Cross-device consumer identification and device type determination

A computer-implemented cross-device consumer identification method comprising:

• receiving, at an analytics server having one or more processors and a memory resource, observational data from a plurality of data providers, wherein:
• the observational data characterizes a plurality of consumer authentication interactions between a plurality of consumers and the plurality of data providers,
• each of the consumer authentication interactions is characterized by a device identifier, a digital certificate, and a login identifier that are provided from one of the consumers to one of the data providers so that the consumer may access a resource provided by the data provider, the device identifier being associated with a corresponding device that the consumer uses to provide the login identifier to the data provider,
• the observational data includes a plurality of device identifiers that are associated with a corresponding plurality of devices, each of the plurality of devices being associated with one or more of the plurality of consumer authentication interactions, and
• the observational data includes browser cookie data transmitted from a first one of the devices to a first one of the data providers during a particular one of the consumer authentication interactions;
• reading, by a data provider interface software module executable on the one or more processors of the analytics server, the browser cookie data that is included in the observational data received by the analytics server to determine a first device identifier for the first device that transmitted the browser cookie data;
• generating, by a device modeling software module executable on the one or more processors of the analytics server, a distribution of login identifiers observed as having been provided by the plurality of devices associated with the plurality of device identifiers included in the received observational data;
• defining, by the device modeling software module, a first node which corresponds to the first device and defining a second node which corresponds to a second one of the devices, wherein the first and second devices are each associated with one or more of the plurality of consumer authentication interactions characterized by the observational data;
• determining, by the device modeling software module, a first quantity of unique login identifiers observed by the first data provider as having been provided by the first device, wherein the first quantity of unique login identifiers is extracted from the generated distribution of login identifiers;
• setting, by the device modeling software module, a Device-Type parameter for the first node, wherein the Device-Type parameter characterizes the first device as Private, Shared, or Public, and wherein the Device-Type parameter is set based on the first quantity of unique login identifiers;
• establishing, by the device modeling software module, a link between the first and second devices in response to determining that the first and second devices provided a common login identifier to the first data provider;
• and
• recording, in a data structure stored in the memory resource of the analytics server, metadata characterizing the first and second nodes and the established link.

A device modeling system that comprises a memory device and a processor that is operatively coupled to the memory device, wherein the processor is configured to execute instructions stored in the memory device that, when executed cause the processor to carry out a device modeling process that comprises:

• receiving, by the device modeling system, observational data from a plurality of data providers, wherein:
• the observational data characterizes a plurality of consumer authentication interactions between a plurality of consumers and the plurality of data providers,
• each of the consumer authentication interactions is characterized by a device identifier, a digital certificate, and a login identifier that are provided from one of the consumers to one of the data providers so that the consumer may access a resource provided by the data provider, the device identifier being associated with a corresponding device that the consumer uses to provide the login identifier to the data provider, and
• the observational data includes a plurality of device identifiers that are associated with a corresponding plurality of devices, each of the plurality of devices being associated with one or more of the plurality of consumer authentication interactions;
• generating, by a device modeling software module executable on the processor, a distribution of login identifiers observed as having been provided by the plurality of devices associated with the plurality of device identifiers included in the observational data received by the device modeling;
• determining, by the device modeling software module, a first quantity of unique login identifiers observed by a first data provider as having been provided by the first device, wherein the first quantity is extracted from the generated distribution of login identifiers;
• defining a first node that corresponds to the first device;
• setting, by the device modeling software module, a Device-Type parameter for the first node based on the first quantity;
• and
• recording, in a data structure stored in the memory device, metadata characterizing , the Device-Type parameter for the first device.