Cookie Data Expiration for Privacy in Content Selection

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Solution Overview

Problem

Users often have to actively seek online content of interest, and existing content selection systems do not effectively manage data privacy, particularly when cookies become inactive, leading to potential misuse of user history data across devices.

Innovation Solution

Implementing a system that associates device identifiers with cookies and interest categories, and automatically expires the use of history data associated with inactive cookies after a threshold period, ensuring data privacy and relevance in content selection across devices.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Adaptability or versatility

If cookie data is continuously used for content selection across devices, then content personalization is improved, but user privacy is compromised

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvecontent personalizationVSAvoiduser privacy risk

Core Design Contradiction:

Adaptability or versatilityVSObject-affected harmful factors

Solution Approach 1:

The system dynamically adjusts the lifecycle of cookie data by introducing an expiration mechanism. Cookies are associated with device identifiers and automatically expire after a threshold period of inactivity, making the data retention policy flexible rather than static. This resolves the contradiction by allowing personalized content selection during active periods while automatically reducing privacy risks when devices become inactive.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #15Dynamics

Solution Approach 2:

The system performs preliminary association between cookies and device identifiers before content selection occurs. By establishing this linkage in advance and setting expiration thresholds, the system proactively manages data usage policies, ensuring that personalization is enabled when appropriate while privacy protection is automatically activated when devices become inactive.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

2Productivity

If history data from inactive cookies is continued to be used, then data utilization efficiency is improved, but data relevance deteriorates

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvedata utilization efficiencyVSAvoiddata relevance

Core Design Contradiction:

ProductivityVSLoss of information

Solution Approach 1:

The system implements periodic evaluation of cookie activity status by monitoring whether devices have been active beyond a threshold period. This periodic check determines whether cookie data should continue to be used for content selection, ensuring that data utilization is maintained during active periods while automatically phasing out irrelevant data from inactive devices.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #19Periodic action

Solution Approach 2:

The system changes the operational status parameter of cookie data from active to expired based on the threshold period of device inactivity. This parameter change automatically adjusts data utilization - maintaining high efficiency for active cookies while eliminating relevance loss for expired cookies, thus resolving the contradiction between utilization efficiency and data relevance.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #35Parameter changes

Data Source

PatentUS9451008B1Content selection with privacy features

Publication Date: 2016.09.20 GOOGLE LLC

AI summary

Systems and methods for content selection with privacy features include determining that a period of time from when the cookie was last used to visit a webpage has exceeded a threshold value. Based on the determination, the topic may be removed from an interest category profile used to select content.