Method for detecting web tracking services
AssigneePolitecnico Di Torino
InventorsHassan Esam Hassan Metwalley, Stefano Traverso, Marco Mellia
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method for detecting web tracking services during browsing activity performed by clients having associated client identifiers includes the steps of extracting key-value pairs contained into navigation data, looking for one-to-one correspondence between said client identifiers and the values contained in said keys and selecting the keys for which at least a client-value one-to-one correspondence for at least a predetermined number of clients is observed, the keys identifying the associated services as services performing tracking activities.
Claims19
A method for detecting web tracking services during browsing activities performed by a plurality of clients associated with a plurality of client identifiers, the method comprising the steps of:
- for each of said plurality of clients, extracting key-value pairs contained in navigation data, said key-value pairs being directed or referred to a targeted website domain, each of said key-value pairs containing a corresponding key and a corresponding value;
- analyzing key-value pairs associated with said plurality of clients to determine whether values associated to a particular key contained in said key-value pairs exhibit one-to-one correspondence with said client identifiers;
- in response to determining that said key-value pairs containing said particular key whose values are one-to-one correspondence with said client identifiers,
- selecting said particular key;
- identifying a service that is associated with said particular key as a service performing tracking activities;
- and
- adding said service performing tracking activities to a curated blacklist used for blocking at least a portion of network traffic toward said service performing tracking activities.
A method for detecting web tracking services during browsing activities performed by clients, the method comprising the steps of:
- extracting key-value pairs contained in navigation data associated with a plurality of clients, said navigation data being directed to or referring to a targeted domain, each of said key-value pairs containing a corresponding key and a corresponding value;
- analyzing key-value pairs associated with a plurality of different visits by said plurality of clients to determine whether values associated to a particular key contained in said key-value pairs exhibit one-to-one correspondence with said clients, such that different clients correspond to different values while a given client corresponds to a same value across different visits by said same given client;
- in response to determining that said key-value pairs containing said particular key whose values are one-to-one correspondence with said clients,
- selecting said particular key;
- identifying a service that has used said particular key to perform tracking activities;
- and
- adding said service performing tracking activities to a curated blacklist used for blocking at least a portion of network traffic toward said service performing tracking activities.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.