IDENTIFYING AN ASSOCIATION AMONG USER-IDENTIFYING INFORMATION MAINTAINED IN A THIRD-PARTY SYSTEM FOR A USER OF AN ONLINE SYSTEM
An online system receives user-identifying information for an online system user when a request associated with a content item is received from the user at a content publisher. The online system compares this information to user-identifying information maintained in the online system for online system users and adds the received information to user-identifying information maintained in the online system for a user upon finding a match. The online system communicates information describing an association among user-identifying information maintained in the online system and in a partnering third-party system for the user to a trusted third-party system. The trusted third-party system compiles a report based at least in part on this information and information describing requests associated with content items received at content publishers from online system users. The trusted third-party system may aggregate information received from multiple identity providers and resolve inconsistencies among this information by applying various rules.
1 . A method comprising:
maintaining, in an online system, a set of user-identifying information for a user of the online system, wherein a subset of the maintained set of user-identifying information for the user also is maintained in a partnering third-party system that has established a partnership with the online system;
responsive to receiving a request associated with a content item from the user of the online system at a content publisher, receiving, at the online system, an additional set of user-identifying information for the user, wherein at least a subset of the received additional set of user-identifying information for the user is maintained in the partnering third-party system;
comparing the received additional set of user-identifying information for the user to the maintained set of user-identifying information for the user;
responsive to determining at least some of the received additional set of user-identifying information for the user matches at least some of the maintained set of user-identifying information for the user, adding the received additional set of user-identifying information for the user to the maintained set of user-identifying information for the user as a combined set of user-identifying information maintained in the online system for the user;
identifying a subset of the combined set of user-identifying information that also is maintained in the partnering third-party system; and
communicating information describing an association among user-identifying information included in the subset of the combined set of user-identifying information to a trusted third-party system.
2 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving the subset of the maintained set of user-identifying information for the user that also is maintained in the partnering third-party system from the partnering third-party system.
3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the content publisher is the online system.
4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the request associated with the content item received from the user of the online system comprises a request to present the content item to the user or a request to perform an action associated with the content item.
5 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving information describing the request associated with the content item and a time associated with the request associated with the content item; and
communicating the information describing the request associated with the content item and the time associated with the request associated with the content item to the trusted third-party system.
6 . The method of claim 5 , wherein the information describing the request associated with the content item is associated with a performance metric.
7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein one or more of the maintained set of user-identifying information and the received additional set of user-identifying information comprise personally identifiable information for the user.
8 . The method of claim 7 , wherein the personally identifiable information comprises one or more of: a client device identifier, a user identifier, a cookie identifier, and a browser identifier.
9 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the received additional set of user-identifying information for the user is received via one or more of: a tag added to the content item by the partnering third-party system and a cookie stored in a client device associated with the user of the online system.
10 . The method of claim 9 , wherein the cookie is stored in the client device associated with the user of the online system by the online system.
11 . The method of claim 9 , wherein the cookie is stored in the client device associated with the user of the online system by the partnering third-party system.
12 . The method of claim 1 , wherein a subset of the received additional set of user-identifying information for the user is obfuscated.
13 . A computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having instructions encoded thereon that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to:
maintain, in an online system, a set of user-identifying information for a user of the online system, wherein a subset of the maintained set of user-identifying information for the user also is maintained in a partnering third-party system that has established a partnership with the online system;
responsive to receiving a request associated with a content item from the user of the online system at a content publisher, receive, at the online system, an additional set of user-identifying information for the user, wherein at least a subset of the received additional set of user-identifying information for the user is maintained in the partnering third-party system;
compare the received additional set of user-identifying information for the user to the maintained set of user-identifying information for the user;
responsive to determining at least some of the received additional set of user-identifying information for the user matches at least some of the maintained set of user-identifying information for the user, add the received additional set of user-identifying information for the user to the maintained set of user-identifying information for the user as a combined set of user-identifying information maintained in the online system;
identify a subset of the combined set of user-identifying information that also is maintained in the partnering third-party system; and
communicate information describing an association among user-identifying information included in the subset of the combined set of user-identifying information to a trusted third-party system.
14 . The computer program product of claim 13 , wherein the computer readable storage medium further has instructions encoded thereon that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to:
receive the subset of the maintained set of user-identifying information for the user that also is maintained in the partnering third-party system from the partnering third-party system.
15 . The computer program product of claim 13 , wherein the content publisher is the online system.
16 . The computer program product of claim 13 , wherein the request associated with the content item received from the user of the online system comprises a request to present the content item to the user or a request to perform an action associated with the content item.
17 . The computer program product of claim 13 , wherein the computer readable storage medium further has instructions encoded thereon that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to:
receive information describing the request associated with the content item and a time associated with the request associated with the content item; and
communicate the information describing the request associated with the content item and the time associated with the request associated with the content item to the trusted third-party system.
18 . The computer program product of claim 17 , wherein the information describing the request associated with the content item is associated with a performance metric.
19 . The computer program product of claim 13 , wherein one or more of the maintained set of user-identifying information and the received additional set of user-identifying information comprise personally identifiable information for the user.
20 . The computer program product of claim 19 , wherein the personally identifiable information comprises one or more of: a client device identifier, a user identifier, a cookie identifier, and a browser identifier.
21 . The computer program product of claim 13 , wherein the received additional set of user-identifying information for the user is received via one or more of: a tag added to the content item by the partnering third-party system and a cookie stored in a client device associated with the user of the online system.
22 . The computer program product of claim 21 , wherein the cookie is stored in the client device associated with the user of the online system by the online system.
23 . The computer program product of claim 21 , wherein the cookie is stored in the client device associated with the user of the online system by the partnering third-party system.
24 . The computer program product of claim 13 , wherein a subset of the received additional set of user-identifying information for the user is obfuscated.
25 . A method comprising:
receiving, at an online system, a set of user-identifying information for a user of the online system, wherein a subset of the received set of user-identifying information for the user is maintained in a partnering third-party system that has established a partnership with the online system;
comparing the received set of user-identifying information for the user to an additional set of user-identifying information maintained in the online system for the user;
responsive to determining at least some of the received set of user-identifying information for the user matches at least some of the maintained additional set of user-identifying information for the user, adding the received set of user-identifying information for the user to the maintained additional set of user-identifying information for the user as a combined set of user-identifying information maintained in the online system for the user;
identifying a subset of the combined set of user-identifying information that also is maintained in the partnering third-party system; and
communicating information describing an association among user-identifying information included in the subset of the combined set of user-identifying information to a trusted third-party system.