US8307006B2
Active / In Force
US
⏱️ 3.7 years remaining
Methods and apparatus to obtain anonymous audience measurement data from network server data for particular demographic and usage profiles
Assignee: Nielsen Co US LLC
•
Filing: 2010-06-30
•
Granted: 2012-11-06
•
Expires: 2030-06-30
Abstract
Abstract Methods and apparatus to obtain anonymous audience measurement data from network server data for particular demographic and usage profiles are disclosed. An example method to provide anonymous audience measurement data to an audience measurement entity disclosed herein comprises obtaining a demographic profile and a network usage profile, sampling customer data stored in a customer database not accessible by the audience measurement entity to generate a customer sample representative of the demographic profile and the network usage profile without customer intervention, the customer sample including customer identification information, processing log data obtained from a network server not accessible by the audience measurement entity using the customer identification information to determine audience measurement data associated with customers in the customer sample, and removing the customer identification information from the audience measurement data to prepare the anonymous audience measurement data for the audience measurement entity.
Inventors
- 👤 Kevin Michael Hannan
- 👤 Achilleas Papakostas
- 👤 Albert Ronald Perez
- 👤 Michael Andrew Yonker
- 👤 Austin William Albino
Bibliographic Details
Application Number
—
Jurisdiction
US
Data Source
google_patents
Last Synchronized
2026-10-26 20:57
CPC Classifications
G; G06; G06F; G06F16/00; G06F16/20; G06F16/24; G06Q; G06Q30/00; G06Q30/02; H; H04; H04L; H04L67/00; H04L67/50; H04L67/535
Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 26
Claim 1
Independent Claim
122 words
A method to provide anonymous audience measurement data to an audience measurement entity, the method comprising: obtaining a demographic profile and a network usage profile; electronically sampling customer data stored in a customer database not accessible by the audience measurement entity to generate a customer sample representative of the demographic profile and the network usage profile without customer intervention, the customer sample including customer identification information; electronically processing log data obtained from a network server not accessible by the audience measurement entity using the customer identification information to determine audience measurement data associated with customers in the customer sample; and removing the customer identification information from the audience measurement data to prepare the anonymous audience measurement data for the audience measurement entity.
Claim 2
Independent Claim
122 words
A method to provide anonymous audience measurement data to an audience measurement entity, the method comprising: obtaining a demographic profile and a network usage profile; electronically sampling customer data stored in a customer database not accessible by the audience measurement entity to generate a customer sample representative of the demographic profile and the network usage profile without customer intervention, the customer sample including customer identification information; electronically processing log data obtained from a network server not accessible by the audience measurement entity using the customer identification information to determine audience measurement data associated with customers in the customer sample; and removing the customer identification information from the audience measurement data to prepare the anonymous audience measurement data for the audience measurement entity.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
23 words
A method as defined in claim 1 wherein the demographic profile and the network usage profile are obtained from the audience measurement entity.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
56 words
A method as defined in claim 1 wherein the demographic profile comprises a plurality of demographic categories, each demographic category comprising a plurality of target segments associated respectively with a first plurality of target population percentages, and the usage profile comprises a plurality of usage categories associated respectively with a second plurality of target population percentages.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim
67 words
A method as defined in claim 3 wherein sampling the customer data comprises: indexing the customer data stored in the customer database according to the plurality of demographic categories to determine indexed customer data; and randomly sampling the indexed customer data based on the first plurality of target population percentages associated with each demographic category to randomly select a plurality of customers representative of the demographic profile.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim
93 words
A method as defined in claim 3 wherein electronically sampling the customer data comprises: indexing the customer data stored in the customer database according to the plurality of demographic categories and the plurality of usage categories to determine indexed customer data; and randomly sampling the indexed customer data based on the first plurality of target population percentages associated with each demographic category and the second plurality of target population percentages associated with the plurality of usage categories to randomly select a plurality of customers representative of the demographic profile and the usage profile.
Claim 7
Dependent Claim
44 words
A method as defined in claim 1 wherein the customer identification information comprises at least one of a phone number, an Internet protocol (IP) address, a username, a personal identification number or a cookie identifier associated with each customer included in the customer sample.
Claim 8
Dependent Claim
44 words
A method as defined in claim 1 further comprising using the customer identification information to retrieve log data from the network server for customers included in the customer sample, but to not retrieve log data for any customer not included in the customer sample.
Claim 9
Dependent Claim
47 words
A method as defined in claim 1 further comprising using the customer identification information to configure the network server to automatically provide log data for customers included in the customer sample, but to not automatically provide log data for any customer not included in the customer sample.
Claim 10
Dependent Claim
82 words
A method as defined in claim 1 wherein processing the log data comprises: obtaining first log data associated with a first customer using the customer identification information included in the customer sample, the first log data associated with first customer identification information representative of the first customer; and associating the first log data with a first demographic classification and a first usage classification in the audience measurement data, the first demographic classification and the first usage classification corresponding to the first customer.
Claim 11
Dependent Claim
37 words
A method as defined in claim 9 wherein the anonymous audience measurement data includes the first demographic classification and the first usage classification associated with the first customer, but does not include the first customer identification information.
Claim 12
Dependent Claim
26 words
A method as defined in claim 10 further comprising including an anonymous identifier in the anonymous audience measurement data to replace the first customer identification information.
Claim 13
Dependent Claim
51 words
A method as defined in claim 1 further comprising: determining whether the log data obtained from the network server corresponds to the usage profile; and when the log data does not correspond to the usage profile, further sampling the customer data stored in the customer database to update the customer sample.
Claim 14
Dependent Claim
37 words
A method as defined in claim 12 further comprising, when the log data does not correspond to the usage profile, randomly removing customers from the customer sample associated with a usage category exceeding a target population percentage.
Claim 15
Dependent Claim
124 words
A tangible article of manufacture storing machine readable instructions which, when executed, cause a machine to: obtain a demographic profile and a network usage profile from an audience measurement entity; sample customer data stored in a customer database not accessible by the audience measurement entity to generate a customer sample representative of the demographic profile and the network usage profile without customer intervention, the customer sample including customer identification information; process log data obtained from a network server not accessible by the audience measurement entity using the customer identification information to determine audience measurement data associated with customers in the customer sample; and remove the customer identification information from the audience measurement data to prepare anonymous audience measurement data for the audience measurement entity.
Claim 16
Dependent Claim
124 words
A tangible article of manufacture storing machine readable instructions which, when executed, cause a machine to: obtain a demographic profile and a network usage profile from an audience measurement entity; sample customer data stored in a customer database not accessible by the audience measurement entity to generate a customer sample representative of the demographic profile and the network usage profile without customer intervention, the customer sample including customer identification information; process log data obtained from a network server not accessible by the audience measurement entity using the customer identification information to determine audience measurement data associated with customers in the customer sample; and remove the customer identification information from the audience measurement data to prepare anonymous audience measurement data for the audience measurement entity.
Claim 17
Dependent Claim
126 words
A tangible article of manufacture as defined in claim 14 wherein the demographic profile comprises a plurality of demographic categories, each demographic category comprising a plurality of target segments associated respectively with a first plurality of target population percentages, and the usage profile comprises a plurality of usage categories associated respectively with a second plurality of target population percentages, and wherein the machine readable instructions, when executed, further cause the machine to: index the customer data stored in the customer database according to the plurality of demographic categories to determine indexed customer data; and randomly sample the indexed customer data based on the first plurality of target population percentages associated with each demographic category to randomly select a plurality of customers representative of the demographic profile.
Claim 18
Dependent Claim
151 words
A tangible article of manufacture as defined in claim 14 wherein the demographic profile comprises a plurality of demographic categories, each demographic category comprising a plurality of target segments associated respectively with a first plurality of target population percentages, and the usage profile comprises a plurality of usage categories associated respectively with a second plurality of target population percentages, and wherein the machine readable instructions, when executed, further cause the machine to: index the customer data stored in the customer database according to the plurality of demographic categories and the plurality of usage categories to determine indexed customer data; and randomly sample the indexed customer data based on the first plurality of target population percentages associated with each demographic category and the second plurality of target population percentages associated with the plurality of usage categories to randomly select a plurality of customers representative of the demographic profile and the usage profile.
Claim 19
Dependent Claim
91 words
A tangible article of manufacture as defined in claim 14 wherein the machine readable instructions, when executed, further cause the machine to: obtain first log data associated with a first customer using the customer identification information included in the customer sample, the first log data associated with first customer identification information representative of the first customer; and associate the first log data with a first demographic classification and a first usage classification in the audience measurement data, the first demographic classification and the first usage classification corresponding to the first customer.
Claim 20
Dependent Claim
64 words
A tangible article of manufacture as defined in claim 14 wherein the machine readable instructions, when executed, further cause the machine to: determine whether the log data obtained from the network server corresponds to the usage profile; and when the log data does not correspond to the usage profile, further sample the customer data stored in the customer database to update the customer sample.
Claim 21
Independent Claim
153 words
An apparatus to provide anonymous audience measurement data to an audience measurement entity, the apparatus comprising: a customer sample generator to sample customer data stored in a customer database not accessible by the audience measurement entity to generate a customer sample representative of a demographic profile and a network usage profile without customer intervention, the demographic profile and the network usage profile obtained from the audience measurement entity, the customer sample including customer identification information; a measurement data sampler to obtain log data from a network server not accessible by the audience measurement entity using the customer identification information and to determine audience measurement data associated with customers in the customer sample using the obtained log data, the audience measurement data including the customer identification information; and a privacy unit to remove the customer identification information from the audience measurement data to prepare the anonymous audience measurement data for the audience measurement entity.
Claim 22
Independent Claim
153 words
An apparatus to provide anonymous audience measurement data to an audience measurement entity, the apparatus comprising: a customer sample generator to sample customer data stored in a customer database not accessible by the audience measurement entity to generate a customer sample representative of a demographic profile and a network usage profile without customer intervention, the demographic profile and the network usage profile obtained from the audience measurement entity, the customer sample including customer identification information; a measurement data sampler to obtain log data from a network server not accessible by the audience measurement entity using the customer identification information and to determine audience measurement data associated with customers in the customer sample using the obtained log data, the audience measurement data including the customer identification information; and a privacy unit to remove the customer identification information from the audience measurement data to prepare the anonymous audience measurement data for the audience measurement entity.
Claim 23
Dependent Claim
118 words
An apparatus as defined in claim 19 wherein the demographic profile comprises a plurality of demographic categories, each demographic category comprising a plurality of target segments associated respectively with a first plurality of target population percentages, and the usage profile comprises a plurality of usage categories associated respectively with a second plurality of target population percentages, and wherein the customer sample generator is to: index the customer data stored in the customer database according to the plurality of demographic categories to determine indexed customer data; and randomly sample the indexed customer data based on the first plurality of target population percentages associated with each demographic category to randomly select a plurality of customers representative of the demographic profile.
Claim 24
Dependent Claim
119 words
An apparatus as defined in claim 19 wherein the customer identification information comprises at least one of a phone number, an Internet protocol (IP) address, a username, a personal identification number or a cookie identifier associated with each customer included in the customer sample, and wherein the measurement data sampler is to: obtain first log data associated with a first customer using first customer identification information corresponding to the first customer that is included in the customer identification information and the first log data; and associate the first log data with a first demographic classification and a first usage classification in the audience measurement data, the first demographic classification and the first usage classification corresponding to the first customer.
Claim 25
Dependent Claim
40 words
An apparatus as defined in claim 21 wherein the privacy unit is to remove the first customer identification information from the audience measurement data, but keep the first demographic classification and the first usage classification in the audience measurement data.
Claim 26
Dependent Claim
61 words
An apparatus as defined in claim 19 further comprising a profile verifier to: determine whether the log data obtained from the network server corresponds to the usage profile; and when the log data does not correspond to the usage profile, cause the customer sample generator to further sample the customer data stored in the customer database to update the customer sample.
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USPTO Annuity & Maintenance Windows
| Annuity Stage | Window Opens | Payment Deadline | Surcharge Period Until | Estimated Fee | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3.5 Years (Year 4) | 2015-11-06 | 2016-05-07 | 2016-11-06 | $2000.00 | Window Closed / Lapsed |
| 7.5 Years (Year 8) | 2019-11-06 | 2020-05-07 | 2020-11-06 | $3760.00 | Window Closed / Lapsed |
| 11.5 Years (Year 12) | 2023-11-06 | 2024-05-07 | 2024-11-06 | $7700.00 | Window Closed / Lapsed |