Thus, The interest score indicates that there was, on average, one action demonstrating user interest taken on each newsletter email.

[0072] If the value of the interest score is below a predetermined threshold, the latter being for example set at 1, the method can propose to the user to unsubscribe from the electronic newsletter. In the case described above the interest score is equal to 1. The interest score not being less than 1, the method then considers that the electronic newsletter interests the user and that there is no reason to propose to him to unsubscribe.

[0073] It goes without saying that the embodiment described above has been given for purely indicative purposes and is in no way limiting, and that numerous modifications can easily be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the scope of the invention. According to other particular embodiments of the invention, the interest score can be calculated by an artificial intelligence capable of learning over the months a user's behavior (reading, archiving, deletion, etc.) at the level of the emails of the electronic newsletter.

[0074] According to another embodiment of the invention, the interest score can be calculated based on actions and / or sequence of actions. For example, the method can determine that the user has read an email only if the user's reading of its content exceeds a predefined duration and is associated with a particular area / part of the content (for example, the main article located in the newsletter email). Similarly, when the user's reading of an email exceeds a predefined duration and then deletes the email in question, the deletion action can then be ignored by the method for calculating the interest score. Indeed, following its reading, the user has indeed shown an interest in the publication / newsletter email and the deletion action is then not relevant in calculating the interest score.

Claims

Claims

1. Method for assisting in unsubscribing from an electronic newsletter, said newsletter being received by an electronic terminal of a user in the form of emails, said method being implemented by an unsubscription assistance device and characterized in that it comprises the following steps: - characterization (DETER) of an email received by said terminal as an email from said newsletter; - proposal (REST) ​​to unsubscribe from said newsletter returned to said user.

2. Method according to claim 1 characterized in that the characterization of said email received by said terminal as an email of said bulletin is determined based on the result of an analysis of the content and / or the title of said email received.

3. Method according to claim 1 characterized in that the characterization of said email received by said terminal as an email of said bulletin is determined as a function of the email address of the sender of said received email.

4. Method according to claim 1 characterized in that the unsubscribe proposal is returned based on at least one action carried out by the user on at least one email received from said newsletter.

5. Method according to claim 1 characterized in that the unsubscription proposal is followed by a step of unsubscribing (DESA) from said bulletin when said user validates said proposal.

6. Method according to claim 4 characterized in that said at least one action belongs to the group comprising at least: - deletion; - reading; - marking; - opening and / or previewing; - archiving; - printing; - copying all or part of the content of said email; - moving a cursor of a pointing device within the content of said email rendered at a display device; - moving the content of said email at a display device; - the development or full screen of a display window displaying the content of said email on a display device; - the selection of all or part of the content of said email.

7. Method according to claim 4 characterized in that said at least one action corresponds to the reading, by said user, of said at least one email received from said bulletin and that the unsubscription proposal is furthermore returned according to the time spent by said user reading the content of said at least one email from said bulletin received.

8. Method according to claim 1 characterized in that the unsubscription proposal is returned according to the value of an interest score associated with said bulletin.

9. Device for assisting in unsubscribing from a periodic electronic newsletter, said newsletter being received by an electronic terminal of a user in the form of emails, characterized in that it comprises: - a characterization module (CARAC) of an email received by said terminal as an email of said newsletter; - a proposal module (SUG) for unsubscribing from said newsletter returned to said user.

10. Terminal or server characterized in that it comprises a device according to claim 9.

11. A computer program comprising instructions for implementing the method according to any one of claims 1 to 8, when the program is executed by a processor.

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