User Identification Unification Across Application Reinstallation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing user identification methods on computing devices face challenges in unifying user data across application re-installations while adhering to GDPR compliance standards, as unique identifiers like AD-ID and IDFA cannot be shared due to privacy regulations, and conventional identifiers like UUID or GUID change with re-installation, leading to data migration and loss issues.
Innovation Solution
A method that involves receiving and hashing unique device data, mapping it to a natural number using an increment sequence, and assigning a shard index for storage, allowing for real-time derivation and unification of user identification across re-installations, minimizing data migration and loss by storing data in the same shard based on modulo operations, thus adhering to GDPR compliance.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If conventional identifiers like UUID or GUID are used for user identification, then user identification is achieved, but the identifier changes after application reinstallation causing data loss
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an intermediary mapping mechanism that maps device identifiers (AD-ID/IDFA) to stable server-side identifiers through hashing. This intermediary layer decouples the changing device identifiers from the stable user profile, ensuring continuous identification across reinstallations without data loss.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary hashing of device identifiers and stores the hash values along with shard index mappings before reinstallation occurs. This preliminary action ensures that when reinstallation happens, the system can quickly retrieve the correct shard index using the pre-computed hash, maintaining identification consistency without data loss.
2Reliability
If device-specific identifiers like AD-ID or IDFA are used for user identification, then identification consistency across applications is achieved, but GDPR compliance is violated due to privacy regulations
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts only the necessary identifying characteristics from device identifiers by computing hash values. The original sensitive identifiers (AD-ID/IDFA) are never transmitted to or stored on the server - only their hash representations are used for identification, thereby maintaining consistency while complying with GDPR privacy requirements.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of transmitting or storing actual device identifiers, the system creates cryptographic hash copies of these identifiers. These hash copies serve as surrogate keys that maintain identification functionality while being irreversibly anonymized, thus protecting user privacy in accordance with GDPR regulations.
3Ease of operation
If data is stored locally on computing device, then user data accessibility is improved, but data unification across re-installations becomes difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a new dimension of organization by computing shard indices from hashed device identifiers. This additional dimensional mapping (device identifier → hash → shard index) enables the system to route data to the correct server shard efficiently, unifying data across reinstallations while maintaining local accessibility through the persistent shard index mapping.
Data Source
AI summary
The present disclosure provides a system that performs a method for performing unification of data for identifying a user on computing device after reinstalling the application adhering to GDPR compliance. The method includes a first step of receiving a first set of data associated with the computing device. The method includes another step of mapping the first set of data to a first natural number of a plurality of natural numbers using an increment sequence method. The method includes yet another step of hashing of the first set of data in real-time. The method includes yet another step of assigning a first shard index of a plurality of shard indexes to the first set of data based on the first natural number of the plurality of natural numbers. The method includes yet another step of sending the first shard index of the plurality of shard indexes to the server.