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GooglePatent applicationSecurity & privacyInterest 6/10

Google patents ad system that keeps user data on your device

Google describes a method where your phone calculates how well you match certain user groups before sending a request for ads or content. Instead of sending your personal details to a server, the device sends only group identifiers and uses local rules to decide which ads to show based on those scores.

Why it mattersThis approach could make online advertising more private by ensuring your specific personal data never leaves your phone during the ad selection process.

In the filing’s own words

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium for displaying digital components on client devices based on predicted user attributes of users are described. In one aspect, a method includes updating, at a client device of a user, a list of user group identifiers for the user to include a particular user group identifier that identifies a particular user group. A determination is made, for each user attribute of multiple user attributes, a score based on a quantity of user groups identified in the list of group identifiers for the user that include, as a membership attribute, the user attribute. A digital component request including data representing the list of user-group identifiers is sent to a content distribution system. Digital component data identifying a set of digital components selected based on the data of the digital component request is received.

What exactly they claim (claim 1)

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising: maintaining, at a client device of a user, a list of user group identifiers that identify user groups that include the user as a member, wherein the user is assigned to the user groups based on predicted user attributes of the user; determining, by the client device, a score for a particular user attribute of the user based on the list of user group identifiers; sending, by the client device and to a content distribution system, a digital component request comprising data representing the list of user group identifiers; receiving, by the client device and from the content distribution system, digital component data identifying a set of digital components, wherein the digital component data includes, for a particular digital component in the set of digital components, a primary selection value, a conditional selection value, and a rule for using the conditional selection value; evaluating, by the client device, the rule against the score for the particular user attribute to determine whether to apply the conditional selection value instead of the primary selection value for the particular digital component; selecting, by the client device, one or more digital components from the set of digital components based at least in part on the evaluation of the rule; and displaying, by the client device, the selected one or more digital components.

Facts

Company
Google (Google LLC)
Official title
PRIVACY PRESERVING GROUP-BASED CONTENT DISTRIBUTION
Publication number
US20260332564A1
Application number
19726255
Filed
Jun 30, 2026
Published
Oct 22, 2026
Inventors
4
Claims
20

Classified under

H04L 63/0407 Electricity & electronicsH04L 67/535 Electricity & electronics
Read the full filing (official PDF) ↗ Open in the Patent Tracker

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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.