Privacy-Preserving Personalization via Connection Profile Inference
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Solution Overview
Problem
Public Wi-Fi hotspots often degrade user experience by requiring personal information, which users are hesitant to provide, leading to irrelevant content being served.
Innovation Solution
An experience enhancement system that uses connection parameters like geo-location and temporal attributes to infer user information without requesting personal data, generating a connection profile to deliver relevant digital content, such as advertisements, by comparing these profiles with digital components and assigning them to user devices based on matching attributes.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If personal information is requested from users to enable personalization, then content relevance is improved, but user privacy is compromised and users may disconnect
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces connection parameters (device identifier, location data, connection metadata) as an intermediary to infer user attributes without directly accessing personal information. These parameters serve as a mediator between the system and user data, enabling personalization through indirect observation of connection behavior rather than direct data collection.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces the mechanical data collection approach (directly requesting personal information from users) with an informational inference approach (deriving user attributes from connection parameter analysis). Instead of mechanically extracting personal data, the system substitutes this with analyzing metadata and inferring characteristics from connection patterns.
2Object-affected harmful factors
If no personal information is collected to protect privacy, then user trust is maintained, but content relevance deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the type of parameters used for personalization from personal information (name, age, demographics) to connection parameters (device identifier, location coordinates, connection timestamp, network metadata). This parameter transformation enables the system to maintain privacy while still deriving meaningful user attributes for content personalization.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates a virtual representation (connection profile) of the user based on connection parameters rather than using actual personal information. This copy approach allows the system to work with anonymized data that preserves personalization capability without exposing real user identity or sensitive information.
3Object-affected harmful factors
If connection parameters are used to infer user information, then privacy is preserved, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the personalization system into distinct functional modules: connection parameter collection, user attribute inference, and content selection. This segmentation allows each component to handle specific tasks independently, making the overall complex system more manageable and easier to implement while maintaining privacy preservation.
Data Source
AI summary
Systems and methods are disclosed for selecting a digital component for a user device based on data derived from connection parameters of the connection between the user device and an access point, without prompting the user for information. Connection parameters are extracted from access point data (e.g., geo-location parameters of the access point) that are specific to the access point and transformed into attributes of a user independently of requesting any submission of personal information from/about the user of the particular device. The attributes of the user are then used to generate a connection profile for the user. The connection profile can include the connection parameters as well as other derived attributes of the user. Based on the connection profile, a digital component is selected to be delivered to the user device.