Browser URI History for Cross-Domain User Preference Storage
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing systems for managing user preferences and state data across multiple web domains are inadequate, as they often rely on cookies that are difficult to manage for opt-out settings and are susceptible to deletion by security tools.
Innovation Solution
The use of the Universal Resource Identifier (URI) history in browsers to store and manage user preference selections, allowing cross-domain access and persistence, enabling a single opt-in or opt-out action to apply across multiple sites without requiring modifications to existing browsers or additional software.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If cookies are used to store user preference data, then user preferences can be stored on user computing devices, but the data is susceptible to deletion by security and privacy management tools
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces URI history as an intermediary storage mechanism between the user's browser and the preference data. Instead of storing preferences directly in cookies which are vulnerable to deletion, the system embeds preference information within URI history entries. This intermediary approach allows preference data to persist in a location that security tools typically do not clear, thereby resolving the contradiction between data persistence and vulnerability to deletion.
2Adaptability or versatility
If cookies are used for opt-out preferences, then user opt-out selections can be stored, but it is difficult to enable a single opt-out selection that applies to multiple web sites across multiple domains
Solution Approach 1:
The patent makes the URI history storage mechanism universal across multiple domains. By storing preference data in the browser's URI history rather than domain-specific cookies, a single opt-out preference can be accessed and enforced across multiple web sites and domains. This multi-functional approach allows the same storage mechanism to serve both single-domain and cross-domain preference management, resolving the contradiction between versatility and system complexity.
3Adaptability or versatility
If browser URI history is used to store user preference selections, then preferences can be shared across multiple Internet domains, but the system requires testing mechanisms using JavaScript or executable code
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a feedback mechanism where web sites include JavaScript or executable code that actively tests the browser's URI history for preference URIs. When a preference URI is detected in the history, the system provides feedback by triggering the appropriate action or inaction consistent with the stored preference. This feedback loop makes the invisible URI history storage visible and actionable, resolving the contradiction between cross-domain versatility and detection difficulty.
Data Source
AI summary
A process is disclosed for using the existing Universal Resource Identifier (URI) history feature of browsers to maintain user preference settings, or other state information, used by one or more web sites or other systems. In one embodiment, when a user makes a particular preference selection on a web site, the user's selection is recorded in the browser's URI history by causing the browser to access a URI (or a set of URIs) representing the particular selection. The same or a different web site may subsequently test the browser's URI history for this particular URI by including appropriate JavaScript or other executable code in a page requested by the browser. Depending upon the outcome of this test, the web site and/or the page's executable code may take an appropriate action or inaction consistent with the preference selection.