Timestamp-based association of identifiers

Abstract

Systems and methods for associating sessions of encrypted identifiers are provided. A collection of data packets received during one or more sessions within a time period may be retrieved. Each packet in the collection may be associated with a unique identifier of a respective session. An epoch time may be calculated for each of the retrieved data packets based on the determined skew and respective timestamp information of the data packet. It may be identified as to whether each of the calculated epoch times matches a previously calculated epoch time for a packet associated with a previous session or a session that has previously been associated with a selected session. The timestamp information may be associated with a browser identifier and subject to encryption/decryption by an identifier server or authorized parties.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method for associating sessions based on timestamp data, the method comprising:
 retrieving a collection of data packets received during one or more sessions between a client device and a server computing device within a time period, each packet in the collection of data packets associated with an encrypted identifier unique to a respective session;   decrypting the encrypted identifier of each of the data packets based on a respective version indicator;   identifying an epoch time associated with the respective decrypted identifier of the retrieved data packets, wherein the epoch time is indicative of a last time that a respective timestamp of a respective one of the data packets was reset, wherein the calculated epoch time is based on the determined skew and respective timestamp information of the data packet;   identifying whether each of the calculated epoch times matches a previously calculated epoch time for a packet associated with a previously selected session; and   updating a list of sessions associated with the client device based on one or more identified matches between the respective calculated epoch time and the previously calculated epoch time.