Apparatus and method for probabilistic population size and overlap determination, remote processing of private data and probabilistic population size and overlap determination for three or more data sets

A distributed method of determining population size in overlapping data sets, comprising:

• performing data diagnostics and aggregation of data in the data sets at a first location;
• and;
• determining population size at a second location different from the first location.

A computer readable storage controlling a computer via a process of receiving aggregate data comprising data set subset and distribution occurrence information from a holder of the data and determining a population size estimate from the aggregate data.

A computer readable storage controlling a computer via a data structure comprising a list of records comprising for a record containing subset identifier fields and records containing subset labels and a number of occurrences fields.

A method of aggregating data of data sets containing records on unique entities without unique identifiers for the unique entities and having at least one common type of information with a known distribution of finite expectation, comprising:

• creating a combined data set comprising all records from the previous data set;
• and
• producing aggregate data comprising data set subset and distribution occurrence information.

A method of determining a population size of unique entities in three or more data sets containing records on the unique entities without unique identifiers for the unique entities, said method comprising:

• producing all of the N-way concatenations of the data sets where N equals from 2 to a total number of data sets;
• and
• performing population size estimate calculations using the concatenations of the data sets.

A method of determining a population size of unique entities in three or more data sets containing records on the unique entities without unique identifiers for the unique entities, said method comprising:

• producing all of the N-way concatenations of the data sets where N equals from 2 to a total number of data sets;
• and
• performing population overlap and size estimate calculations using the concatenations of the data sets comprising canceling equivalent terms of opposite sign for all of the sets of the data sets.

A computer readable storage controlling a computer via a process of producing all of the N-way concatenations of the data sets where N equals from 2 to a total number of data sets and performing estimate calculations using the concatenations of the data sets.

An apparatus for population size and overlap determination of three or more data sets, comprising a computer producing all of the N-way concatenations of the data sets where N equals from 2 to a total number of data sets and performing population size and overlap estimate calculations using the concatenations of the data sets for all subsets of the data sets.

An apparatus for probabilistic population size determination, comprising a computer probabilistically calculating the population size of unique entities in data, containing records on unique entities without unique identifiers for the unique entities and having at least one common type of information with a known distribution of finite expectation, using decomposed probabilistic calculations based on values of the information with the known distribution.

A method using a computer to probabilistically determine a population size of unique entities in data containing records on the unique entities without unique identifiers for the unique entities and having at least one common type of information with a known distribution of finite expectation, said method comprising decomposing probabilistic calculations based on values of the information with the known distribution.

A computer program embodied on a computer-readable medium for probabilistically calculating a population size and a population overlap of unique entities in first and second data sets containing records on the unique entities without unique identifiers for the unique entities and having at least one common type of information with a known distribution of finite expectation, said computer program comprising:

• a data preparation segment combining the first and second data sets into a combined data set;
• a population size measurement segment probabilistically calculating the population size for the first and second data sets using decomposed probabilistic calculations based on values of the information with the known distribution;
• and, a population overlap measurement segment determining the population overlap of the unique entities between the first and second data sets by subtracting a probabilistic incremental number of unique entities needed for a larger total number of values of the information with the known distribution from either of the first and second data sets to increase to a total number of values of the information with the known distribution in the combined data set from a smaller of the population size of the first and second data sets.

An apparatus for population size determination, comprising a computer calculating the population size of unique entities in a database, containing records on the unique entities without unique identifiers for the unique entities and having at least one common type of information with a known distribution of finite expectation, using decomposed probabilistic calculations based on values of the information with the known distribution.