Identifying use of software applications

摘要

Techniques are described for identifying the use of software applications, such as to determine an identity of a user interacting with a Web site or other electronic information service based on information regarding an application copy used by the user. When a communication is received from a software application, the communication is analyzed to attempt to identify a particular software application copy that sent the communication. Various types of information about a client software application copy may be used in the analysis, including information about particular configuration settings for the client software application and for the client computing device on which the client software application is executing. After a matching software application copy is identified for a received communication, possible inappropriate activities related to the received communication may be identified in various ways, including based on previous communications received from the same software application copy.

主权项

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:
receiving, by one or more configured computing devices, a communication from an executing copy of a software application; obtaining, by the one or more configured computing devices, information specific to the executing copy of the software application; generating, by the one or more configured computing devices, an identifier to represent the executing copy of the software application based at least in part on the obtained information; determining, by the one or more configured computing devices, whether the generated identifier corresponds to any stored identifiers for any software application copies that were previously identified as suspect; and if the generated identifier is determined to correspond to any stored identifier for a software application copy that was previously identified as suspect, providing, by the one or more configured computing devices, an indication that the received communication is suspect, and otherwise not providing the indication that the received communication is suspect.