Cross-Device Content Frequency Capping via Anonymous Identifier Linking
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current content delivery systems struggle to effectively manage and optimize the presentation of content across multiple devices used by a single user without storing personally identifiable information, leading to inefficiencies in targeting and limiting impressions of content items.
Innovation Solution
The method involves creating and managing public-private key pairs on each device, linking devices through secret keys derived from these pairs, and using anonymous identifiers to track and limit content impressions across devices, ensuring compliance with frequency capping constraints set by content sponsors.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If content delivery systems track impressions across multiple devices to manage frequency capping, then user targeting precision improves, but system complexity increases due to need for cross-device identification and data management
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an intermediary identifier system that mediates between multiple devices and the content delivery system. Anonymous identifiers are generated and stored on devices, while the content delivery system maintains a mapping between these identifiers and user profiles. This intermediary layer enables cross-device tracking without requiring direct complex communication between all devices and the server, thus improving targeting precision while managing system complexity through architectural abstraction.
Solution Approach 2:
The system segments the identification and tracking functionality into distinct components: device-side anonymous identifier generation, server-side identifier mapping and profile association, and impression tracking modules. This segmentation allows each component to operate independently with well-defined interfaces, reducing overall system complexity while enabling precise cross-device user identification and frequency capping enforcement.
2Reliability
If the system stores impression data on a per requesting source basis to enforce frequency capping, then compliance with content sponsor constraints improves, but data storage and processing requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts only the essential data elements needed for frequency capping compliance: anonymous identifiers, impression counts, and time stamps. Rather than storing complete user profiles or detailed browsing history on each device, the system extracts and stores only the minimal necessary information for enforcing impression limits. This extraction approach ensures reliable compliance with content sponsor constraints while minimizing data storage requirements and processing overhead.
3Object-affected harmful factors
If the system delivers content across multiple devices without storing PII, then user privacy protection improves, but ability to track and limit impressions across devices deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a copying mechanism where anonymous identifiers are generated on one device and then copied to other devices associated with the same user. These copied identifiers enable the system to recognize and track the same user across different devices without storing or transmitting any personally identifiable information. The copying of anonymous identifiers maintains cross-device tracking capability while preserving user privacy, as the identifiers themselves contain no PII and cannot be traced back to specific individuals.
Data Source
AI summary
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer-readable storage medium, and including a method for delivering content. The method comprises identifying impressions of content to a user accessing resources using different requesting sources. The method further comprises storing impression data for the identified impressions in association with the user and requesting source. The method further comprises storing requesting source characteristic information with the impression data and identifying parameters that require limits on a number of impressions that are to occur in a time period and type of requesting source. The method further comprises receiving a request for content from a particular requesting source associated with the user, and determining when impressions available for that type of requesting source have been satisfied, and when not, enabling delivery of a content item associated with a campaign to the requesting source responsive to the received request.