Multi-namespace Mapping for Mobile Device Identifier Correlation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing systems face challenges in correlating mobile device identifiers across different data providers due to varying identifiers and changes over time, making it difficult to generate accurate user profiles for advertising and analytics.
Innovation Solution
A process that accesses and updates multi-namespace mappings to link external-namespace device identifiers to internal-namespace identifiers, enabling the creation of user profiles by correlating device identifiers across multiple data sources, even when users update their devices or switch between providers.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If device identifiers are changed over time (e.g., when users update equipment), then device functionality is improved, but user profile continuity deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The system pre-establishes mappings between old and new device identifiers before the user is aware of the device change. When a device is updated, the mapping service already has the correspondence stored, allowing seamless profile continuation without user intervention.
Solution Approach 2:
A mapping service acts as an intermediary layer between device identifiers and user profiles. This intermediary maintains the relationship between old and new identifiers, allowing the system to translate between different device IDs while preserving profile continuity.
2Reliability
If different data providers use different unique identifiers for the same user, then privacy policies are complied with, but user matching across providers becomes difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The mapping service serves as an intermediary that receives requests from multiple data providers using their respective identifier schemes and translates them into a unified internal representation, enabling cross-provider matching while respecting each provider's privacy requirements.
Solution Approach 2:
The mapping service provides a universal interface that works with multiple different identifier types and formats from various data providers, making the system capable of handling diverse identifier schemes through a single unified mechanism.
3Reliability
If device identifiers are anonymized, then user privacy is protected, but reliable user profiling becomes difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The mapping service acts as a trusted intermediary that handles anonymized identifiers without exposing underlying user identities. It maintains the ability to match and profile users based on anonymized data while protecting privacy through the abstraction layer.
Data Source
AI summary
Provided is a process of merging data from feeds from multiple sources of computing device network activity data having heterogenous device identifier namespaces and device identifier to device mappings that change over time, the process including: accessing three or more sources of network activity log data from three or more different sources of network activity data, wherein: for each of the sources of network activity log data, based the respective network activity log data, updating a multi-namespace mapping that maps the external-namespace device identifiers to internal-namespace device identifiers in an internal namespace of a system configured to profile mobile computing devices based on logged network activity data of the mobile computing devices, wherein: the namespace mapping comprises a plurality of external-namespace-specific mappings each mapping a respective type of device identifier in a respective external namespace used in the network activity log data to one or more internal-namespace device identifiers.