Mapping user agents in network traffic data to client devices associated with a media exposure location

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, having stored thereon program instructions that, upon execution by a processor, cause performance of a set of operations for mapping a user agent included in network traffic data onto a device identifier associated with a client device at a media exposure measurement location, the operations comprising:

• obtaining the network traffic data comprising a user agent, wherein the user agent is associated with the client device coupled to a network at the media exposure measurement location, and wherein the user agent comprises a string of characters defining client device attributes;
• comparing two or more of the client device attributes to candidate device attributes stored in an audience measurement database, wherein the audience measurement database comprises, for each of a plurality of candidate device identifiers, a corresponding set of candidate device attributes;
• based on the comparison of the two or more of the client device attributes to the candidate device attributes stored in the audience measurement database, determining a target device identifier corresponding to the user agent;
• and
• outputting the target device identifier as the device identifier that corresponds to the user agent.

A computing system comprising:

• a processor;
• and
• a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, having stored thereon program instructions that, upon execution by the processor, cause performance of a set of operations for mapping a user agent included in network traffic data onto a device identifier associated with a client device at a media exposure measurement location, the operations comprising:
• obtaining the network traffic data comprising a user agent, wherein the user agent is associated with the client device coupled to a network at the media exposure measurement location, and wherein the user agent comprises a string of characters defining client device attributes;
• comparing two or more of the client device attributes to candidate device attributes stored in an audience measurement database, wherein the audience measurement database comprises, for each of a plurality of candidate device identifiers, a corresponding set of candidate device attributes;
• based on the comparison of the two or more of the client device attributes to the candidate device attributes stored in the audience measurement database, determining a target device identifier corresponding to the user agent;
• and
• outputting the target device identifier as the device identifier that corresponds to the user agent.