Conditional Bids for Privacy-Preserving Ad Placement
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current content placement systems on the internet lack efficiency in targeting specific user attributes without revealing sensitive user information, leading to potential leakage of user data and inefficient ad placement.
Innovation Solution
A method that identifies placement opportunities for content on user devices characterized by specific attributes, provides bid requests to content sponsors with anonymized characteristic information, and evaluates conditional bids to determine relevant content items for placement, ensuring user data protection and efficient ad allocation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If user attribute information is provided to content sponsors for targeted advertising, then ad placement efficiency is improved, but user data leakage risk increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an intermediary system (auction platform/serving system) that sits between the user data and content sponsors. This intermediary receives user attribute information, conducts auctions, and allocates ads without directly sharing raw user data with sponsors. The intermediary acts as a mediator that enables targeted advertising while protecting user privacy through anonymization and controlled information flow.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent extracts and separates sensitive user attribute information from the direct advertising transaction. By using conditional bids that specify attributes without revealing actual user values, the system extracts the targeting capability while removing the harmful data exposure component. The attribute specifications are extracted as bid conditions rather than direct user data sharing.
2Adaptability or versatility
If characteristic information about users is shared with content sponsors, then targeted content placement is improved, but user privacy protection deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses conditional bids as copies or representations of user attributes rather than direct copies of user data. The bids contain attribute specifications (e.g., age ranges, interests) that serve as stand-ins for actual user information. This allows the system to work with simplified attribute models rather than raw user data, maintaining targeting capability while reducing privacy risks.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent transforms detailed user data into simplified parameter specifications in the bid conditions. Instead of sharing complete user profiles, the system uses changed parameters (attribute categories and ranges) that maintain the essential targeting information while removing sensitive details. This parameter transformation enables adaptability in content placement while improving privacy protection.
3Productivity
If real-time bidding with multiple content sponsors is implemented, then ad allocation efficiency is improved, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the ad allocation process into distinct functional components: user profile storage, bid request generation, conditional bid evaluation, and content selection. This segmentation divides the complex real-time bidding system into manageable modules that can operate independently, reducing overall system complexity while maintaining high ad allocation efficiency through specialized processing functions.
Data Source
AI summary
Methods, systems, and apparatus include computer programs encoded on a computer-readable storage medium for providing content. A method includes: identifying a placement opportunity for content for a user device characterized as being included in a group in which the group is defined by a user having a specific attribute; providing a bid request to content sponsors, the bid request including characteristic information that identifies information known to a serving system about the user without specifying the attribute that is associated with the user; receiving conditional bids conditioned on the user having a specific attribute from the content sponsors that establish a price to be used in an auction for the placement opportunity; evaluating the received bids in view of the attribute associated with the user including using received bids in the auction to determine a content item for the placement opportunity; and providing a content item for the placement opportunity.