Analytics System PII-Independent Segment Processing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Publishers face challenges in analyzing network traffic statistics for customer segments without exposing personally identifiable information (PII), as existing analytics systems may inadvertently reveal PII when processing data across different segments.
Innovation Solution
An analytics system processes tracking data by defining segments using visitor identifiers issued by the system, determining if these segment definitions pose a PII exposure risk, and only generating segment signals and reports if no risk is present, thereby isolating behavioral correlations without exposing individual user data.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If analytics systems process tracking data by customer segments to identify behavioral characteristics, then the publisher can gain insights into customer behavior patterns, but personally identifiable information may be exposed during processing
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments visitors into different groups (e.g., purchasers vs. non-purchasers) based on behavioral characteristics without exposing individual PII. The analytics system processes segments independently and aggregates results, ensuring that individual identifiers are not revealed while still providing actionable behavioral insights for each segment.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent extracts and removes personally identifiable information from the analytics processing pipeline. The system uses anonymized visitor identifiers and excludes PII from tracking data communications, segment definitions, and reporting outputs, thereby eliminating PII exposure risk while maintaining the ability to analyze behavioral patterns.
2Loss of information
If publishers collect and process PII to analyze customer segments, then they can identify behavioral characteristics of different customer groups, but the analytics system is exposed to PII it does not collect
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an intermediary layer that translates between publisher-collected PII and analytics-system-processed anonymized data. The publisher's customer database (with PII) communicates with the analytics system through mapped visitor identifiers that do not contain PII, allowing segment analysis without direct PII exposure to the analytics system.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent extracts PII from the analytics processing flow entirely. The system processes only anonymized visitor identifiers and behavioral event data, excluding all personally identifiable information from tracking communications, segment definitions, and analysis outputs, thereby preventing PII exposure to the analytics system.
3Measurement precision
If the analytics system processes detailed tracking data for segment analysis, then it can identify behavioral signals correlated with specific segments, but the complexity of ensuring PII protection increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by removing PII from tracking data before it enters the analytics system. The tracking code and analytics system are configured to collect only anonymized visitor identifiers and behavioral events from the start, eliminating the need for complex PII protection mechanisms during processing while maintaining precise behavioral signal detection.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the parameter of visitor identification from PII-based to anonymized identifier-based. This parameter change simplifies the system by eliminating PII protection complexity while maintaining the ability to detect behavioral signals with high precision through anonymized visitor segmentation.
Data Source
AI summary
An analytics system receives segment definitions, each associated with an account identifier. The account identifier identifies an analytics tracking account for a publisher. Each segment definition defines a segment of visitors to a network property and, for each visitor in the first segment, includes a visitor identifier identifying a device used by a visitor to visit the network property and which is issued by the analytics system. The publisher selects the visitor identifiers based on customer identifiers that are issued by the publisher, and neither the customer identifiers, nor any personally identifiable information, is provided to the analytics system. The analytics system determines whether the segment definitions present a personal information exposure risk for one or more of the visitors, and processes the segment definitions only in response to determining that the segment definitions do not present a personal information exposure risk for one or more of the visitors.