Rule-Based Visitor ID Stitching for Privacy Compliance
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing methods for identifying and tracking users, particularly those relying on storing data on user devices, are no longer technically and legally feasible due to increasing data privacy concerns and regulatory restrictions.
Innovation Solution
A lightweight, computationally efficient rule-based method for 'stitching' together anonymous user records by correlating visitor identification records across multiple interactions, without the need to store data on user devices.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If cookies are used to identify and track users, then user identification accuracy is improved, but data privacy compliance deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the identification function from device-stored cookies and relocates it to server-side processing. Visitor identification records are collected during interactions, and stitching is performed on the server to generate stitched visitor IDs, eliminating the need for cookies on user devices while maintaining identification accuracy.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces visitor identification records as an intermediary data structure that captures interaction information without requiring persistent storage on user devices. These records serve as a mediator between anonymous interactions and user identification, enabling tracking through server-side stitching rather than device-side cookies.
2Loss of information
If visitor identification records are collected and processed, then user tracking capability is improved, but computational complexity deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the user identification process into distinct phases: collection of visitor identification records during interactions, filtering to remove outliers, stitching to generate stitched visitor IDs, and probability determination. This segmentation allows complex processing to be distributed and managed in manageable stages.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent performs preliminary filtering to identify and remove outlier visitor identification records before the stitching process. By pre-processing the data to eliminate anomalies and inconsistencies, the subsequent stitching operation becomes more efficient and accurate, reducing overall computational complexity.
3Measurement precision
If filtering schemes are applied to visitor identification records, then stitching accuracy is improved, but processing time deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies filtering schemes selectively to subsets of visitor identification records rather than processing all records uniformly. By focusing computational resources on critical filtering operations and using probabilistic methods for stitching, the system achieves high accuracy without proportionally increasing processing time for the entire dataset.
Data Source
AI summary
Certain aspects of the disclosure provide a method for managing users, the method comprising: obtaining a first set of visitor identification records; identifying a subset of outlier visitor identification records within the first set of visitor identification records; creating a second set of visitor identification records including all visitor identification records from the first set of visitor identification records other than the subset of outlier visitor identification records; creating a third set of visitor identification records by applying a first filtering scheme to the second set of visitor identification records; creating a fourth set of visitor identification records by applying a second filtering scheme to the second set of visitor identification records; generating one or more stitched visitor IDs by stitching visitor identification records in the fourth set of visitor identification records; and determining a stitching accuracy probability for each of the one or more stitched visitor IDs.