ACR Identifier for Privacy-Safe Media Impression and Search Tracking
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing methods for monitoring Internet media usage, such as server logs, are susceptible to over-counting and under-counting due to caching and tampering, and traditional audience measurement techniques rely on small panels with imputed demographics, lacking accuracy and privacy protection, especially for cookieless apps on mobile devices.
Innovation Solution
The use of an Application Campaign Rating (ACR) identifier that encrypts device and user identifiers, allowing access to user information from partnered database proprietors without revealing personal information, thereby extending panel sizes and improving demographic accuracy by leveraging external databases.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If server logs are used to monitor Internet media usage, then monitoring can be implemented, but over-counting and under-counting occur due to caching and tampering
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an Application Campaign Rating (ACR) identifier as an intermediary mechanism that bridges the gap between media serving entities and audience measurement entities. The ACR identifier is embedded in media requests and responses, allowing accurate tracking of media impressions without relying on vulnerable server logs. This intermediary structure enables the audience measurement entity to collect reliable data directly from the client side, eliminating the over-counting and under-counting problems associated with server log monitoring.
2Measurement precision
If traditional audience measurement techniques use small panels with imputed demographics, then implementation is simple, but accuracy and privacy protection are insufficient
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges multiple data sources including panel member data, server log data, and ACR identifier data into a unified measurement system. By combining these diverse data sources, the system achieves higher demographic accuracy without relying solely on small panels. The integration allows the audience measurement entity to cross-validate information and generate more precise demographic profiles while maintaining system manageability through standardized data processing procedures.
Solution Approach 2:
The ACR identifier serves as an intermediary that enables accurate tracking of media impressions while protecting user privacy. Instead of directly collecting sensitive personal information, the system uses the ACR identifier to indirectly measure media consumption patterns and associate them with demographic data from multiple sources. This intermediary approach maintains measurement precision while reducing privacy risks.
3Adaptability or versatility
If cookieless apps on mobile devices are monitored, then coverage is expanded, but privacy protection becomes more challenging
Solution Approach 1:
The ACR identifier acts as a privacy-protective intermediary for monitoring cookieless apps on mobile devices. Since these apps cannot use traditional cookies for tracking, the ACR identifier provides an alternative mechanism that enables cross-app and cross-device tracking without requiring direct access to sensitive user information. The identifier is embedded in media requests and responses, allowing the system to track media impressions while maintaining a layer of abstraction between the measurement system and user personal data.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the audience measurement system into multiple components: panel member enrollment, ACR identifier generation and embedding, data collection from multiple sources, and demographic analysis. This segmentation allows the system to expand coverage across different devices and applications while maintaining privacy protection at each stage. By dividing the measurement process into discrete, manageable components, the system can adapt to various platforms including cookieless mobile apps without compromising privacy.
Data Source
AI summary
Methods and apparatus to collect distributed user information for media impressions and search terms are disclosed. An example method includes accessing, from a media device, a first identifier and a search term at a first server, the first identifier corresponding to at least one of the media device or a user of the media device, the search term associated with a search request, generating a second identifier based on the first identifier, sending the second identifier and the search term from the first server to a data collection server to facilitate the data collection server to logging the search request, and receiving user information associated with the search request from a database proprietor based on the second identifier.