Requesting offline profile data for online use in a privacy-senstive manner

Abstract

A method, performed using one or more servers under the control of an ISP, comprises: (a) receiving an electronic transmission from a requesting server of an IP address and a time and date; (b) automatically determining to which subscriber of the ISP the received IP address was allocated at the received time and date; and (c) automatically transmitting an electronic communication that causes delivery to the requesting server of offline data originating from an offline data provider. The delivered offline data concern the subscriber determined to have been allocated the received IP address at the received time and date. The communication does not convey to the offline data provider the subscriber's history of online activity, and the delivery does not convey to the requesting server a personal identity of the subscriber.

What is claimed is:  
     
         1 . A computer implemented method comprising:
 receiving, at a computer associated with an Internet Service Provider (ISP) and from a requesting server or from a subscriber's computer via a redirect, a plurality of electronic transmissions, each including an IP address, a time and a date;   logging the electronic transmissions in a log;   determining when a threshold is met based on entries that have been received in the log;   after the threshold is met, automatically determining, by the computer, a subscriber of the ISP that is associated with the IP address at the time and date for a given entry in the log, including determining identifying information associated with the subscriber;   after determining the subscriber identifying information, automatically, by the computer, transmitting from the computer and to an offline data provider, an electronic communication, the electronic communication including the subscriber identifying information and not including the IP address of the subscriber or online activity of the subscriber, the electronic communication being of a form that causes a computer of the offline data provider to deliver offline data to the requesting server without delivering the offline data to the ISP, which offline data concern the subscriber, which communication does not convey to the offline data provider information pertaining to a history of online activity of the subscriber via online access provided by the ISP, and which offline data do not convey to the requesting server a personal identity of the subscriber, wherein the electronic communication includes information for at least one entry in the log; and   causing a delivery of offline data about the subscriber to be delivered from the offline data provider to the requesting server.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1  wherein causing the delivery of offline data is performed without associating the history of online activity with the name of the subscriber. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the offline data includes information concerning at least one person in a household of the subscriber other than the subscriber. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1  wherein automatically transmitting comprises automatically electronically directing to the offline data provider information personally identifying the subscriber. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 4  wherein automatically electronically directing to the offline data provider the information personally identifying the subscriber results in the offline data provider transmitting to the requesting server the offline data concerning the subscriber. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 5  further comprising: receiving from the requesting server an online identifier corresponding to the received IP address, time, and date for a given log entry;
 and transmitting from the computer to the offline data provider the online identifier in association with the name of the subscriber. 
 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 5  further comprising: generating an offline data identifier that corresponds to the subscriber, which offline data identifier does not personally identify that subscriber; transmitting the generated offline data identifier to the requesting server in association with the received IP address, time, and date; and transmitting the generated offline data identifier to the offline data provider so that data from the offline data provider that is provided to the requesting server that is tagged with the offline data identifier can be associated anonymously with the subscriber. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the IP address, time, and date are received directly from the requesting server. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the IP address, time, and date correspond to online access or an online redirect to the requesting server via an online access device of the subscriber. 
     
     
         10 . A system comprising one or more computers under the control of an ISP, which one or more computers are structured and connected:
 to receive, at a computer associated with an Internet Service Provider (ISP) and from a requesting server or from a subscriber's computer via a redirect, a plurality of electronic transmissions, each including an IP address, a time and a date;   to log the electronic transmissions in a log;   to determining when a threshold is met based on entries that have been received in the log;   after the threshold is met, to automatically determine, by the computer, a subscriber of the ISP that is associated with the IP address at the time and date for a given entry in the log, including determining identifying information associated with the subscriber;   after determining the subscriber identifying information, automatically, by the computer, to transmit from the computer and to an offline data provider, an electronic communication, the electronic communication including the subscriber identifying information and not including the IP address of the subscriber or online activity of the subscriber, the electronic communication being of a form that causes a computer of the offline data provider to deliver offline data to the requesting server without delivering the offline data to the ISP, which offline data concern the subscriber, which communication does not convey to the offline data provider information pertaining to a history of online activity of the subscriber via online access provided by the ISP, and which offline data do not convey to the requesting server a personal identity of the subscriber, wherein the electronic communication includes information for at least one entry in the log; and   to cause a delivery of offline data about the subscriber to be delivered from the offline data provider to the requesting server.