Managing associations between device identifiers

Abstract

Device identifiers for devices, such as computing devices, software, and applications, etc., are analyzed to determine whether the device identifiers are associated with each other (e.g., are connected to each other) and how strongly the device identifiers are associated with each other. A stronger connection between two device identifiers may indicate that the device identifiers are connected to the same user, same computing device, or same household. Connections between device identifiers are identified and/or weighted if the device identifiers are associated with the same network or if the device identifiers use the same login information to access content. The identifiers and their connections may form a device graph. Content is targeted to the clients based on the device graph. The device graph may also be used to perform targeting and orchestration of advertising, attribution reporting, analytics, and content optimization across devices in the device graph.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 .- 20 . (canceled) 
     
     
         21 . A method comprising:
 assigning, by at least one processor, a device identifier to a respective application accessing network data sources executing on respective user devices;   receiving, by the at least one processor, network activity information associated with a first identifier and a second identifier;   identifying a connection between at least the first identifier and the second identifier based on a first set of network data for the first device and the second device, wherein the connection is indicative of an association between the first device and the second device;   generating at least one grouping of device identifiers responsive to analyzing network activity associated with a common IP address; and   providing content to one or more of the first device and the second device, based on the at least one grouping.