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GoogleGranted patentSecurity & privacyInterest 6/10

Google patents system to flag false ads using user reports

This patent describes a method for servers to verify user reports of false information in digital ads. It uses digital signatures to confirm that the reported ad was actually shown to and clicked by users, then aggregates these verified reports to trigger warnings or adjust ad distribution.

Why it mattersIt offers a technical way to distinguish genuine user complaints about misleading ads from spam, potentially improving the accuracy of content moderation systems.

In the filing’s own words

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for combating false advertising using crowdsourcing. In one aspect, a method includes receiving a false digital component alert indicating that a digital component presented at a client device includes false information, validating the false digital component alert based on a public key to verify digital signature included in the false digital component alert matching the public key of stored attestation tokens specifying presentation and interaction data for the digital component. In response, adding the false digital component alert to an aggregated report. Based on a false alert ratio, determining that a magnitude of validated false digital component alerts in the aggregated report meets a threshold, and triggering a false digital component mitigation response including providing a false information warning with the false digital component to one or more client devices or digital component provider.

What exactly they claim (claim 1)

1. A method performed by one or more servers, the method comprising: storing, by one or more servers, a plurality of impression attestation tokens for a plurality of presentations of a digital component; storing, by the one or more servers, a plurality of click attestation tokens that each correspond to a particular impression attestation token among the plurality of impression attestation tokens; comparing, by the one or more servers, presentation data and interaction data of a false digital component alert with the plurality of impression attestation tokens and the plurality of click attestation tokens; determining, by the one or more servers and based on the comparing, that the false digital component alert includes (i) a particular impression attestation token from among the stored plurality of impression attestation tokens and (ii) a corresponding particular click attestation token from among the stored plurality of click attestation tokens; validating, by the one or more servers, the false digital component alert by verifying a digital signature included in the particular impression attestation token using a public key associated with a client device or browser that generated the particular impression attestation token, wherein the validating is based on the determination that the false digital component alert includes the particular impression attestation token and the corresponding particular click attestation token; in response to validating the false digital component alert, adding the false digital component alert to an aggregated report for the digital component; determining, by the one or more servers, that a magnitude of validated false digital component alerts in the aggregated report for the digital component meets a threshold; and adjusting, by the one or more servers, distribution of the digital component to client devices based on the magnitude of the validated false digital component alerts meeting the threshold.

Facts

Company
Google (Google LLC)
Official title
Combating false information with crowdsourcing
Patent number
US12731172B2
Application number
18895735
Filed
Sep 25, 2024
Granted
Sep 8, 2026
Inventors
2
Claims
21

Classified under

G06Q 30/0248 Physics & computingH04L 9/3247 Electricity & electronicsG06Q 2220/00 Physics & computing

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Summaries are simplified from the filing’s own abstract and first claim. A patent filing is not a product announcement.
Patent data and drawings: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Nebula is not affiliated with or endorsed by the USPTO.