Verifying the rendering of video content at client devices using trusted platform modules

A system for verifying an identity of a client device, comprising:

• a data processing system having one or more processors;
• a content deliverer executed on the data processing system having one or more processors, configured to:
• generate a first bit stream representing a target content item;
• select a predesignated frame of the first bit stream based on a computation complexity of the predesignated frame;
• send the first bit stream to a target client device;
• and
• receive a tracking message purporting to relate to delivery of the content item;
• an identity verifier executed on the data processing system, configured to:
• determine whether the tracking message contains an identifier of a sending device that sent the tracking message;
• determine whether the sending device and the target client device are the same device;
• and
• a recovery module executed on the data processing system, configured to:
• if the sending client device and the target client device are not the same device, disregard the tracking message;
• and
• if the sending client device and the target client device are the same device:
• recover, from the tracking message, information about at least a portion of the predesignated frame of a content item processed by a trusted platform module of the client device;
• and
• compare the at least a portion of the predesignated frame of the content item processed by a trusted platform module of the client device with the target content item.

A tangible, non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions for verifying an identity of a client device that, when executed by one or more processors of a data processing server, cause the data processing server to:

• generate a first bit stream representing a target content item;
• select a predesignated frame of the first bit stream based on a computation complexity of the predesignated frame;
• send the first bit stream to a target client device;
• receive a tracking message purporting to relate to delivery of the content item;
• determine whether the tracking message contains an identifier of a sending device that sent the tracking message;
• determine whether the sending device and the target client device are the same device;
• if the sending client device and the target client device are not the same device, disregard the tracking message;
• if the sending client device and the target client device are the same device:
• recover, from the tracking message, information about at least a portion of the predesignated frame of a content item processed by a trusted platform module of the client device;
• and
• compare the at least a portion of the predesignated frame of the content item processed by a trusted platform module of the client device with the target content item.