Targeting Advertisements To Customized Groups Of Users Of An Online System

A method comprising:

• receiving a request for information describing an identity of a user of an online system from an application executing on a client device, the request including information describing the identity of the user;
• generating an identifier associated with the user based on the received request;
• sending an identifier associated with the identity of the user to the application executing on the client device;
• receiving an ad request including an advertisement and one or more identifiers associated with one or more users of the online system eligible to be presented with the advertisement;
• and
• determining whether to present the advertisement to the user based at least in part on whether the identifier associated with the user matches an identifier included in the received ad request.

A system comprising:

• a processor;
• and
• a computer-readable storage medium coupled to the processor, the computer-readable storage medium having instructions encoded thereon that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to:
• receive a request for information describing an identity of a user of an online system from an application executing on a client device, the request including information describing the identity of the user;
• generate an identifier associated with the user based on the received request;
• send an identifier associated with the identity of the user to the application executing on the client device;
• receive an ad request including an advertisement and one or more identifiers associated with one or more users of the online system eligible to be presented with the advertisement;
• and
• determine whether to present the advertisement to the user based at least in part on whether the identifier associated with the user matches an identifier included in the received ad request.