Network Request/Response Field Capture for Privacy-Aware Analytics
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional network communication response codes provide insufficient information, often misleading, and do not capture the underlying semantics of network requests and responses, leading to incomplete network analytics and user experience assessment.
Innovation Solution
Implement a client-side data capture mechanism that selectively captures field-value pairs from network requests and responses, using a data capture configuration to define which fields to capture, ensuring privacy compliance and reducing CPU intensity, applicable across diverse platforms without requiring platform-specific customization.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Device complexity
If standard response codes are used to indicate network request results, then network communication simplicity is maintained, but information completeness deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the network response into multiple components: standard response code, response message, and structured data payload. This segmentation allows each component to serve a specific function while collectively providing comprehensive information without overwhelming complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent extracts detailed semantic information from the network response and separates it into a structured data payload, distinct from the standard response code. This extraction enables rich information capture while maintaining the simplicity of standard HTTP protocols.
2Measurement precision
If comprehensive network response data is captured for analytics, then assessment accuracy improves, but processing overhead increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by capturing detailed information only in specific fields where it matters most for analytics, rather than uniformly processing all response data. This selective capture approach improves assessment accuracy in critical areas while minimizing overall processing overhead.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements partial action by capturing only the essential field-value pairs needed for network analytics, rather than complete response data. This partial capture provides sufficient information for accurate assessment while significantly reducing processing requirements.
3Loss of information
If detailed field-value pairs are captured from network responses, then network analytics quality improves, but data privacy risks increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts only the specific field-value pairs necessary for network analytics from the complete response data, separating useful analytical information from sensitive personal data. This selective extraction maintains analytics quality while mitigating privacy risks.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies different quality levels to different data fields, capturing detailed information for analytical fields while omitting or anonymizing sensitive personal information fields. This local differentiation approach preserves analytics quality in non-sensitive areas while protecting privacy in sensitive areas.
Data Source
AI summary
In various embodiments, a process includes obtaining, from a first entity external to a client device, a data capture configuration specifying fields permitted to be captured on the client device from a network request and/or a corresponding network response. The process includes intercepting, on the client device, the network request and/or the corresponding network response. The network request may be generated by the application and associated with an application event. In response to intercepting the network request and/or the corresponding network response, the process determines the fields permitted to be captured based at least in part on the data capture configuration and captures select field-value pairs from a header and/or a body of the network request and/or a corresponding network response according to the data capture configuration. The process includes reporting, to a second entity external to the client device, the captured select field-value pairs.