System and method for prevention of indirect user tracking through aggregate profile data

Abstract

Systems and methods are provided for preventing indirect user tracking in a mobile aggregate profiling system. In general, access to aggregate profile data for groups of users is controlled in a mobile aggregate profiling system based on rate of change values for one or more characteristics, such as population, of the groups of users.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A computer-implemented method comprising:
 for each group of users of one or more groups of users, determining a rate of change of one or more characteristics of the group of users; and   controlling access to aggregate profile data for the one or more groups of users based on the rates of change of the one or more characteristics of the group of users.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the rate of change of the one or more characteristics of the group of users comprises a rate of change of a population of the group of users. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2  wherein the rate of change of the population of the group of users comprises a rate of user ingress into the group of users. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 2  wherein the rate of change of the population of the group of users comprises a rate of user egress from the group of users. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 2  wherein the rate of change of the population of the group of users comprises a rate of user ingress into the group of users and a rate of user egress from the group of users. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 2  wherein the rate of change of the population of the group of users is a net rate of change of the population of the group of users. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the rate of change of the one or more characteristics of the group of users comprises a rate of change of a component of an aggregate profile of the group of users. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 7  wherein the component of the aggregate profile of the group of users is a number of occurrences of a user interest included in the aggregate profile of the group of users. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 7  wherein the component of the aggregate profile of the group of users is a ratio of a number of occurrences of a user interest included in the aggregate profile of the group of users to a total number of users in the group of users. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the one or more groups of users are one or more crowds of users formed via a spatial crowd formation process, and, for each crowd of users, determining the rate of change of the one or more characteristics comprises determining the rate of change of the one or more characteristics of the crowd of users. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 10  wherein controlling access to the aggregate profile data comprises, for each crowd of users of the one or more crowds of users, controlling storage of crowd snapshots of the crowd of users based on the rate of change of the one or more characteristics of the crowd of users. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 11  wherein controlling storage of the crowd snapshots of the crowd of users based on the rate of change of the one or more characteristics of the crowd of users comprises, at a predefined time interval, creating and storing a crowd snapshot of the crowd of users if the rate of change of the one or more characteristics are greater than one or more corresponding predetermined minimum rate of change values. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 11  wherein controlling storage of the crowd snapshots of the crowd of users based on the rate of change of the one or more characteristics of the crowd of users comprises, at a predefined time interval, creating and storing a crowd snapshot of the crowd of users if the rate of change of the one or more characteristics and a crowd size of the crowd of users are greater than corresponding predetermined minimum values. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 11  wherein controlling storage of the crowd snapshots of the crowd of users based on the rate of change of the one or more characteristics of the crowd of users comprises, at a predefined time interval, creating and storing a crowd snapshot of the crowd of users without profile data if the rate of change of the one or more characteristics is not greater than one or more corresponding predetermined minimum rate of change values. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 11  wherein controlling storage of the crowd snapshots of the crowd of users based on the rate of change of the one or more characteristics of the crowd of users comprises, at a predefined time interval, creating and storing a crowd snapshot of the crowd of users without profile data if the rate of change of the one or more characteristics and a crowd size of the crowd of users are not greater than corresponding predetermined minimum values. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 10  wherein controlling access to the aggregate profile data comprises:
 receiving a request from a requestor; 
 identifying a plurality of relevant crowd snapshots created and stored for the one or more crowds of users over time that are relevant to the request, each crowd snapshot comprising the rate of change of the one or more characteristics of a corresponding crowd of users of the one or more crowds of users at a time at which the crowd snapshot was created and stored and profile data for users in the corresponding crowd of users at the time at which the crowd snapshot was created and stored; 
 filtering the plurality of relevant crowd snapshots such that one or more crowd snapshots of the plurality of relevant crowd snapshots having rates of change of the one or more characteristics that are not greater than or equal to one or more corresponding predetermined minimum values are removed from the plurality of relevant crowd snapshots to provide one or more filtered crowd snapshots; 
 generating data in response to the request based on the one or more filtered crowd snapshots; and 
 returning the data to the requestor. 
 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 10  wherein controlling access to the aggregate profile data comprises:
 receiving a crowd tracking request from a requestor for a crowd of users from the one or more crowds of users; 
 identifying a plurality of relevant crowd snapshots created and stored for the crowd of users over time that are relevant to the crowd tracking request, each crowd snapshot comprising the rate of change of the one or more characteristics of the crowd of users at a time at which the crowd snapshot was created and stored and profile data for users in the crowd of users at the time at which the crowd snapshot was created and stored; 
 filtering the plurality of relevant crowd snapshots such that one or more crowd snapshots of the plurality of relevant crowd snapshots having rates of change of the one or more characteristics that are not greater than or equal to one or more corresponding predetermined minimum values are removed from the plurality of relevant crowd snapshots to provide one or more filtered crowd snapshots; 
 generating crowd tracking data in response to the crowd tracking request based on the one or more filtered crowd snapshots; and 
 returning the crowd tracking data to the requestor. 
 
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 10  wherein controlling access to the aggregate profile data comprises:
 receiving a historical request from a requestor; 
 identifying a plurality of relevant crowd snapshots created and stored for the one or more crowds of users over time that are relevant to the historical request, each crowd snapshot comprising the rate of change of the one or more characteristics of a corresponding crowd of users of the one or more crowds of users at a time at which the crowd snapshot was created and stored and profile data for users in the corresponding crowd of users at the time at which the crowd snapshot was created and stored; 
 filtering the plurality of relevant crowd snapshots such that one or more crowd snapshots of the plurality of relevant crowd snapshots having rates of change of the one or more characteristics that are not greater than or equal to one or more corresponding predetermined minimum values are removed from the plurality of relevant crowd snapshots to provide one or more filtered crowd snapshots; 
 generating historical aggregate profile data in response to the historical request based on the one or more filtered crowd snapshots; and 
 returning the historical aggregate profile data to the requestor. 
 
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 1  wherein each group of users of the one or more groups of users is a group of users in a geographic area during a corresponding time period. 
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 19  wherein a geographic region is divided into a plurality of static geographic areas, and for each group of users of the one or more groups of users, the geographic area in which the group of users was located during the corresponding time period is one or more adjacent static geographic areas of the plurality of static geographic areas. 
     
     
         21 . The method of  claim 19  wherein a geographic region is divided into a plurality of static geographic areas, and for each group of users of the one or more groups of users, the geographic area in which the group of users was located during the corresponding time period is one of the plurality of static geographic areas. 
     
     
         22 . The method of  claim 19  further comprising:
 maintaining a historical record of anonymized user profile data by location, the historical record comprising a plurality of history objects each stored for a corresponding geographic area for a corresponding period of time and comprising aggregate profile data for a group of users located within the corresponding geographic area during the corresponding period of time; 
 wherein controlling access to the aggregate profile data for the one or more groups of users based on the rates of change of the one or more characteristics of the group of users comprises, for each group of users controlling storage of a history object for the group of users in the historical record of anonymized user profile data based on the rate of change of the one or more characteristics for the group of users. 
 
     
     
         23 . The method of  claim 22  wherein controlling the storage of the history object for the group of users in the historical record of anonymized user profile data based on the rate of change of the one or more characteristics for the group of users comprises storing a history object for the group of users in the historical record of anonymized user profile data if the rate of change of the one or more characteristics of the group of users is greater than or equal to one or more corresponding predetermined minimum rate of change values. 
     
     
         24 . The method of  claim 22  wherein controlling the storage of the history object for the group of users in the historical record of anonymized user profile data based on the rate of change of the one or more characteristics for the group of users comprises storing a history object for the group of users in the historical record of anonymized user profile data if the rate of change of the one or more characteristics of the group of users and a size of the group of users are greater than or equal to corresponding predetermined minimum values. 
     
     
         25 . The method of  claim 22  wherein controlling the storage of the history object for the group of users in the historical record of anonymized user profile data based on the rate of change of the one or more characteristics for the group of users comprises storing a history object for the group of users in the historical record of anonymized user profile data without profile data if the rate of change of the one or more characteristics of the group of users is not greater than or equal to one or more corresponding predetermined minimum rate of change values. 
     
     
         26 . The method of  claim 22  wherein controlling the storage of the history object for the group of users in the historical record of anonymized user profile data based on the rate of change of the one or more characteristics for the group of users comprises storing a history object for the group of users in the historical record of anonymized user profile data without profile data if the rate of change of the one or more characteristics of the group of users and a size of the group of users are not greater than or equal to corresponding predetermined minimum values. 
     
     
         27 . The method of  claim 19  wherein controlling access to the aggregate profile data comprises:
 receiving a historical request from a requestor; 
 identifying a plurality of history objects created and stored for the one or more groups of users that are relevant to the historical request, each history object comprising the rate of change of the one or more characteristics of a corresponding group of users from the one or more groups of users and profile data for users in the corresponding group of users; 
 filtering the plurality of history objects such that one or more history objects of the plurality of history objects having rates of change of the one or more characteristics that are not greater than or equal to one or more corresponding predetermined minimum values are removed from the plurality of history objects to provide one or more filtered history objects; 
 generating historical aggregate profile data in response to the historical request based on the profile data stored in the one or more filtered history objects; and 
 returning the historical aggregate profile data to the requestor. 
 
     
     
         28 . The method of  claim 1  wherein controlling access to the aggregate profile data for the one or more groups of users comprises, for each group of users of the one or more groups of users, enabling access to the aggregate profile data for the group of users if the rate of change of the one or more characteristics of the group of users is greater than or equal to one or more corresponding predetermined minimum rate of change values. 
     
     
         29 . The method of  claim 28  wherein the one or more corresponding predetermined minimum rate of change values are static values. 
     
     
         30 . The method of  claim 28  wherein the one or more corresponding predetermined minimum rate of change values are dynamic values. 
     
     
         31 . The method of  claim 1  wherein controlling access to the aggregate profile data for the one or more groups of users comprises, for each group of users of the one or more groups of users, enabling access to the aggregate profile data for the group of users if the rate of change of the one or more characteristics of the group of users is greater than or equal to one or more corresponding predetermined minimum rate of change values and a size of the group of users is greater than or equal to a predetermined minimum size. 
     
     
         32 . The method of  claim 31  wherein the one or more corresponding predetermined minimum rate of change values and the predetermined minimum size are dynamic values that are inversely related to one another. 
     
     
         33 . A computer-readable medium storing software for instructing a controller of a computing device to:
 for each group of users of one or more groups of users, determine a rate of change of one or more characteristics of the group of users; and   control access to aggregate profile data for the one or more groups of users based on the rates of change of the one or more characteristics of the group of users.   
     
     
         34 . A server comprising:
 a communication interface communicatively coupling the server to a network; and   a controller associated with the communication interface and adapted to:
 for each group of users of one or more groups of users, determine a rate of change of one or more characteristics of the group of users; and 
 control access to aggregate profile data for the one or more groups of users based on the rates of change of the one or more characteristics of the group of users. 
   
     
     
         35 . A method of operation of a mobile device comprising:
 determining a current location of the mobile device;   obtaining a rate of change of one or more characteristics of a relevant crowd of users that is relevant to the current location from a mobile aggregate profile server that operates to form crowds of users and provide access to aggregate profile data for the crowds of users;   determining whether to enable access to a user profile of a user of the mobile device at the mobile aggregate profile server based on the rate of change of the one or more characteristics of the relevant crowd of users; and   enabling access to the user profile of the user of the mobile device at the mobile aggregate profile server if a determination is made to enable access to the user profile of the user of the mobile device at the mobile aggregate profile server.   
     
     
         36 . A computer-readable medium storing software for instructing a controller of a mobile device to:
 determine a current location of the mobile device;   obtain a rate of change of one or more characteristics of a relevant crowd of users that is relevant to the current location from a mobile aggregate profile server that operates to form crowds of users and provide access to aggregate profile data for the crowds of users;   determine whether to enable access to a user profile of a user of the mobile device at the mobile aggregate profile server based on the rate of change of the one or more characteristics of the relevant crowd of users; and   enable access to the user profile of the user of the mobile device at the mobile aggregate profile server if a determination is made to enable access to the user profile of the user of the mobile device at the mobile aggregate profile server.   
     
     
         37 . A server comprising:
 a communication interface communicatively coupling the server to a network; and   a controller associated with the communication interface and adapted to:
 determine a current location of a mobile device; 
 obtain a rate of change of one or more characteristics of a relevant crowd of users that is relevant to the current location from a mobile aggregate profile server that operates to form crowds of users and provide access to aggregate profile data for the crowds of users; 
 determine whether to enable access to a user profile of a user of the mobile device at the mobile aggregate profile server based on the rate of change of the one or more characteristics of the relevant crowd of users; and 
 enable access to the user profile of the user of the mobile device at the mobile aggregate profile server if a determination is made to enable access to the user profile of the user of the mobile device at the mobile aggregate profile server.