Partial Snapshots for Privacy-Protected Debugging
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing testing tools, especially real user monitoring tools, face challenges in capturing snapshots that contain sensitive user information, posing privacy concerns and requiring measures to protect user data while still providing useful application context for debugging and performance analysis.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of partial snapshot generation, where a client captures a dispersed portion of the user interface screen's pixels, creating a partial snapshot that is then aggregated to form a generalized snapshot, preserving user privacy by not transmitting confidential information over the network.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If full snapshots are captured for debugging and performance analysis, then application context is preserved, but user privacy is compromised due to sensitive information exposure
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the snapshot into two types: full snapshots captured locally on the client device for complete application context, and partial snapshots captured and transmitted to the server for privacy-sensitive information. This segmentation allows each type to serve its specific purpose without compromising privacy or losing context.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent extracts and transmits only the necessary portion of the snapshot (partial snapshot) to the server, leaving out sensitive user information. The server receives minimal data required for debugging while the client retains full snapshots locally, thus extracting only what is needed without exposing private data.
2Measurement precision
If full snapshots are transmitted to the server, then debugging accuracy is improved, but network bandwidth consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies partial action by transmitting only partial snapshots (a subset of the full snapshot) to the server instead of complete snapshots. This partial transmission provides sufficient debugging information while significantly reducing network bandwidth consumption compared to transmitting full snapshots.
3Object-affected harmful factors
If partial snapshots are captured with dispersed pixels, then user privacy is protected, but snapshot representativeness may be reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by capturing pixels at specific dispersed locations throughout the snapshot rather than uniformly sampling. This selective sampling at strategic positions ensures that the partial snapshot maintains representativeness of the overall screen content while protecting privacy by excluding sensitive regions.
Data Source
AI summary
Example embodiments relate to partial snapshots for creating generalized snapshots. An example method may include, in response to an event, accessing a user interface screen or view associated with an application. The screen or view includes multiple pixels arranged over an area. The method may include sampling the multiple pixels by capturing a portion of the total pixels included in the screen or view. The sampling may include maintaining a dispersion of the captured pixels over the area of the screen or view and preventing clustering of captured pixels within sub-areas of the area. The method may include transmitting the captured portion as a partial snapshot to a system to create a generalized snapshot from the partial snapshot and other partial snapshots.