Session Trust Cookie for Non-Cookie Opt-Out Enforcement
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Solution Overview
Problem
Advertisers using non-cookie browser identification methods, such as digital fingerprinting, pose challenges in enforcing users' opt-out choices for interest-based advertising, as existing opt-out cookie procedures are ineffective with these technologies.
Innovation Solution
The system requests a session trust cookie to establish a 'from visited' context, allowing advertisers to set opt-out cookies by instantiating an iFrame and iterating through end point systems to set trusted opt-out cookies, while also performing baseline tests and providing opt-out infrastructure verification.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If advertisers use non-cookie browser identification methods (digital fingerprinting, statistical identifiers), then they can continue to track users across websites, but existing opt-out cookie procedures become ineffective
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an intermediary mechanism (the opt-out verification system that uses session trust cookies and iFrame instantiation) between the user's opt-out request and the advertiser's non-cookie tracking system. This intermediary creates a trusted context that allows opt-out preferences to be communicated to advertisers using digital fingerprinting and statistical identifiers, resolving the incompatibility between traditional cookie-based opt-out and non-cookie tracking methods.
2Object-affected harmful factors
If browsers block third-party cookies to enhance privacy, then user security improves, but advertisers cannot set opt-out cookies to respect user preferences
Solution Approach 1:
The patent performs preliminary action by first establishing a session trust cookie before attempting to set the opt-out cookie. This preliminary trust establishment creates a 'from visited' context that allows subsequent opt-out cookies to be set even when browsers block third-party cookies, thus maintaining both security and opt-out functionality.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the cookie setting process into distinct phases: first setting a session trust cookie to establish trust, then using that trust context to set the opt-out cookie. This segmentation allows the opt-out mechanism to work around browser security restrictions that would normally block third-party cookies.
3Reliability
If advertisers implement comprehensive opt-out verification, then user privacy protection improves, but the complexity of the verification infrastructure increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates a universal opt-out verification infrastructure that handles multiple scenarios through a single system: traditional cookie-based tracking, non-cookie digital fingerprinting, statistical identifiers, and browser security restrictions. The same verification mechanism (using session trust cookies and iFrame instantiation) works across all these different tracking methods, reducing overall infrastructure complexity while maintaining comprehensive verification capability.
Data Source
AI summary
Systems and methods for opt-out enforcement for systems using non-cookie browser identification are provided herein. An example method includes requesting a session trust cookie for a client, the session trust cookie being generated by an end point system, creating a “from visited” context between the client and the end point system as if the end point system had been visited by the client, and setting, by the end point system, the session trust cookie.