Methods for geotemporal fingerprinting

摘要

Records of geotemporal data for a plurality of users from a database associated with on-line and/or mobile cellular activities are used to generate a geotemporal fingerprint of a user. The geolocation history associated with the user's on-line and/or mobile cellular activities from one such database can be correlated with a user's geolocation data from a separate on-line database associated with a different activity. For example, the geolocation history or geotemporal fingerprints associated with on-line and/or mobile cellular activities from one particular database can be correlated with those associated with payment card usage. Such information can be used to authenticate a user, for example, as a security measure for payment card users and issuers, for registrationless credit security applications, and for gathering relevant data for advertising campaigns.

主权项

1. A method for linking a first user account associated with a first database comprising geotemporal data records for a plurality of users with a second user account associated with a second database comprising geotemporal data records for the plurality of users, each of the geotemporal data records comprising temporal data and a geolocation indicating a time and place the geotemporal data record is generated and a User ID associated with one of the plurality of users, the method comprising:
retrieving geotemporal data records for a first user from the first database generated over a predetermined period of time, each of the geotemporal data records retrieved comprising a first User ID associated with the first user; determining fields for defining for each user a geotemporal fingerprint associated with the user from the geotemporal data records comprising the corresponding User ID, the fields distinguishing the user from other users associated with the first database; generating a first geotemporal fingerprint corresponding to the first User ID based on the determined fields; retrieving geotemporal data records from the second database generated for the plurality of users over the predetermined period of time, each of the geotemporal data records retrieved from the second database comprising a second User ID associated with one of the plurality of users; generating, based on the determined fields, a set of second geotemporal fingerprints from the geotemporal data records retrieved from the second database, each second geotemporal fingerprint of the set being generated from geotemporal data records comprising the second User ID; and determining, from the set of second geotemporal fingerprints generated from the second database, a best match to the first geotemporal fingerprint, comprising identifying a set of geotemporal data record pairs occurring within a predefined time period of one another, each pair comprising a geotemporal data record corresponding to the first User ID and a geotemporal data record corresponding to one of the second User IDs, and calculating a parameter indicating a geographical distance between the geolocations of each of the geotemporal data record pairs, to identify the best match to the first geotemporal fingerprint, linking the second User ID corresponding to the best match with the first User ID corresponding to the first geotemporal fingerprint.