Method and system for identifying a unique mobile device based on mobile device attribute changes over time

An apparatus comprising:

• a processor;
• and
• a non-transitory memory storing computer-executable instructions therein that, when executed by the processor, cause the apparatus to perform the operations of:
• acquiring multiple device records, wherein a device record comprises attribute values of a device at a certain time and a corresponding timestamp;
• calculating time-domain feature information of a changed attribute value in the device records, the time-domain feature information comprising feature information selected from the group consisting of a leap time of the changed attribute value and a stable time of the changed attribute value, the stable time comprising a length of time between two device record timestamps when the changed attribute value remains unchanged after the changed attribute value has previously changed;
• calculating a difference value between values of the changed attribute before and after a change based on the time-domain feature information of the changed attribute value in the device records;
• calculating a similarity of the device records associated with the changed attribute according to difference values of attributes in the device records;
• and
• identifying whether the device records associated with the changed attribute belong to the same device according to the similarity of the device records.