Granted Patent B2

US 12,634,289 · App. 18/909,465 · Granted May 19, 2026

Inventors: Sadia Afroz (New York, NY); Juyong Do (Cupertino, CA); John Poothokaran (Palo Alto, CA)

Assignee: Gen Digital Inc.

H04L63/102G06F16/9535G06F21/6263

Abstract

Claims (44)

1 . A method comprising:

receiving first privacy preference parameters of a user, the first privacy preference parameters comprising at least one of a first indication of whether the user will share personally identifiable information (“PII”), a first indication of whether the user will accept tracking cookies, a first indication of whether the user will allow being tracked, a first indication of whether the user will share browsing history, or a first indication of whether the user will receive ads;

detecting an attempt by the user via a computing device to access a service enabled by a computing system via a network;

transmitting via the network to the computing system a first request to access the service using the first privacy preference parameters of the user in response to detecting the attempt by the user to access the service, the first request comprising artificial personally identifiable information;

determining a failure to access the service, the failure to access the service responsive to the first request;

querying the user for consent to access the service using second privacy preference parameters, the second privacy preference parameters comprising at least one of a second indication of whether the user will share PII, a second indication of whether the user will accept tracking cookies, a second indication of whether the user will allow being tracked, a second indication of whether the user will share browsing history, or a second indication of whether the user will receive ads;

receiving from the user the consent to access the service using the second privacy preference parameters;

receiving the second privacy preference parameters of the user;

receiving genuine personally identifiable information of the user;

transmitting via the network to the computing system a second request to access the service using the second privacy preference parameters in response to receiving from the user the consent to access the service using the second privacy preference parameters, the second request comprising the genuine personally identifiable information of the user; and

receiving access to the service from the computing system for the user.

2 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising generating the artificial personally identifiable information based on the genuine personally identifiable information of the user.

3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein:

transmitting the second request comprises requesting access to a webpage hosted by the computing system; and

receiving the access to the service comprises receiving from the computing system via the network Hypertext Markup Language (“HTML”) code of the webpage.

4 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising receiving at least one of the first privacy preference parameters or the second privacy preference parameters from the user.

5 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising inferring at least one of the first privacy preference parameters or the second privacy preference parameters based on a usage history of the user on the computing device.

6 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

receiving from the computing system a query asking for a change to browser privacy settings of the computing device; and

determining the failure to access the service at least based on the query from the computing system asking for the change to the browser privacy settings of the computing device.

7 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

receiving from the computing system a query asking to accept a cookie file; and

determining the failure to access the service at least based on the query asking to accept the cookie file.

8 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the attempt by the user to access the service comprises an attempt by the user to access a webpage hosted by the computing system, the method further comprising:

detecting the attempt by the user to access the webpage by a browser plugin executed by a processor of the computing device; and

transmitting the first request and transmitting the second request via the browser plugin.

9 . The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the failure to access the service comprises determining a partial failure to access the service.

10 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising transmitting via the network the first request further comprising an instruction to block at least one media type of the service from being received from the computing system.

11 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the attempt by the user to access the service comprises an attempt by the user to access a webpage hosted by the computing system.

12 . The method of claim 1 , wherein transmitting the first request comprises requesting access to a webpage using a fresh cookie file comprising an empty browsing history.

13 . The method of claim 1 , wherein transmitting the first request comprises requesting access to a webpage using a fresh profile.

14 . The method of claim 1 , wherein detecting the attempt by the user to access the service comprises receiving a request from the user to access via the network a webpage hosted on the computing system.

15 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the first request further comprises an instruction to not accept cookie files from the service.

16 . An electronic system comprising a computing device comprising at least one hardware processor and at least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium coupled to the at least one hardware processor and storing programming instructions for execution by the at least one hardware processor, wherein the programming instructions, when executed, cause the computing device to perform operations comprising:

receiving first privacy preference parameters of a user, the first privacy preference parameters comprising at least one of a first indication of whether the user will share personally identifiable information (“PII”), a first indication of whether the user will accept tracking cookies, a first indication of whether the user will allow being tracked, a first indication of whether the user will share browsing history, or a first indication of whether the user will receive ads;

detecting an attempt by the user to access a service enabled by a computing system via a network;

transmitting via the network to the computing system a first request to access the service using the first privacy preference parameters of the user in response to detecting the attempt by the user to access the service, the first request comprising artificial personally identifiable information;

determining a failure to access the service, the failure to access the service responsive to the first request;

querying the user for consent to access the service using second privacy preference parameters, the second privacy preference parameters comprising at least one of a second indication of whether the user will share PII, a second indication of whether the user will accept tracking cookies, a second indication of whether the user will allow being tracked, a second indication of whether the user will share browsing history, or a second indication of whether the user will receive ads;

receiving from the user the consent to access the service using the second privacy preference parameters;

receiving the second privacy preference parameters of the user;

receiving genuine personally identifiable information of the user;

transmitting via the network to the computing system a second request to access the service using the second privacy preference parameters in response to receiving from the user the consent to access the service using the second privacy preference parameters, the second request comprising the genuine personally identifiable information of the user; and

receiving access to the service from the computing system for the user.

Assignments (3)

Continuity (3)

References Cited (47)