Ad Targeting Privacy Filter via Pixel Tag Intermediary
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Solution Overview
Problem
Online advertisers often collect sensitive information about users through targeting criteria, such as political affiliation or sexual orientation, which can be undesirable and invasive.
Innovation Solution
A social networking system determines if targeting criteria for advertisements include sensitive information and prevents data collection mechanisms from recording user exposure if such criteria are present, thereby blocking the capture of sensitive information.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If advertisers use tracking pixels and cookies to track user exposure to advertisements, then advertisers can associate sensitive information with users, but user privacy is compromised and sensitive information is collected
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an intermediary mechanism (pixel tag service) that sits between the advertisement delivery system and the data collection infrastructure. This service receives pixel tag requests, evaluates them against privacy criteria, and selectively blocks or permits tracking based on whether the advertisement targets sensitive user attributes, thus resolving the contradiction between tracking reliability and privacy protection
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements feedback by having the pixel tag service communicate with the advertisement delivery system to report when tracking is blocked. This feedback loop allows the system to maintain advertising effectiveness for non-sensitive campaigns while automatically preventing privacy infringements, balancing the conflicting requirements
2Adaptability or versatility
If advertisers target advertisements based on sensitive criteria such as political affiliation or sexual orientation, then advertising relevance to users is improved, but sensitive information is collected and user privacy is violated
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by evaluating advertisement targeting criteria before the advertisement is delivered to users. The pixel tag service pre-assesses whether an advertisement targets sensitive attributes and blocks tracking pixels in advance for such advertisements, preventing sensitive information collection before it can occur while allowing precise targeting for non-sensitive advertisements
Solution Approach 2:
The system applies local quality by treating different advertisements differently based on their targeting criteria. Rather than implementing a blanket ban on all tracking or all sensitive targeting, the system selectively applies tracking blocking only to advertisements that target sensitive attributes, preserving advertising precision where appropriate while protecting privacy where needed
Data Source
AI summary
A social networking system determines whether targeting criteria for an advertisement includes one or more sensitive criteria. The advertisement's targeting criteria is compared to one or more keywords or parameters associated with sensitive topics, such as sexual orientation, religious affiliation, political affiliation, or health status. If the targeting criteria matches one or more keywords or parameters associated with a sensitive topic, the social networking system determines that the targeting criteria includes sensitive criteria and prevents recordation of information regarding a viewing user's exposure to the advertisement.