Systems and methods for matching online users across devices

• Main Authors: Kim, Denys P, Milford, Alan J, Schelfhout, Bart W. R, Miller, Nicholas P, Edwards, Simon D
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 22.01.2019
• Subjects: ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE; ELECTRICITY; TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHICCOMMUNICATION; WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS NETWORKS

Systems and methods are disclosed for associating a plurality of Internet-enabled devices with a common user profile for targeting Internet content or advertising. One method includes: receiving, from a plurality of Internet-enabled devices, a plurality of requests for electronic content or advertising; extracting, from each of the plurality of requests, a source IP address and a unique identifier associated with the respective Internet-enabled device; for each source IP address for which requests were received over a predetermined time period from a number of Internet-enabled devices below a threshold number of devices, identifying each possible pair of devices from which requests were received; and for each possible pair of devices, calculating a probability that the pair of devices are owned or operated by a common user.