US20210117982A1 - Consent Management System - Google Patents

Consent Management System Download PDF

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Publication number
US20210117982A1
US20210117982A1 US17/075,930 US202017075930A US2021117982A1 US 20210117982 A1 US20210117982 A1 US 20210117982A1 US 202017075930 A US202017075930 A US 202017075930A US 2021117982 A1 US2021117982 A1 US 2021117982A1
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United States
Prior art keywords
consent
package
presentation device
server
user
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US17/075,930
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Brian Paul Johnson
Peter William Ellison
Matthew Jorgensen
George Earl Harvey
Kurt Roman Thielen
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Universal Electronics Inc
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Nielsen Co US LLC
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Priority to US17/075,930 priority Critical patent/US20210117982A1/en
Assigned to THE NIELSEN COMPANY (US), LLC reassignment THE NIELSEN COMPANY (US), LLC ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST (SEE DOCUMENT FOR DETAILS). Assignors: JORGENSEN, MATTHEW, JOHNSON, BRIAN PAUL, THIELEN, KURT ROMAN, ELLISON, PETER WILLIAM, HARVEY, GEORGE EARL
Publication of US20210117982A1 publication Critical patent/US20210117982A1/en
Assigned to UNIVERSAL ELECTRONICS INC. reassignment UNIVERSAL ELECTRONICS INC. ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST (SEE DOCUMENT FOR DETAILS). Assignors: QTERICS, INC., THE NIELSEN COMPANY (US), LLC
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Definitions

  • a method may include: at a consent manager server of a consent management platform disposed in a computing cloud, retrieving a consent-package data file from a consent-package file server, the consent-package data file identifying a consent package, and comprising presentation-description information for rendering an interactive graphical user interface at at least one content-presentation device for user selection of consent-agreement options associated with one or more consent features of a media distribution system that require prior end-user consent in order to be activated for the at least one content-presentation device; at the consent manager server, receiving administrative-user first input specifying one or more consent agreements, each identifying a respective consent feature with the consent package, wherein each given consent agreement of the one or more consent agreements is associated with a given textual language description of the given consent agreement, the given textual language description comprising a human-readable explanation of both the respective consent feature identified by the given consent agreement and a regulatory-compliant statement of what acceptance of consent to the respective consent feature by a given user means and/or implies in relation to
  • a consent manager server of a consent management platform may be disposed in a computing cloud, and the consent manager server may include: one or more processors; and a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon program instructions that, upon execution by the one or processors, cause the consent manager server to carry out operations including: retrieving a consent-package data file from a consent-package file server, the consent-package data file identifying a consent package, and comprising presentation-description information for rendering an interactive graphical user interface at at least one content-presentation device for user selection of consent-agreement options associated with one or more consent features of a media distribution system that require prior end-user consent in order to be activated for the at least one content-presentation device; receiving administrative-user first input specifying one or more consent agreements, each identifying a respective consent feature with the consent package, wherein each given consent agreement of the one or more consent agreements is associated with a given textual language description of the given consent agreement, the given textual language description comprising a human-readable
  • non-transitory computer-readable storage medium may have stored thereon program instructions that, upon execution by one or more processors of a consent manager server of a consent management platform disposed in a computing cloud, cause the consent management platform to carry out operations including: retrieving a consent-package data file from a consent-package file server, the consent-package data file identifying a consent package, and comprising presentation-description information for rendering an interactive graphical user interface at at least one content-presentation device for user selection of consent-agreement options associated with one or more consent features of a media distribution system that require prior end-user consent in order to be activated for the at least one content-presentation device; receiving administrative-user first input specifying one or more consent agreements, each identifying a respective consent feature with the consent package, wherein each given consent agreement of the one or more consent agreements is associated with a given textual language description of the given consent agreement, the given textual language description comprising a human-readable explanation of both the respective consent feature identified by the given consent agreement and a regulatory-
  • FIG. 1 is a simplified block diagram of an example consent management system in which various described principles can be implemented.
  • FIG. 2 is a simplified block diagram of an example consent management system shown in a context of an example high-level architecture, in accordance with example embodiments.
  • FIG. 3 is a simplified block diagram of an example computing system in which various described principles can be implemented.
  • FIG. 4A illustrates a high-level data architecture for consent management, in accordance with example embodiments.
  • FIG. 4B depicts example data records used for consent management, in accordance with example embodiments.
  • FIGS. 5A and 5B collectively make up an example operational flow diagram showing operations of various aspects of an example consent management system, in accordance with example embodiments.
  • FIGS. 6A, 6B, 6C, and 6D depict example webpage displays of a content-presentation device relating to operations of a consent management system, in accordance with example embodiments.
  • FIGS. 7A, 7B, 7C, and 7D depict example webpage displays of a server of a consent management system, in accordance with example embodiments.
  • FIGS. 8A and 8B collectively make up a flow chart of an example method.
  • a content provider can transmit the content to one or more content-distribution systems, each of which can in turn transmit the content to one or more respective content-presentation devices, such as television sets and/or set-top boxes, to be output for presentation to respective end-users.
  • content-distribution systems each of which can in turn transmit the content to one or more respective content-presentation devices, such as television sets and/or set-top boxes, to be output for presentation to respective end-users.
  • respective content-presentation devices such as television sets and/or set-top boxes
  • the video content provider can transmit the video content by satellite or another medium to content-distribution systems that serve respective designated market areas (DMAs) within the United States.
  • DMAs designated market areas
  • Each such content-distribution system can therefore receive the national satellite feed carrying the video content and can transmit the video content to television sets and/or set-top boxes in the content-distribution system's DMA, such that the video content can be output for presentation to respective end-users in that DMA.
  • these content-distribution systems and their means of transmission to content-presentation devices can take various forms.
  • a content-distribution system can be associated with a cable-television provider and can transmit video content to content-presentation devices of end-users who are cable-television subscribers through hybrid fiber/coaxial cable connections.
  • a content-distribution system can transmit content to a content-presentation device, which can receive and output the content for presentation to an end-user.
  • a content-presentation device can perform a content-modification operation so that the content-presentation device can output for presentation alternative content instead of at least a portion of that received content.
  • the content-presentation device receives a linear sequence of content segments that includes a given advertisement segment positioned somewhere within the sequence, it can be desirable for the content-presentation device to replace the given advertisement segment with a different advertisement segment that is perhaps more targeted to the end-user (e.g., more targeted to the end-user's interests, demographics, etc.). As another example, it can be desirable for the content-presentation device to overlay on the given advertisement segment, overlay content that enhances the given advertisement segment in a way that is again perhaps more targeted to the end-user. Other forms of content modification are possible as well.
  • Content modification is one example of media operations and/or services and/or media-related services and/or operations that a content-presentation device or client device can perform to enhance, extend, or expand more traditionally passive user experiences of program reception.
  • Other examples may include data collection of client viewing history/statistics, and audience response measurement.
  • operational features may, in addition, relate to user preferences and/or user privacy, at least to the extent that users may wish to, and/or may be given legally required, control of if and when to enable and/or activate some or all of the operational features. As such, active performance of such operational features may be subject to, and/or require, prior and/or continuing, user consent.
  • a user may wish to opt out of client viewing history/statistics data collection by their content-presentation device, but may wish to be presented with customized advertising, when available. It may therefore be desirable or necessary to provide users the ability to set or select consent options for operational features that have them, either as a matter of convenience or regulatory compliance, for example.
  • a user may wish to modify previous opt-in/out choices from time to time. There may also be various reasons for a user to be made aware of a need or option to update previous consent choices or selections.
  • Non-limiting examples include the availability of new operational features requiring consent, changes in regulations governing consent for particular operational features, updates in privacy laws, and physical relocation of a content-presentation device from an initial geographic region to a new geographic region for which compliance regulations differ from those of the initial geographic region. It may therefore be necessary or desirable to be able to notify users in such situations, and prompt users to update their consent settings or selections.
  • management of consent and privacy relating to the types of enhanced features described above can be complex in terms of the arrays of features involved, the number and variety of consent options associated with the features, factors that determine the consent options, and the number of content-presentation devices that may need to support user selection of consent options.
  • management of consent and privacy may involve identifying operational features subject to consent, determining various legal and jurisdictional compliance aspects of consent, obtaining/tracking/monitoring consent selections/options associated with multitudes of content-presentation devices, and updating consent and privacy options in view of changes to both the universe of operational features subject to consent and the rules that govern/specify consent.
  • a consent management system and methods of operation thereof that provides efficient and flexible management of consent associated with operational features and/or services that require consent in order to be activated for use on and/or by content-presentation devices.
  • Such operational features and/or services may have some aspects that function on individual content presentation devices and other aspects that function remotely, in servers and/or content provider networks, for example.
  • operational aspects of a consent management system may include user device registration, interactive user selection of consent choices, periodic check-in by user devices to ensure and/or update synchronization with the management system, and administrative provisioning/management of the consent management system.
  • FIG. 1 is a simplified block diagram of an example consent management system 100 , in accordance with example embodiments.
  • the example consent management system 100 includes a consent management platform disposed in a computing cloud 104 , and client device 106 that includes a device agent 108 .
  • the consent management platform 102 may carry out operations relating to administrative provisioning of consent packages and consent campaigns, such as creating and configuring various databases and other information stores for identifying and organizing operational features that are subject to user consent.
  • Other operations of the consent management platform 102 may include storing consent-related information associated with individual client devices, and communicating with client devices in order to register them, obtain user consent information, and synchronize consent information in the client device 106 and the consent management platform 102 .
  • the client device 106 is a user device that may implement operational features and/or services that require prior user consent in order to be activated for execution on the client device.
  • a content-presentation device such as a smart TV, is an example of a client device.
  • Example operational features and/or services that may be subject to, or require, consent include customized advertisement replacement (or, more generally, content modification), audience response measurement, and user viewing history/statistics.
  • the device agent 108 implements consent-related functions and operations on the client 106 , such as communicating with the consent management platform, and providing an interactive user interface, such as a web browser, to obtain user input relating to consent options.
  • the client device may also be referred to herein as a user device or end-user device, since it may be operated by a user.
  • the computing cloud 104 represents a managed collection of computing hardware and software resources which may be made available via a communications network, such as a public or private internet, to serve as computing and/or networking infrastructure for enterprises and/or organizations.
  • a computing cloud or just “cloud,” may augment or replace computing and/or networking infrastructure for a company or business, for example.
  • the physical implementation of a cloud may include various servers, databases, and file server systems, which may be centrally located and/or distributed.
  • a server may, in turn, include one or more computing devices that include one or more processors, memory, and instructions for carrying out various tasks and operations.
  • Cloud computing resources may be implemented virtually, across multiple subdivisions and/or logical partitions of computing infrastructure, such as processor processing cycles, and delivered to multiple subscribers—e.g., enterprises, organizations, etc.—in a manner that makes the resources appear to each subscriber as dedicated. Some implementations may in fact provide some actual dedicated resources of the cloud to individual subscribers.
  • a computing cloud may be owned by commercial operator and made available to subscribers for a fee. Examples include Amazon Web Services (AWSTM) and AzureTM. In other instances, a computing cloud may be owned and operated by the same enterprise or organization that utilizes the resources for supporting its own infrastructure needs. In some arrangements, a cloud may be implemented, at least in part, as a collection of actual servers and storage systems. Other arrangements are possible as well.
  • AWSTM Amazon Web Services
  • AzureTM AzureTM
  • consent management may involve operations carried out on both the consent-management platform 102 and the by the device agent 108 on behalf of the client 106 .
  • Operations carried out on the consent-management platform are referred to herein as “cloud-side” operations or “server-side” operations, since they are carried out in the cloud and/or by servers (possibly in the cloud).
  • the term “network-side” operations may also be used.
  • Operations carried out by the device agent 108 are referred to herein as “client-side” operations or “device-side” operations. Since consent management involves both types of operations, and both types of apparatuses, the consent management system 100 is considered to include both the consent management platform 102 and the client device 106 .
  • the disposition of the consent management platform 102 in the computing cloud 104 is indicative of implementation of at least some elements of the platform in the cloud.
  • the consent management platform 102 may include one or more servers, databases, and file servers implemented in the computing cloud 104 .
  • the servers, databases, and file servers may be implemented virtually and/or physically as shared and/or dedicated resources.
  • some implementations of the server side of a consent management system may be based on one or more servers, data bases, and other computing devices and/or systems, that may not necessarily conform to any particular characterization of a computing cloud, but may nevertheless provide computing infrastructure and resources available via a network to other devices, such as the client device 106 .
  • a consent management platform such platform 102 , are not necessarily limited to implementation strictly in a computing cloud.
  • FIG. 2 is a simplified block diagram of an example consent management system shown in a context of an example high-level architecture, in accordance with example embodiments.
  • FIG. 2 also includes media content broadcast and delivery systems 216 (or just systems 216 ) and an internet 220 by which, as signified by the lightning bolt lines between the entities and the internet 220 , various entities in the figure are communicatively connected.
  • the consent management platform includes cloud servers 206 , a flat database 208 , a relational database 210 , and administrative operations interfaces 212 , some or all of which may be implemented with and/or by cloud resources.
  • the flat database 208 refers to a flat, or horizontal, record structure, in contrast to a table-based structure of a relational database.
  • a flat database may provide significant access speed benefits and advantages for operations such as checking just one or a few data record fields in a database containing a very large number of records.
  • An example of a flat database is a so-called NoSql, or non-SQL database.
  • the computing cloud 104 also includes other cloud servers and services 214 —also implemented with and/or by cloud resources—which may support other types of services, as described below.
  • the systems 216 represent media broadcast services that include not only broadcast delivery of content to the content-presentation device 202 via a broadcast connection 203 , such as network television broadcasts, for example, but also customized and/or targeted content or other replacement content via a network connection 205 .
  • the replacement content could be customized/targeted advertising, for example, that is dynamically inserted by the content-presentation device 202 into the presentation of the broadcast media as it is being displayed or played out in real time.
  • the operations involved in such dynamic content replacement may include communication and coordination between the content-presentation device 202 and the systems 216 via the network connection 205 , as well as communication and coordination between the systems 216 and other cloud servers and services 214 via the network connection 209 .
  • Dynamic content replacement may also involve communication and coordination between the content-presentation device 202 and the other cloud servers and services 214 via the network connection 207 .
  • Dynamic content replacement may involve targeting a specific user, and is therefore an example of a service that may require user consent before it may be activated and carried out.
  • some or all of the device-side operations and cloud-side operations involved in the service may also require prior user consent.
  • audience measurement and viewing history/statistics are other non-limiting examples of services that may require user consent, including consent relating to various device-side operations and cloud-side operations of these services.
  • the consent management system 100 includes both the consent-management platform 102 for carrying out cloud-side operations and the content-presentation device 202 for carrying out device-side operations.
  • the communicative connection 201 between the cloud servers 206 of the platform 102 and the device agent 204 of the device 202 support communications between the two sides that are part of various operations of consent management.
  • a detailed discussion of consent management is presented by way of example operational description below.
  • FIG. 3 is a simplified block diagram of an example computing or system 300 .
  • the computing system 300 can be configured to perform and/or can perform one or more operations, such as the operations described in this disclosure, and represents an example of computing device or system that can be used to partially of fully implement any one or more of the cloud components or devices shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 , as well as those referenced elsewhere herein.
  • the computing system 300 can include various components, such as a processor 302 , a data-storage unit 304 , a communication interface 306 , and/or a user interface 308 .
  • the processor 302 can be or include a general-purpose processor (e.g., a microprocessor) and/or a special-purpose processor (e.g., a digital signal processor).
  • the processor 302 can execute program instructions included in the data-storage unit 304 as described below.
  • the data-storage unit 304 can be or include one or more volatile, non-volatile, removable, and/or non-removable storage components, such as magnetic, optical, and/or flash storage, and/or can be integrated in whole or in part with the processor 302 . Further, the data-storage unit 304 can be or include a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, having stored thereon program instructions (e.g., compiled or non-compiled program logic and/or machine code) that, upon execution by the processor 302 , cause the computing system 300 and/or another computing system to perform one or more operations, such as the operations described in this disclosure. These program instructions can define, and/or be part of, a discrete software application.
  • program instructions e.g., compiled or non-compiled program logic and/or machine code
  • the computing system 300 can execute program instructions in response to receiving an input, such as an input received via the communication interface 306 and/or the user interface 308 .
  • the data-storage unit 304 can also store other data, such as any of the data described in this disclosure.
  • the communication interface 306 can allow the computing system 300 to connect with and/or communicate with another entity according to one or more protocols. Therefore, the computing system 300 can transmit data to, and/or receive data from, one or more other entities according to one or more protocols.
  • the communication interface 306 can be or include a wired interface, such as an Ethernet interface or a High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI).
  • the communication interface 306 can be or include a wireless interface, such as a cellular or WI-FI interface.
  • the user interface 308 can allow for interaction between the computing system 300 and a user of the computing system 300 .
  • the user interface 308 can be or include an input component such as a keyboard, a mouse, a remote controller, a microphone, and/or a touch-sensitive panel.
  • the user interface 308 can also be or include an output component such as a display device (which, for example, can be combined with a touch-sensitive panel) and/or a sound speaker.
  • the computing system 300 can also include one or more connection mechanisms that connect various components within the computing system 300 .
  • the computing system 300 can include the connection mechanisms represented by lines that connect components of the computing system 300 , as shown in FIG. 3 .
  • the computing system 300 can include one or more of the above-described components and can be configured or arranged in various ways.
  • the computing system 300 can be configured as a server and/or a client (or perhaps a cluster of servers and/or a cluster of clients) operating in one or more server-client type arrangements, for instance.
  • the content-presentation device 106 and/or 202 and/or components thereof can take the form of a computing system, such as the computing system 300 . In some cases, some or all these entities can take the form of a more specific type of computing system. For instance, in the case of the content-presentation device 106 and/or 202 , it can take the form of a desktop computer, a laptop, a tablet, a mobile phone, a television set, a set-top box, a television set with an integrated set-top box, a media dongle, or a television set with a media dongle connected to it, among other possibilities.
  • FIGS. 4A and 4B illustrate certain aspects of an example data architecture and organization that may be used in a consent management system 100 to manage various aspects of consent and consent-related operations. More particularly, FIG. 4A illustrates an example organizational structure of consent management elements, and how they are related.
  • One or more services, such as content replacement, that require user consent to be made operational for a particular content-presentation device may be associated with a consent package.
  • a consent package may, in turn, include one or more consent features, and each consent feature may be associated with one or more consent functions, which are the actual device-based and/or cloud-based functions and/or application programs that are invoked or executed in order to implement operation of the service or services.
  • Consent management involves managing the various combinations of consent features and functions that apply to each individual content-presentation device, as well as user selections that have been or need to be made for each device.
  • a consent package 402 - 1 may be associated or identified with consent features 408 - 01 , 408 - 2 , . . . , 408 - m by way of consent agreements 407 - 1 , 407 - 2 , . . . , 407 - m , respectively.
  • Each consent agreement includes or may be linked to specific verbiage that describes, in human-readable language, the meaning and terms of consenting to the agreement.
  • the verbiage may also be compliant with rules, regulations, and/or laws of one or more particular jurisdictions.
  • Jurisdictions may be associated with geographic location, areas, or regions, for example. Compliance may also apply to services encompassed by the consent features.
  • a consent package may be “constructed” by identifying it to consent features by way of consent agreements.
  • consent feature 408 - 1 is associated with functions 410 - 1 , 410 - 2 , . . . , 410 - k . These functions, which may themselves each be made up of one or more sub-functions, represent and/or link to executable code or instructions that carry out various aspects of a service. Similarly, each of consent of features 408 - 2 , . . . , 408 - m may also be associated with one or more functions, although this is not explicitly shown in the figure.
  • consent package 402 - 1 is grouped with consent packages 402 - 2 , . . . , 402 - n in consent campaign 406 .
  • consent campaign 406 may be associated with collection of devices 424 . . . that make up a device group 420 .
  • devices 424 . . . represents some form of identifiers of actual devices
  • device group 420 represent a listing or other data structure of the identifiers.
  • a consent campaign may define and organize common aspects of consent packages, features, agreements, functions for one or more groups of content-presentation devices.
  • the group may be a collection of devices made having the same manufacturer, possibly same model number or other sub-categorization of the manufacturer, and same jurisdiction, among other commonalities that determine their membership in the group.
  • a device group associated with a particular consent campaign are referred to herein as “target devices,” and an individual content-presentation device that is associated with a campaign is referred to as a “target device.”
  • a device that is a target of consent campaign can also be considered a target of the consent packages, agreements, features, and functions that are part of the campaign.
  • the association of a group of devices or any individual device within a device group with a consent campaign does not necessarily by itself determine if any of the services associated with the campaign are activate or enabled. But it does at least identify what consent agreements need to be accepted in order for the services to be activated. In example embodiments, there may also be granularity to consent agreements, such that only certain aspects of a given service may be activated.
  • the organizational structure of consent campaigns, packages, and agreements also provides a powerful and flexible way for administrators of consent management to create, modify, and update the elements of the organizational structure.
  • other aspects of the data architecture in particular device records maintained on devices and in the cloud, enable efficient and comprehensive tracking and monitoring of the status of acceptance and/or rejection of user consent to services and features on all devices registered in the consent management system.
  • FIG. 4A may represent a simplified rendering of an actual implementation, and that there may be other and/or different data elements and components, besides those shown.
  • FIG. 4B illustrates example device records configured for storage on devices and in the cloud.
  • these records are arranged to contain actual consent choices made by a user, and which, for the specific device on which the device record is stored, apply to activating or not activating functions that make up particular services.
  • the functions may be pre-installed on a device in an initially disabled and/or deactivate state by the device manufacturer, and only enabled and/or activated by a user's explicit choice to do so via a procedure described below.
  • the consent status of a device may be kept up to date with potential changes to consent campaigns, features, agreements, and functions, for example.
  • the device records also support efficient and comprehensive operations for obtaining user consent choices and maintaining synchronization.
  • FIG. 4B also depicts a device token 430 , which uniquely identifies the device to the consent management platform as having been authenticated by the platform. More specifically, the device token 430 is generated and cryptographically-signed by the consent management platform when a device first registers, and then provided to the device for expediting future secure communications between the device and the platform. Other elements of the device records in FIG. 4B are describe below in connection with example operation.
  • the consent management system 100 and/or components thereof can be configured to perform and/or can perform one or more operations. Examples of these operations and related features will now be described.
  • Example operation of the consent management system 100 may be described in terms four high-level processes. Namely, consent provisioning, device registration, user consent-choice selection, and device check-in and synchronization. It should be understood that various aspects of each of these high-level processes may overlap, and the specification of these four high-level processes should not be viewed as limiting and/or restrictive of other possible organizational descriptions of the operations involved in consent management as described herein.
  • Consent provisioning is a process by which a consent administrator creates and defines consent campaigns, consent packages, consent features and agreements, and links to consent functions. It is carried out primarily, and possibly entirely, on the consent management platform, and therefore involves mostly or only cloud-sided operations.
  • Device registration is a process by which a device makes itself known to the consent management platform, and in so doing, becomes an element of the consent management system (as defined in the context of system 100 of FIG. 1 , for example).
  • User consent-choice selection is a process by which a user of a particular device is made aware of consent options, and prompted to select or choose to accept or reject (or decline) consent from among the available options.
  • Device check-in and synchronization is a process by which consent choices made for each registered device are kept current in view of various factors that may require updating of consent choices.
  • Each of device registration, user consent-choice selection, and device check-in and synchronization involves both cloud-side and device-side operations.
  • FIGS. 5A and 5B collectively make up an example operational flow diagram showing operations of various aspects of an example consent management system, in accordance with example embodiments.
  • Both figures depict rough operational sequence timelines for the content-presentation device 202 , cloud servers 206 , flat database 208 , and administrative operations and interfaces 212 , the last three items of which are part of the consent management platform 102 , which is disposed in the computing cloud 104 , as indicated.
  • a vertical timeline extends below each component, with time increasing downward. The timelines are not intended to convey or represent precise timing, but rather an ordering or sequence of operations.
  • the operations are shown as horizontal directed arrows between pairs of components, and labeled according information passed between them. Some operations are shown as self-directed arrows for operations that are carried out at one component, without necessarily involving passing information to another component.
  • FIG. 5A A horizontal dashed line 520 divides the two process, with a label “A” above the line 520 indicating the timeline portion corresponding to the operational flow of the provisioning process, and the label “B” below the line 520 indicating the portion of the timeline corresponding to device registration.
  • User consent-choice selection, and device check-in and synchronization are shown in a similar manner in FIG. 5B .
  • a horizontal dashed line 530 divides the two process, with a label “C” above the line 520 indicating the timeline portion corresponding to the operational flow of the user consent-choice selection, and the label “B” below the line 520 indicating the portion of the timeline corresponding to device check-in and synchronization.
  • the ordering of the four high-level processes in FIGS. 5A and 5B is for convenience in the present discussion, and should not be viewed as limiting with respect to example embodiments described herein.
  • An example consent provisioning process is illustrated in timeline portion A in FIG. 5A , and involves operations P 1 -P 5 between the cloud servers 206 and the administrative interface 212 , as shown.
  • the administrative interface 212 provide an interactive user interface, such as a browser, to an administrative user, show to the right of administrative interface 212 .
  • the administrative user may invoke a process P 1 for provisioning a consent package.
  • the administrative interface 212 may request a consent package file from a file server of the cloud servers 206 in operation P 2 , and the consent package file may be returned in operation P 3 .
  • the administrative user may associate consent features and agreements to the package, assign the package to a consent campaign, and designate the campaign as active—the meaning of which is described below.
  • the provisioned and configured package is returned to the file server.
  • file server used herein may be taken to represent an example of data storage server or system, and not intended to be limiting with respect to example embodiments herein.
  • the operation P 1 -P 5 represent an abbreviated version of provisioning operations. Further details are now described.
  • Consent packages may be stored in a file server on the consent management platform, and may be uploaded to the consent server and displayed in a browser. From the browser, an administrative user may configure or provision the uploaded consent package by associating it with consent features, which in turn are identified with consent agreements. As described above, consent features may also be associated with consent functions. Once a campaign and/or package is configured, it may designated as “active” and returned to the file server.
  • Designating a campaign, package, or feature as “active” applies it to all target devices, such that its associated agreements are ready to govern operation of the associated functions once a user selects consent-choice options.
  • user devices may be alerted to the options, and guide users through an interactive process for consent choice selection.
  • An active campaign, package, or feature may thus be considered as “ready to use.”
  • active as applied to campaigns, packages, and/or features is not the same as “activate” as applied to consent functions of consent features on a device or in the cloud. The latter term applies to consent features to which a user has consented via accepting a consent choice.
  • a consent feature that is designated as active is one that is ready for, and possibly awaiting or already having, user consent-choice selection.
  • a consent package includes or is associated with information needed to present user with consent requests relating to the consent features of the package.
  • Presentation may include consent language, privacy policy, terms of service (if applicable) and other details such as layout, color and branding.
  • Consent language may be human-readable text stored in a text file, for example. Further, multiple language versions of the consent language of any or all consent agreements, such as English, Spanish, French, Japanese, and so on, may be maintained for retrieval and display according to an appropriate language indicator provided and/or associated with each particular content-presentation device.
  • Consent packages can be customized by model and jurisdiction, as required.
  • a consent package can also be designed to allow the consumer to consent to some services and not others. Thus, while presentation to the user may be part of the consent-choice selection is a process, the consent package include the information to enact the user process.
  • provisioning may also support updating these elements. Updating may address changes to a jurisdiction and related changes to agreement language, for example. Other updates could include deactivating or reactivating a campaign, package, or feature, for example. These types of changes could affect all or some target content-presentation devices. Still other updates could revoke or reinstate consent choices already recorded for one or more target devices.
  • Device registration is a process by which a device makes itself known to, and registers with, the consent management platform.
  • Device registration may be initiated by the device transmitting an authentication certificate in a registration request to the platform.
  • the certificate may have been previously signed by a trust entity known to both the device and the platform.
  • the trust entity may be the device manufacturer, and the certificate may be installed in the device, for example in firmware, by the manufacturer.
  • a non-limiting example of an authentication certificated is an X.509 certificate.
  • the device and platform may mutually authenticate using the certificate, and establish a trust relationship that includes or facilitates a secure communication connection between the two.
  • the platform may then determine an appropriate device group and device group ID for the device based on information in the certificate and/or information sent by the device over the secure connection.
  • the platform may generate a global ID (GID) as a combination (e.g, a concatenation) of the device group ID and a random number, for example.
  • GID becomes a unique identifier for the device from among all devices known to the consent management platform, and it also embeds the device group identifier.
  • the GID may be used as an index key into the flat database for rapid and efficient access to a server-based device record associated with the device, as described below.
  • An example device registration process is illustrated in timeline portion B in FIG. 5A , and involves operations R 1 -R 11 between the content-presentation device 202 , the cloud servers 206 , and the flat database 208 , as shown.
  • the content-presentation device may provide an interactive user interface, such as a browser, to an end user, show to the left of the content-presentation device 202 .
  • Other forms of interactive interface could be used as well, such as simple dialog boxes, or the like.
  • an authentication certificate 501 may be provided to or installed in the content-presentation device.
  • the end user may invoke the registration process, which sends a registration request including the certificate 501 to the cloud servers 206 in operation R 2 .
  • a secure communicative connection is set up between the device 202 and the servers 206 at operation R 3 . Communications carried out over the secure connection as shown within a dashed rectangle.
  • the device 202 sends a device ID and group ID to the cloud servers 206 over the secure connection, and in operation R 5 the servers 202 a cryptographically-signed token that is unique to the device, and enables the servers 202 to quickly and uniquely identify the device in future communications as having been registered and certified by the consent management platform.
  • the servers 202 also generate a GID for the device, and device-based device record that includes a sequence number and a device-specific URL (or other form of web-address indicator). The GID is generated by the servers 206 as described above, as is the device-based device record.
  • the device-specific URL may be used by the device to establish subsequent secure interactive communication sessions, such as web-based communications, with the consent management platform 102 for user selection of consent options, as described below.
  • the servers 206 transmit the device token, GID, and device-based device record to the device 202 , which stores these received items locally on the device in operation R 7 .
  • the token may be used by the device 202 to certify its unique identification in subsequent secure communication sessions with the consent-management platform for device check-ins, as also described below.
  • the servers 202 generate a server-based device record that includes the information in the device-based device record, and determine which consent campaigns, packages, features and agreements apply to the device 202 , based on its GID, for example.
  • the identified consent agreements may be added to the server-based device record, initially marked as undeclared.
  • the server-based device record may be stored in the flat database, using the GID as an index for subsequent access to the record.
  • the servers 206 transmit a consent notification request to the device 202 , indicating that at least one consent agreement is marked undeclared.
  • the device 202 sets an open consent request status in response to the consent request notification. As described below, the open consent request will cause the device to launch the user consent-choice selection process upon an occurrence of a device consent event, as described below.
  • User consent-choice selection is a process by which user input data indicating selection of consent-choice options is obtained and processed and recorded by the consent-management platform in order to put the user's choices into effect.
  • the consent-choice selection includes a launching action that navigates the content-presentation device 202 to a device-specific webpage, followed by operations of presenting consent options of consent packages targeted to the device, guiding the user through the associated agreements, including display of terms and conditions configured during provisioning, and obtaining the user's choices via interactive selection functions of the webpage.
  • the device may navigate to the device-specific webpage using the device specific URL returned in the registration process.
  • a device-specific unique identifier for accessing and retrieving remotely-stored consent-package information, as well as other implementations of interactive user displays, may be used.
  • a device-specific unique identifier could be or include a network address of a file server, or the like, that stores consent-package information specific to a device.
  • an interactive display could be or include a simple browser or even simple dialog boxes for receiving user input. Accordingly, the description of example operations in the context of URLs and webpage displays are illustrative and presented by way of example, and are not intended to be limiting with respect to example embodiments herein.
  • the action that launches the user consent-choice selection process entails sending a consent-processing request that includes a device-specific identifier string that specifies a cloud-based location from which consent data specific to the device may be retrieved and used to display consent options at the device.
  • the location could correspond to a network address of webserver of the consent management platform 102
  • the device-specific identifier string could be a URL that points to the webserver.
  • the webserver may be one of the cloud servers 206 , for example. Again, other types of servers besides a webserver could be used.
  • the example of a webserver, URL, and webpage display that is generally used throughout the present disclosures is not intended to be limiting with respect to example embodiments herein.
  • a condition that causes the process to launch is occurrence of a consent event while the device has an open consent request.
  • This scenario ensures that the user consent-choice selection process will be invoked when there are changes or updates to campaigns, packages, and/or features that require updated consent.
  • the URL request received at the consent management platform is referred to as “solicited,” since it is triggered by a condition set by the consent management platform.
  • the user consent-choice selection process can also be launched by a user action to review existing agreement status, even if there have not been any changes or updates that would otherwise require updated consent.
  • the URL request received at the consent management platform is referred to as “unsolicited,” since it is triggered by user input, independently of any condition that may have been set by the consent management platform. While the URL is the same for both solicited and unsolicited requests, the formal request to the webserver that includes the URL may distinguish whether the request is responsive to a consent request notification or a user request to review consent options.
  • An example user consent-choice selection process is illustrated in timeline portion C in FIG. 5B , and involves operations C 1 -C 7 between the content-presentation device 202 , the cloud servers 206 , and the flat database 208 , as shown.
  • the content-presentation device may provide an interactive user interface, such as a browser, to an end user, shown to the left of the content-presentation device 202 .
  • a device consent event occurs while an open request is pending. This causes the user consent process to be launched, which includes sending a webpage request that is or includes the device-specific URL to the servers 202 in operation C 2 .
  • Non-limiting examples of device consent request include receipt of a consent request notification or a user action that invokes a particular feature or function on the device 202 .
  • a webserver that may be one of the servers 206 returns webpage data specific to the device 202 , and including data relating to the consent package that includes consent feature(s) associated with the open consent request.
  • This operation includes or results in presentation of an interactive user interface, such as a web browser, at the content-presentation device 202 . More particularly, a webpage or series of webpages may be displayed that walk the end user through the consent process.
  • Each agreement may be shown to the user, and the user may be prompted to either accept or reject (or decline) consent to the feature identified with agreement. Part of the process may include displaying the language of the agreement, as set during the provisioning process.
  • the webpage request may include a language indicator for the device.
  • the language indicator may be used by the webserver to determine which of possibly multiple language versions (e.g., English, Spanish, French, Japanese, etc.) of any agreements should be displayed.
  • the user may enter (or select) one of the binary choices (accept or reject) of each consent option.
  • the user's input data including the selected options are returned via the secure web session to the web server in consent management platform
  • the server-based device record is updated with the user's selections. More particularly, a server-based activation whitelist is either added to the server-based device record if no activation whitelist already exists, or an existing server-based activation whitelist is updated according the user's choices.
  • the server-based activation whitelist includes a list the consent functions associated with the consent features for which the consent choice designates user acceptance is added to the server-based device record. If server-based activation list already exits, it is modified to include new accepted consent choices that were not previously in the existing whitelist, and/or to delete previously-accepted consent choice that were rejected by the user in the most recent consent process.
  • the functions identified in the server-based whitelist may be server-side or cloud-side functions associated with delivering services associated with consented-to features.
  • the operation C 6 may also include storing identifications of corresponding device-side functions that are associated with the consent-to features. In this way, the consent management platform keeps a record of the device functions to which the user as consented.
  • synchronization data is sent from the servers 206 to the device 202 that causes the device to update its device-based device record to include information that corresponds to the server-based device record.
  • the synchronization data includes the same identifications of device-side functions stored at the platform in operation C 6 . These identifications are then used to update the device-base activation whitelist at the device (or to store a new one if it did not previously exist on the device). This process is part of what is considered synchronization. It also includes setting the device-based sequence number in the device-based device record to the same value as the server-based sequence number in the server-based device record. As described below, during device check-in, agreement or disagreement between the device-based sequence number and the server-based sequence number may be used as a very fast and efficient way to quickly, with little processing and/or data access overhead, determine whether or not device synchronization is required.
  • the now-updated device-based activation whitelist will include identifiers (e.g., names and/or links) of functions that carry out various aspects of consent features to which the user consented (i.e., selected acceptance of consent). Inclusion in the activation whitelist gives permission for the functions in the list to execute as necessary on the device when the associated consent features are invoked.
  • the now-updated server-based activation whitelist may include identifiers of the device-based functions, as well as information about cloud-side operations associated with the consent-to features. This information may be used to give permission for these operations to be carried out as necessary for delivery of the associated service(s) to the particular content-presentation device.
  • whitelist should be understood to describe or specify a list, table, or the like, that associates some form of permission with items in the list.
  • the list items identify functions associated with consent features.
  • Other terms for “whitelist” may be used as well, such as “allowlist.”
  • Device check-in and synchronization is a process by which devices are kept current of updates and/or to campaigns, packages, and/or features that require updated consent, and by which the consent management platform is kept current of changes or updates to the devices, including device changes or updates that both do and don't require updates to consent agreements and associated user choices.
  • both the device and the consent management platform are current with respect to shared, corresponding, and/or complementary information relating to consent status and/or device updates, they are considered to be synchronized. When this is not the case, they are considered be out of synchronization.
  • the check-in process entails a periodic check-in procedure in which the device 202 contacts the server 206 , providing information that enables the server to rapidly and efficiently identify the device and determine the platform and the device are synchronized or out of synchronization.
  • Device check-in and synchronization is initiated by the device periodically (or episodically). Doing so helps ensure that changes or updates that need to be addressed will be discovered. The description below applies to one instance or invocation of the procedure.
  • Check-in is carried out over a secure communication session established using the authentication certificate and further certified with the device token returned the device during the provisioning process.
  • the device token enables the consent management platform to positively confirm that the device is exactly who it claims to be.
  • the device also provides data that includes or indicates its device-based sequence number and GID, which enables the consent management platform to quickly and efficiently determine the mutual synchronization state.
  • the consent management platform determines that the shared/complementary information is synchronized, it sends a check-in complete message to the device and removes the secure connection. This completes the check-in procedure, and in this case no synchronization operations are necessarily needed or carried out.
  • the consent management platform When the consent management platform determines that the shared information is out of synchronization, it launches a synchronization procedure that either addresses a need to update consent choices for the device, updates device information stored in the cloud relating to software versions and/or other changes to the device, or both.
  • An example device check-in and synchronization process is illustrated in timeline portion D in FIG. 5B , and involves operations S 1 -S 9 between the content-presentation device 202 , the cloud servers 206 , and the flat database 208 , as shown.
  • the device 202 launches one instance of the check-in procedure, which begins with a check-in request including the authentication certificate 501 to the cloud servers 206 in operation S 2 .
  • the authentication certificate 501 is used to establish a secure communicative connection between the device and the servers in operation S 3 .
  • the device transmits the token over the secure connection in operation S 4 .
  • This transmission also includes the device-based sequence number and the GID.
  • the token enables the servers 206 to positively certify the device's identity as well as to be able to trust any data it receives over the secure connection as originating from the device and pertaining to the device.
  • the cloud servers 206 use the GID as an index into the flat database 208 to retrieve the server-based device record, which includes the server-based sequence number.
  • the server compares the server-based sequence number with the device-based sequence number to determine whether or not the synchronization procedure needs to be run. If the two sequence numbers are the same, as indicated in operation S 6 ( a ), then the device and the server have synchronized data, so no further data synchronization is needed. In this case, the cloud servers 206 send a check-in complete message in operation S 7 ( a ), and removes the secure connection to complete the check-in procedure.
  • the device and the server are deemed to be out of synchronization, and the synchronization procedure needs to run.
  • At least one of two types of synchronization may be needed, as determined and carried out by the server 206 in one or both of operations S 7 ( b )(i) or S 7 ( b )(ii). More specifically, if the device-based device record indicates an change or update to the device, such as a new software version, that has not been recorded in the server-based device record, as indicated in operation, then the server updates the server-based device record with the device-update information in the device-based device record in S 7 ( b )(ii). Then in operation S 8 ( b )(i), the server and the device synchronize the respective sequence number in their respective device records by setting the two sequence numbers to the same value.
  • the server may transmit a consent request notification to the device in operation S 8 ( b )(ii).
  • the server may determine the need for updated consent choices from the device by finding one or more consent agreements with undeclared status in the server-based device record. This could be the result of an earlier provisioning action. For example, a consent package may have been updated such that one or more agreements changed in a manner that now requires a new user selection. Setting the changed agreement's status to undeclared during provisioning may thus serve as an alert during synchronization that new user selection is needed.
  • a subsequent launch of the user consent-choice selection process may be triggered in operation C 1 , as described above.
  • the updated server-based device record may be stored back in the flat database 208 .
  • operations S 7 ( b )(i) and S 7 ( b )(ii), as well as operations S 8 ( b )(i) and S 8 ( b )(ii) are not necessarily exclusive. That is, synchronization may involve both types of operations. Also, in the context of the organizational description of the four high-level processes, the synchronization process for updating consent choices may appear to complete with the consent request notification. However, in accordance with example embodiments, this type of synchronization also involves the user consent-choice selection process to carry out the actual updating and synchronization of the server-based device record and the device-based device record.
  • An example of another aspect includes deregistering or unregistering a device, for example by a factory reset action at the device. This may result in the device returning to an unregistered state in which it ceases check-ins, and instead initiates a new registration with the consent management platform on its next communication with the platform. During the new registration, the platform treats the device as if it has never before registered, generating a new token and other registration/consent data, as described above.
  • the platform may deleted all previous cloud-side data it had created for the device, or it may retain the data in an “orphaned” state—i.e., having no currently known device with which to associate the data.
  • Another aspect consent management could involve discovery during synchronization that a device has changed jurisdictions. This could be determined from location information of the device, such as its network address when contacting the server, or another geolocation method, such as GPS (global positioning satellite) system measurement. Determination of a change in jurisdiction could then cause the consent management platform to update consent agreements for the device accordingly, which may subsequently cause the user consent-choice selection process to be invoked. Other examples are possible as well.
  • a given content-presentation device may have multiple instances of consent data corresponding to multiple jurisdictions from which it has checked in.
  • not all updates to consent campaigns or packages may necessarily require updated consent choices from a device. For example, some changes to consent agreement language may not effect terms in a manner that require the user to update all or any associated consent options. An updated package may necessitate some updated choices and leave others untouched.
  • the use of the GID to access the server-based device record from the flat database 208 , and application of the comparison of the server-based sequence number and the device-based sequence number, advantageously enables very efficient and rapid determination of the mutual synchronization state of the content-presentation device 202 and the consent management platform 102 .
  • This approach is particularly beneficial in view of the very large number of content-presentation devices that may require consent management and the periodicity with which device check-in is carried out.
  • FIGS. 6A, 6B, 6C, and 6D depict example webpage displays of a content-presentation device relating to operations of a consent management system, in accordance with example embodiments.
  • the webpages may be displayed on a smart TV device, for example, that has an internet connection or other communications network connection.
  • a uses may navigate the webpages using a remote control device or other input device, such a keyboard.
  • FIG. 6A shows an example webpage that may be displayed at the start of a web session for user selection of options relating to personalized advertising.
  • a user may be prompted to review options by selecting “Review” and clicking the “Enter” button on the display.
  • FIG. 6B shows an example webpage that displayed according to a personalized advertising consent package.
  • the language of the agreement (shown in the figure as “gibberish” text for illustrative purposes only) is displayed for the user's review.
  • consent agreements may be presented in any one of one or more languages, depending on a language indicator or other information provided by the device. Selection options are presented below the agreement language.
  • the user may return to the webpage of FIG. 6B by clicking the “Back” button on the webpage of FIG. 6C .
  • a user may then check “Enable” or “Disable” for each feature of the consent package displayed in FIG. 6B . Once consent choices have been checked, they may be entered and recorded by clicking the “Enter” button on the display.
  • FIG. 6D shows an example webpage for completing the user selection process.
  • the user may signal completion by clicking the “Exit” button on the webpage display.
  • the webpage display evidently assumes the user is using a remote control device.
  • other input device may be used as well.
  • FIGS. 7A, 7B, 7C, and 7D depict example webpage displays of a server of a consent management system, in accordance with example embodiments.
  • these webpages may be displayed on a display component of the administrative operations and interfaces 212 as part of the consent provisioning and configuration process, for example. It may be assumed for purposes of the present discussion that an administrative user is reviewing and entering information via webpages such as those shown.
  • FIG. 7A shows an example webpage for configuring whitelist items for a consent package relating to dynamic advertising and audience measurement. As shown by way of example, two items have been selected for configuration according to associated check boxes.
  • FIG. 7B shows an example webpage that presents a preview of webpage that will displayed on a content-presentation device. This allow an administrative user to evaluate and assess the form and format of what users will see.
  • FIG. 7C shows an example webpage that presents options for jurisdictions for the associated consent campaign. Selections are made according to associated check boxes next to specific countries, which in this example server as jurisdictions. Other definitions of jurisdictions could apply as well.
  • FIG. 7D shows an example webpage that an administrative user might use to associated a consent package with a consent campaign.
  • FIGS. 8A and 8B collectively make up a flow chart of an example method 800 of consent provisioning that could be carried out in connection with, or in the context of, a consent management system, such as that described above.
  • the example method 800 could be implemented on and/or carried out by a computing system, such as computing system 300 described above, and/or a computing cloud, such as computing cloud 104 also described above. More particularly, the example method 800 could be implemented on and/or carried out by a consent management system including one or more processors, and non-transitory computer-readable storage medium and/or media having stored thereon program instructions that, upon execution by the one or processors, cause the consent management system to carry out operations including operations of example method 800 .
  • Blocks 802 , 804 , and 806 are shown in FIG. 8A ; blocks 808 , 810 , 812 , 814 , 816 , and 818 are shown in FIG. 8A , and are a continuation of the method 800 that begins in FIG. 8A .
  • the method 800 may be carried out at a consent management server and or other elements of a consent management platform disposed in a computing cloud.
  • the method 800 includes, at the consent manager server, retrieving a consent-package data file from a consent-package file server.
  • the consent-package data file may identify a consent package, and may include presentation-description information for rendering an interactive graphical user interface at one or more content-presentation devices for user selection of consent-agreement options associated with one or more consent features of a media distribution system that require prior end-user consent in order to be activated for the at least one content-presentation device.
  • the method 800 includes, at the consent manager server, receiving administrative-user first input specifying one or more consent agreements.
  • Each of the consent agreements may identify a respective consent feature with the consent package.
  • Each given consent agreement may be associated with a given textual language description of the given consent agreement, where the given textual language description is or includes a human-readable explanation of both the respective consent feature identified by the given consent agreement and a regulatory-compliant statement of what acceptance of consent to the respective consent feature by a given user means and/or implies in relation to the given user.
  • the textual language description could be a written explanation of the terms of the given agreement—i.e., what a user agrees to when giving (accepting) consent.
  • the method 800 includes, at the consent manager server, receiving administrative-user second input that associates each of a group of one or more content-presentation devices with the consent package, and that specifies an indicator of a common geographic location of the group of the one or more content-presentation devices.
  • the regulatory-compliant statement may be compliant with respect to a jurisdiction associated with the common geographic location.
  • the method 800 includes, at the consent manager server, receiving administrative-user third input designating each respective consent feature of the consent package as active.
  • a consent feature that is designated as active effectively labels or identifies it as ready for use, and possibly awaiting or already having, user consent-choice selection.
  • any given consent feature of the consent package designated as active may require end-user acceptance of consent in order to be activated for the any given content-presentation device of the group.
  • the meaning of the term “activated” is different from that of “activate,” as also described above.
  • the method 800 includes, at the consent manager server, updating the consent-package data file by recording the first, second, and third inputs in the consent-package data file.
  • the method 800 includes storing the updated consent-package data file in the consent-package file server.
  • the method 800 includes, at the consent management platform, responsive to receiving a consent-processing request from a particular content-presentation device of the group, transmitting to the particular content-presentation device response data associated with the consent package.
  • the response data may be configured for causing the particular content-presentation device to display an interactive user interface for receiving user input specifying user choices of options associated with the one or more consent agreements of the consent package.
  • the method 800 includes, at the consent management platform, receiving the user choices entered via the interactive user interface.
  • the method 800 includes activating for the particular content-presentation device any consent feature associated with any consent agreement for which the user accepted consent.
  • activating a consent feature for a content-presentation device effectively gives permission for functions that perform or carry out the feature to run or execute. Some such functions may operate on the device, while others may operate in the cloud.
  • designating each respective consent feature of the consent package as active may entail designating the consent package as active. That is, designating a consent package as active may have the effect of designating all of the features of the package as active.
  • the consent package may be one of one or more consent packages of a consent campaign associated with the group of one or more content-presentation devices, and each of the one or more consent packages of the consent campaign may have a respective consent-package data file in the consent-package file server.
  • each of the one or more consent packages may include a respective set of one or more consent features and associated set of one or more consent agreements.
  • designating the consent package as active may entail designating each of the one or more consent packages of the consent campaign as active by designating the consent campaign as active. That is, designating a consent campaign as active may have the effect of designating all of the package of the campaign as active.
  • the consent-package request from the particular content-presentation device may include an identifier string specific and unique to the particular content-presentation device.
  • the identifier string may be configured to provide access to the content-package data file.
  • the method 800 further may further entail operations carried out prior to receiving the consent-package request from the particular content-presentation device.
  • These prior operations may include retrieving a server-based device record associated with the particular content-presentation device from a flat database of the consent management platform, and then updating the server-based device record for the particular content-presentation device by inserting (i) an identifier of the consent package, (ii) identifiers of the one or more consent agreements identified with the consent package, and (iii) one or more consent agreement status indicators corresponding to the consent agreements and initialized to undeclared status.
  • the prior operations may then include storing the updated server-based device record for the particular content-presentation device in the flat database, and transmitting to the particular content-presentation device a consent request notification indicating that at least one consent agreement status indicator in the server-based device record is marked as undeclared.
  • the consent-processing request may be a webpage request
  • the identifier string that is specific and unique to the particular content-presentation device may be or include a uniform record locator (URL) for a web resource associated with the one or more consent packages.
  • URL uniform record locator
  • the consent-package request from the particular content-presentation device may include the identifier string specific and unique to the particular content-presentation device.
  • the identifier string may be configured to provide access to each content-package data file of the consent campaign.
  • the method 800 may further entail other operations carried out prior to receiving the consent-package request from the particular content-presentation device.
  • the other prior operations may include retrieving a server-based device record associated with the particular content-presentation device from a flat database of the consent management platform, and updating the server-based device record for the particular content-presentation device by inserting (i) an identifier of each consent package of the consent campaign, (ii) identifiers of the set of one or more agreements associated with each consent package of the consent campaign, and (iii) one or more consent agreement status indicators corresponding to the one or more consent agreements. Each status indicator may be initialized to undeclared status.
  • the other prior operations may then include storing the updated server-based device record for the particular content-presentation device in the flat database, and transmitting to the particular content-presentation device a consent request notification indicating that at least one consent agreement status indicator in the server-based device record is marked as undeclared.
  • the method 800 may further entail operations carried out subsequent to storing the updated consent-package data file in the consent-package file server. These subsequent operations may include retrieving the updated consent-package data file from a consent-package file server, and receiving administrative-user modification input specifying a modification to the updated consent-package data file.
  • the modification may be one or more of (i) adding one or more additional consent agreements, where each identifies a respective additional consent feature with the consent package, (ii) revising the given textual language description of one or more of the given consent agreements, or (iii) designating one or more of the respective consent features of the consent package as inactive.
  • the subsequent operations may further include storing the modified updated consent-package data file in the consent-package file server, and making an update to a respective server-based device record associated with each respective content-presentation device of the group. All of the respective server-based device records may be stored in a flat database of the consent management platform, and the update may include an indication that the consent-package of the updated consent-package file has been modified.
  • the indication may be configured to cause each respective content-presentation device to communicate with the consent management platform in a process for obtaining updated respective user choices of options associated with one or more consent agreements of the consent package associated with the modification to the updated consent-package data file.
  • activating for the particular content-presentation device the any consent feature associated with any consent agreement for which the user accepted consent may entail making an activation update to a server-based device record associated with the particular content-presentation device and stored in a flat database of the consent management platform.
  • the activation update may include an indication of the any consent feature associated with any consent agreement for which the user accepted consent.
  • activating the any consent feature may also entail causing the particular content presentation device to make the activation update to a device-based device record associated with the particular content-presentation device and stored at the particular content presentation device.
  • the server-based device record may be associated with the particular content-presentation device and may further include an indication of a geographic location of the particular content-presentation device and a list of the one or more consent agreements.
  • the method 800 may further entail operations carried out subsequent to receiving the user choices entered via the interactive user interface. These subsequent operation may include making a consent update to the server-based device record associated with the particular content-presentation device, where the consent update entails removing one or more of the one or more listed consent agreements.
  • the subsequent operations may also include causing the particular content-presentation device to communicate with the consent management platform in a process for obtaining updated user choices of options corresponding to the consent update to the server-based device record associated with the particular content-presentation device.
  • the examples and features described above have been described in connection with specific entities and specific operations, in practice, there are likely to be many instances of these entities and many instances of these operations being performed, perhaps contemporaneously or simultaneously, on a large-scale basis. Indeed, in practice, the content-modification system 100 is likely to include many content-distribution systems (each potentially transmitting content on many channels) and many content-presentation devices, with some or all of the described operations being performed on a routine and repeating basis in connection with some or all of these entities.

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Abstract

A method may include a consent manager server of a consent management platform retrieving from a file server a consent-package file identifying a consent package and including information for establishing a secure interactive session with a content-presentation device for selecting consent-agreement options associated with consent features of a media distribution system that require consent to be activated for the device. Receiving input (i) specifying consent agreements for the package and associated text descriptions of the agreements, (ii) associating devices with the package, (iii) specifying a jurisdiction for the agreements, and (iv) designating features of the package as active. The package file may be updated with the input and re-stored in the file server. Responsive a consent-processing request from a content-presentation device, an interactive session may be established with the device for receiving user consent choices. Features of the package to which user consented may be activated for the device.

Description

    CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
  • This application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. § 119(e) to U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 62/924,102, filed on Oct. 21, 2019, which is incorporated herein in its entirety by reference.
    • USAGE AND TERMINOLOGY
  • In this disclosure, unless otherwise specified and/or unless the particular context clearly dictates otherwise, the terms “a” or “an” mean at least one, and the term “the” means the at least one.
    • SUMMARY
  • In one aspect, a method may include: at a consent manager server of a consent management platform disposed in a computing cloud, retrieving a consent-package data file from a consent-package file server, the consent-package data file identifying a consent package, and comprising presentation-description information for rendering an interactive graphical user interface at at least one content-presentation device for user selection of consent-agreement options associated with one or more consent features of a media distribution system that require prior end-user consent in order to be activated for the at least one content-presentation device; at the consent manager server, receiving administrative-user first input specifying one or more consent agreements, each identifying a respective consent feature with the consent package, wherein each given consent agreement of the one or more consent agreements is associated with a given textual language description of the given consent agreement, the given textual language description comprising a human-readable explanation of both the respective consent feature identified by the given consent agreement and a regulatory-compliant statement of what acceptance of consent to the respective consent feature by a given user means and/or implies in relation to the given user; at the consent manager server, receiving administrative-user second input (i) associating each of a group of one or more content-presentation devices with the consent package, and (ii) specifying an indicator of a common geographic location of the group of the one or more content-presentation devices, wherein the regulatory-compliant statement is compliant with respect to a jurisdiction associated with the common geographic location; at the consent manager server, receiving administrative-user third input designating each respective consent feature of the consent package as active, wherein any given consent feature of the consent package designated as active requires, for any given content-presentation device of the group, end-user acceptance of consent in order to be activated for the any given content-presentation device of the group; at the consent manager server, updating the consent-package data file by recording the first, second, and third inputs in the consent-package data file; storing the updated consent-package data file in the consent-package file server; at the consent management platform, responsive to receiving a consent-package request from a particular content-presentation device of the group, transmitting to the particular content-presentation device response data associated with the consent package, and configured for causing the particular content-presentation device to display an interactive user interface for receiving user input specifying user choices of options associated with the one or more consent agreements of the consent package; at the consent management platform, receiving the user choices entered via the interactive user interface; and activating for the particular content-presentation device any consent feature associated with any consent agreement for which the user accepted consent.
  • In another aspect, a consent manager server of a consent management platform may be disposed in a computing cloud, and the consent manager server may include: one or more processors; and a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon program instructions that, upon execution by the one or processors, cause the consent manager server to carry out operations including: retrieving a consent-package data file from a consent-package file server, the consent-package data file identifying a consent package, and comprising presentation-description information for rendering an interactive graphical user interface at at least one content-presentation device for user selection of consent-agreement options associated with one or more consent features of a media distribution system that require prior end-user consent in order to be activated for the at least one content-presentation device; receiving administrative-user first input specifying one or more consent agreements, each identifying a respective consent feature with the consent package, wherein each given consent agreement of the one or more consent agreements is associated with a given textual language description of the given consent agreement, the given textual language description comprising a human-readable explanation of both the respective consent feature identified by the given consent agreement and a regulatory-compliant statement of what acceptance of consent to the respective consent feature by a given user means and/or implies in relation to the given user; receiving administrative-user second input (i) associating each of a group of one or more content-presentation devices with the consent package, and (ii) specifying an indicator of a common geographic location of the group of the one or more content-presentation devices, wherein the regulatory-compliant statement is compliant with respect to a jurisdiction associated with the common geographic location; receiving administrative-user third input designating each respective consent feature of the consent package as active, wherein any given consent feature of the consent package designated as active requires, for any given content-presentation device of the group, end-user acceptance of consent in order to be activated for the any given content-presentation device of the group; updating the consent-package data file by recording the first, second, and third inputs in the consent-package data file; storing the updated consent-package data file in the consent-package file server; responsive to receiving a consent-package request from a particular content-presentation device of the group, transmitting to the particular content-presentation device response data associated with the consent package, and configured for causing the particular content-presentation device to display an interactive user interface for receiving user input specifying user choices of options associated with the one or more consent agreements of the consent package; receiving the user choices entered via the interactive user interface; and activating for the particular content-presentation device any consent feature associated with any consent agreement for which the user accepted consent.
  • In another aspect, non-transitory computer-readable storage medium may have stored thereon program instructions that, upon execution by one or more processors of a consent manager server of a consent management platform disposed in a computing cloud, cause the consent management platform to carry out operations including: retrieving a consent-package data file from a consent-package file server, the consent-package data file identifying a consent package, and comprising presentation-description information for rendering an interactive graphical user interface at at least one content-presentation device for user selection of consent-agreement options associated with one or more consent features of a media distribution system that require prior end-user consent in order to be activated for the at least one content-presentation device; receiving administrative-user first input specifying one or more consent agreements, each identifying a respective consent feature with the consent package, wherein each given consent agreement of the one or more consent agreements is associated with a given textual language description of the given consent agreement, the given textual language description comprising a human-readable explanation of both the respective consent feature identified by the given consent agreement and a regulatory-compliant statement of what acceptance of consent to the respective consent feature by a given user means and/or implies in relation to the given user; receiving administrative-user second input (i) associating each of a group of one or more content-presentation devices with the consent package, and (ii) specifying an indicator of a common geographic location of the group of the one or more content-presentation devices, wherein the regulatory-compliant statement is compliant with respect to a jurisdiction associated with the common geographic location; receiving administrative-user third input designating each respective consent feature of the consent package as active, wherein any given consent feature of the consent package designated as active requires, for any given content-presentation device of the group, end-user acceptance of consent in order to be activated for the any given content-presentation device of the group; updating the consent-package data file by recording the first, second, and third inputs in the consent-package data file; storing the updated consent-package data file in the consent-package file server; responsive to receiving a consent-package request from a particular content-presentation device of the group, transmitting to the particular content-presentation device response data associated with the consent package, and configured for causing the particular content-presentation device to display an interactive user interface for receiving user input specifying user choices of options associated with the one or more consent agreements of the consent package; receiving the user choices entered via the interactive user interface; and activating for the particular content-presentation device any consent feature associated with any consent agreement for which the user accepted consent.
    • BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
  • FIG. 1 is a simplified block diagram of an example consent management system in which various described principles can be implemented.
  • FIG. 2 is a simplified block diagram of an example consent management system shown in a context of an example high-level architecture, in accordance with example embodiments.
  • FIG. 3 is a simplified block diagram of an example computing system in which various described principles can be implemented.
  • FIG. 4A illustrates a high-level data architecture for consent management, in accordance with example embodiments.
  • FIG. 4B depicts example data records used for consent management, in accordance with example embodiments.
  • FIGS. 5A and 5B collectively make up an example operational flow diagram showing operations of various aspects of an example consent management system, in accordance with example embodiments.
  • FIGS. 6A, 6B, 6C, and 6D depict example webpage displays of a content-presentation device relating to operations of a consent management system, in accordance with example embodiments.
  • FIGS. 7A, 7B, 7C, and 7D depict example webpage displays of a server of a consent management system, in accordance with example embodiments.
  • FIGS. 8A and 8B collectively make up a flow chart of an example method.
    •  DETAILED DESCRIPTION I. Overview
  • To deliver and present content to end-users, a content provider can transmit the content to one or more content-distribution systems, each of which can in turn transmit the content to one or more respective content-presentation devices, such as television sets and/or set-top boxes, to be output for presentation to respective end-users. Such a hierarchical arrangement can facilitate convenient, widespread distribution of content.
  • By way of example, in order for a video content provider to deliver video content to end-users throughout the United States, the video content provider can transmit the video content by satellite or another medium to content-distribution systems that serve respective designated market areas (DMAs) within the United States. Each such content-distribution system can therefore receive the national satellite feed carrying the video content and can transmit the video content to television sets and/or set-top boxes in the content-distribution system's DMA, such that the video content can be output for presentation to respective end-users in that DMA. In practice, these content-distribution systems and their means of transmission to content-presentation devices can take various forms. For instance, a content-distribution system can be associated with a cable-television provider and can transmit video content to content-presentation devices of end-users who are cable-television subscribers through hybrid fiber/coaxial cable connections.
  • As such, in various scenarios, a content-distribution system can transmit content to a content-presentation device, which can receive and output the content for presentation to an end-user. In some situations, even though the content-presentation device receives content from the content-distribution system, it can be desirable for the content-presentation device to perform a content-modification operation so that the content-presentation device can output for presentation alternative content instead of at least a portion of that received content.
  • For example, in the case where the content-presentation device receives a linear sequence of content segments that includes a given advertisement segment positioned somewhere within the sequence, it can be desirable for the content-presentation device to replace the given advertisement segment with a different advertisement segment that is perhaps more targeted to the end-user (e.g., more targeted to the end-user's interests, demographics, etc.). As another example, it can be desirable for the content-presentation device to overlay on the given advertisement segment, overlay content that enhances the given advertisement segment in a way that is again perhaps more targeted to the end-user. Other forms of content modification are possible as well.
  • Content modification is one example of media operations and/or services and/or media-related services and/or operations that a content-presentation device or client device can perform to enhance, extend, or expand more traditionally passive user experiences of program reception. Other examples may include data collection of client viewing history/statistics, and audience response measurement. These are all non-limiting examples of operational features that may, in addition, relate to user preferences and/or user privacy, at least to the extent that users may wish to, and/or may be given legally required, control of if and when to enable and/or activate some or all of the operational features. As such, active performance of such operational features may be subject to, and/or require, prior and/or continuing, user consent. For example, a user may wish to opt out of client viewing history/statistics data collection by their content-presentation device, but may wish to be presented with customized advertising, when available. It may therefore be desirable or necessary to provide users the ability to set or select consent options for operational features that have them, either as a matter of convenience or regulatory compliance, for example.
  • In addition to setting or selecting options for consent associated with particular operational features, a user may wish to modify previous opt-in/out choices from time to time. There may also be various reasons for a user to be made aware of a need or option to update previous consent choices or selections. Non-limiting examples include the availability of new operational features requiring consent, changes in regulations governing consent for particular operational features, updates in privacy laws, and physical relocation of a content-presentation device from an initial geographic region to a new geographic region for which compliance regulations differ from those of the initial geographic region. It may therefore be necessary or desirable to be able to notify users in such situations, and prompt users to update their consent settings or selections.
  • In practice, management of consent and privacy relating to the types of enhanced features described above can be complex in terms of the arrays of features involved, the number and variety of consent options associated with the features, factors that determine the consent options, and the number of content-presentation devices that may need to support user selection of consent options. For example, management of consent and privacy may involve identifying operational features subject to consent, determining various legal and jurisdictional compliance aspects of consent, obtaining/tracking/monitoring consent selections/options associated with multitudes of content-presentation devices, and updating consent and privacy options in view of changes to both the universe of operational features subject to consent and the rules that govern/specify consent.
  • In order to meet these technical and regulatory challenges, the inventors have devised a consent management system and methods of operation thereof that provides efficient and flexible management of consent associated with operational features and/or services that require consent in order to be activated for use on and/or by content-presentation devices. Such operational features and/or services may have some aspects that function on individual content presentation devices and other aspects that function remotely, in servers and/or content provider networks, for example. In accordance with example embodiments, operational aspects of a consent management system may include user device registration, interactive user selection of consent choices, periodic check-in by user devices to ensure and/or update synchronization with the management system, and administrative provisioning/management of the consent management system.
    • II. Architecture
  • A. Consent Management System
  • FIG. 1 is a simplified block diagram of an example consent management system 100, in accordance with example embodiments. The example consent management system 100 includes a consent management platform disposed in a computing cloud 104, and client device 106 that includes a device agent 108. In accordance with example embodiments, the consent management platform 102 may carry out operations relating to administrative provisioning of consent packages and consent campaigns, such as creating and configuring various databases and other information stores for identifying and organizing operational features that are subject to user consent. Other operations of the consent management platform 102 may include storing consent-related information associated with individual client devices, and communicating with client devices in order to register them, obtain user consent information, and synchronize consent information in the client device 106 and the consent management platform 102.
  • The client device 106 is a user device that may implement operational features and/or services that require prior user consent in order to be activated for execution on the client device. A content-presentation device, such as a smart TV, is an example of a client device. Example operational features and/or services that may be subject to, or require, consent include customized advertisement replacement (or, more generally, content modification), audience response measurement, and user viewing history/statistics. The device agent 108 implements consent-related functions and operations on the client 106, such as communicating with the consent management platform, and providing an interactive user interface, such as a web browser, to obtain user input relating to consent options. The client device may also be referred to herein as a user device or end-user device, since it may be operated by a user.
  • The computing cloud 104 represents a managed collection of computing hardware and software resources which may be made available via a communications network, such as a public or private internet, to serve as computing and/or networking infrastructure for enterprises and/or organizations. In some deployments, a computing cloud, or just “cloud,” may augment or replace computing and/or networking infrastructure for a company or business, for example. The physical implementation of a cloud may include various servers, databases, and file server systems, which may be centrally located and/or distributed. A server may, in turn, include one or more computing devices that include one or more processors, memory, and instructions for carrying out various tasks and operations. Cloud computing resources may be implemented virtually, across multiple subdivisions and/or logical partitions of computing infrastructure, such as processor processing cycles, and delivered to multiple subscribers—e.g., enterprises, organizations, etc.—in a manner that makes the resources appear to each subscriber as dedicated. Some implementations may in fact provide some actual dedicated resources of the cloud to individual subscribers.
  • A computing cloud may be owned by commercial operator and made available to subscribers for a fee. Examples include Amazon Web Services (AWS™) and Azure™. In other instances, a computing cloud may be owned and operated by the same enterprise or organization that utilizes the resources for supporting its own infrastructure needs. In some arrangements, a cloud may be implemented, at least in part, as a collection of actual servers and storage systems. Other arrangements are possible as well.
  • As described above, consent management may involve operations carried out on both the consent-management platform 102 and the by the device agent 108 on behalf of the client 106. Operations carried out on the consent-management platform are referred to herein as “cloud-side” operations or “server-side” operations, since they are carried out in the cloud and/or by servers (possibly in the cloud). The term “network-side” operations may also be used. Operations carried out by the device agent 108 are referred to herein as “client-side” operations or “device-side” operations. Since consent management involves both types of operations, and both types of apparatuses, the consent management system 100 is considered to include both the consent management platform 102 and the client device 106.
  • In accordance with example embodiments, the disposition of the consent management platform 102 in the computing cloud 104 is indicative of implementation of at least some elements of the platform in the cloud. More particularly, the consent management platform 102 may include one or more servers, databases, and file servers implemented in the computing cloud 104. Thus, the servers, databases, and file servers may be implemented virtually and/or physically as shared and/or dedicated resources. Further, some implementations of the server side of a consent management system may be based on one or more servers, data bases, and other computing devices and/or systems, that may not necessarily conform to any particular characterization of a computing cloud, but may nevertheless provide computing infrastructure and resources available via a network to other devices, such as the client device 106. As such example embodiments of a consent management platform, such platform 102, are not necessarily limited to implementation strictly in a computing cloud.
  • FIG. 2 is a simplified block diagram of an example consent management system shown in a context of an example high-level architecture, in accordance with example embodiments. In addition to the consent management platform 102, computing cloud 104, and content-presentation device 202 with device agent 204, FIG. 2 also includes media content broadcast and delivery systems 216 (or just systems 216) and an internet 220 by which, as signified by the lightning bolt lines between the entities and the internet 220, various entities in the figure are communicatively connected. As shown, the consent management platform includes cloud servers 206, a flat database 208, a relational database 210, and administrative operations interfaces 212, some or all of which may be implemented with and/or by cloud resources. The flat database 208 refers to a flat, or horizontal, record structure, in contrast to a table-based structure of a relational database. A flat database may provide significant access speed benefits and advantages for operations such as checking just one or a few data record fields in a database containing a very large number of records. An example of a flat database is a so-called NoSql, or non-SQL database. By way of example, the computing cloud 104 also includes other cloud servers and services 214—also implemented with and/or by cloud resources—which may support other types of services, as described below.
  • The systems 216 represent media broadcast services that include not only broadcast delivery of content to the content-presentation device 202 via a broadcast connection 203, such as network television broadcasts, for example, but also customized and/or targeted content or other replacement content via a network connection 205. The replacement content could be customized/targeted advertising, for example, that is dynamically inserted by the content-presentation device 202 into the presentation of the broadcast media as it is being displayed or played out in real time. The operations involved in such dynamic content replacement may include communication and coordination between the content-presentation device 202 and the systems 216 via the network connection 205, as well as communication and coordination between the systems 216 and other cloud servers and services 214 via the network connection 209. Dynamic content replacement may also involve communication and coordination between the content-presentation device 202 and the other cloud servers and services 214 via the network connection 207.
  • While detailed operational description of dynamic content replace or modification is not presented herein, it may be generally understood to include conventional aspects of content broadcast, determination of candidate replacement content based on user identity derived from identity of the content-presentation device, for example, location of candidate content, and various timing operations to ensure that replacement content is inserted into media content playout by the content-presentation device at precisely the right moment. Each of these, and possibly other, device-side operation and/or cloud-side (or server-side) operations may involve coordination and/or cooperation across the network. Dynamic content replacement may involve targeting a specific user, and is therefore an example of a service that may require user consent before it may be activated and carried out. Correspondingly, some or all of the device-side operations and cloud-side operations involved in the service may also require prior user consent. As noted above, audience measurement and viewing history/statistics are other non-limiting examples of services that may require user consent, including consent relating to various device-side operations and cloud-side operations of these services.
  • As described above, the consent management system 100 includes both the consent-management platform 102 for carrying out cloud-side operations and the content-presentation device 202 for carrying out device-side operations. The communicative connection 201 between the cloud servers 206 of the platform 102 and the device agent 204 of the device 202 support communications between the two sides that are part of various operations of consent management. A detailed discussion of consent management is presented by way of example operational description below.
  • B. Example Computing System
  • FIG. 3 is a simplified block diagram of an example computing or system 300. The computing system 300 can be configured to perform and/or can perform one or more operations, such as the operations described in this disclosure, and represents an example of computing device or system that can be used to partially of fully implement any one or more of the cloud components or devices shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, as well as those referenced elsewhere herein. The computing system 300 can include various components, such as a processor 302, a data-storage unit 304, a communication interface 306, and/or a user interface 308.
  • The processor 302 can be or include a general-purpose processor (e.g., a microprocessor) and/or a special-purpose processor (e.g., a digital signal processor). The processor 302 can execute program instructions included in the data-storage unit 304 as described below.
  • The data-storage unit 304 can be or include one or more volatile, non-volatile, removable, and/or non-removable storage components, such as magnetic, optical, and/or flash storage, and/or can be integrated in whole or in part with the processor 302. Further, the data-storage unit 304 can be or include a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, having stored thereon program instructions (e.g., compiled or non-compiled program logic and/or machine code) that, upon execution by the processor 302, cause the computing system 300 and/or another computing system to perform one or more operations, such as the operations described in this disclosure. These program instructions can define, and/or be part of, a discrete software application.
  • In some instances, the computing system 300 can execute program instructions in response to receiving an input, such as an input received via the communication interface 306 and/or the user interface 308. The data-storage unit 304 can also store other data, such as any of the data described in this disclosure.
  • The communication interface 306 can allow the computing system 300 to connect with and/or communicate with another entity according to one or more protocols. Therefore, the computing system 300 can transmit data to, and/or receive data from, one or more other entities according to one or more protocols. In one example, the communication interface 306 can be or include a wired interface, such as an Ethernet interface or a High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI). In another example, the communication interface 306 can be or include a wireless interface, such as a cellular or WI-FI interface.
  • The user interface 308 can allow for interaction between the computing system 300 and a user of the computing system 300. As such, the user interface 308 can be or include an input component such as a keyboard, a mouse, a remote controller, a microphone, and/or a touch-sensitive panel. The user interface 308 can also be or include an output component such as a display device (which, for example, can be combined with a touch-sensitive panel) and/or a sound speaker.
  • The computing system 300 can also include one or more connection mechanisms that connect various components within the computing system 300. For example, the computing system 300 can include the connection mechanisms represented by lines that connect components of the computing system 300, as shown in FIG. 3.
  • The computing system 300 can include one or more of the above-described components and can be configured or arranged in various ways. For example, the computing system 300 can be configured as a server and/or a client (or perhaps a cluster of servers and/or a cluster of clients) operating in one or more server-client type arrangements, for instance.
  • As noted above, the content-presentation device 106 and/or 202 and/or components thereof can take the form of a computing system, such as the computing system 300. In some cases, some or all these entities can take the form of a more specific type of computing system. For instance, in the case of the content-presentation device 106 and/or 202, it can take the form of a desktop computer, a laptop, a tablet, a mobile phone, a television set, a set-top box, a television set with an integrated set-top box, a media dongle, or a television set with a media dongle connected to it, among other possibilities.
  • C. Example Data Architecture
  • FIGS. 4A and 4B illustrate certain aspects of an example data architecture and organization that may be used in a consent management system 100 to manage various aspects of consent and consent-related operations. More particularly, FIG. 4A illustrates an example organizational structure of consent management elements, and how they are related. One or more services, such as content replacement, that require user consent to be made operational for a particular content-presentation device may be associated with a consent package. A consent package may, in turn, include one or more consent features, and each consent feature may be associated with one or more consent functions, which are the actual device-based and/or cloud-based functions and/or application programs that are invoked or executed in order to implement operation of the service or services. In order for a service to be operational, its associated functions must be activated by a user, thereby giving them consent to do so. Consent management involves managing the various combinations of consent features and functions that apply to each individual content-presentation device, as well as user selections that have been or need to be made for each device.
  • As shown in FIG. 4A, a consent package 402-1 may be associated or identified with consent features 408-01, 408-2, . . . , 408-m by way of consent agreements 407-1, 407-2, . . . , 407-m, respectively. Each consent agreement includes or may be linked to specific verbiage that describes, in human-readable language, the meaning and terms of consenting to the agreement. In addition, the verbiage may also be compliant with rules, regulations, and/or laws of one or more particular jurisdictions. Jurisdictions may be associated with geographic location, areas, or regions, for example. Compliance may also apply to services encompassed by the consent features. Thus, a consent package may be “constructed” by identifying it to consent features by way of consent agreements.
  • As also shown, consent feature 408-1 is associated with functions 410-1, 410-2, . . . , 410-k. These functions, which may themselves each be made up of one or more sub-functions, represent and/or link to executable code or instructions that carry out various aspects of a service. Similarly, each of consent of features 408-2, . . . , 408-m may also be associated with one or more functions, although this is not explicitly shown in the figure.
  • Multiple consent packages may be group together into a consent campaign. In the example of FIG. 4A, consent package 402-1 is grouped with consent packages 402-2, . . . , 402-n in consent campaign 406. In turn, consent campaign 406 may be associated with collection of devices 424 . . . that make up a device group 420. In the context of FIG. 4A, devices 424 . . . represents some form of identifiers of actual devices, and device group 420 represent a listing or other data structure of the identifiers. A consent campaign may define and organize common aspects of consent packages, features, agreements, functions for one or more groups of content-presentation devices. In an example embodiment, the group may be a collection of devices made having the same manufacturer, possibly same model number or other sub-categorization of the manufacturer, and same jurisdiction, among other commonalities that determine their membership in the group. A device group associated with a particular consent campaign are referred to herein as “target devices,” and an individual content-presentation device that is associated with a campaign is referred to as a “target device.” A device that is a target of consent campaign can also be considered a target of the consent packages, agreements, features, and functions that are part of the campaign.
  • The association of a group of devices or any individual device within a device group with a consent campaign does not necessarily by itself determine if any of the services associated with the campaign are activate or enabled. But it does at least identify what consent agreements need to be accepted in order for the services to be activated. In example embodiments, there may also be granularity to consent agreements, such that only certain aspects of a given service may be activated.
  • The organizational structure of consent campaigns, packages, and agreements also provides a powerful and flexible way for administrators of consent management to create, modify, and update the elements of the organizational structure. As will be described below, other aspects of the data architecture, in particular device records maintained on devices and in the cloud, enable efficient and comprehensive tracking and monitoring of the status of acceptance and/or rejection of user consent to services and features on all devices registered in the consent management system.
  • It should be understood that the illustrations of the organizational structure of data in FIG. 4A may represent a simplified rendering of an actual implementation, and that there may be other and/or different data elements and components, besides those shown.
  • FIG. 4B illustrates example device records configured for storage on devices and in the cloud. For any specific individual device, these records are arranged to contain actual consent choices made by a user, and which, for the specific device on which the device record is stored, apply to activating or not activating functions that make up particular services. In some examples, the functions may be pre-installed on a device in an initially disabled and/or deactivate state by the device manufacturer, and only enabled and/or activated by a user's explicit choice to do so via a procedure described below. By maintaining a device-based device record 432 on the device and a corresponding server-based device record 452 in the cloud, and periodically checking and, if necessary, updating synchronization of the records, the consent status of a device may be kept up to date with potential changes to consent campaigns, features, agreements, and functions, for example. As described below by way of example, the device records also support efficient and comprehensive operations for obtaining user consent choices and maintaining synchronization.
  • FIG. 4B also depicts a device token 430, which uniquely identifies the device to the consent management platform as having been authenticated by the platform. More specifically, the device token 430 is generated and cryptographically-signed by the consent management platform when a device first registers, and then provided to the device for expediting future secure communications between the device and the platform. Other elements of the device records in FIG. 4B are describe below in connection with example operation.
    • III. Example Operations
  • The consent management system 100 and/or components thereof can be configured to perform and/or can perform one or more operations. Examples of these operations and related features will now be described.
  • Example operation of the consent management system 100 may be described in terms four high-level processes. Namely, consent provisioning, device registration, user consent-choice selection, and device check-in and synchronization. It should be understood that various aspects of each of these high-level processes may overlap, and the specification of these four high-level processes should not be viewed as limiting and/or restrictive of other possible organizational descriptions of the operations involved in consent management as described herein.
  • Consent provisioning is a process by which a consent administrator creates and defines consent campaigns, consent packages, consent features and agreements, and links to consent functions. It is carried out primarily, and possibly entirely, on the consent management platform, and therefore involves mostly or only cloud-sided operations. Device registration is a process by which a device makes itself known to the consent management platform, and in so doing, becomes an element of the consent management system (as defined in the context of system 100 of FIG. 1, for example). User consent-choice selection is a process by which a user of a particular device is made aware of consent options, and prompted to select or choose to accept or reject (or decline) consent from among the available options. Device check-in and synchronization is a process by which consent choices made for each registered device are kept current in view of various factors that may require updating of consent choices. Each of device registration, user consent-choice selection, and device check-in and synchronization involves both cloud-side and device-side operations.
  • The four high-level processes may be described by way of example with reference to FIGS. 5A and 5B, which collectively make up an example operational flow diagram showing operations of various aspects of an example consent management system, in accordance with example embodiments. Both figures depict rough operational sequence timelines for the content-presentation device 202, cloud servers 206, flat database 208, and administrative operations and interfaces 212, the last three items of which are part of the consent management platform 102, which is disposed in the computing cloud 104, as indicated. A vertical timeline extends below each component, with time increasing downward. The timelines are not intended to convey or represent precise timing, but rather an ordering or sequence of operations. The operations are shown as horizontal directed arrows between pairs of components, and labeled according information passed between them. Some operations are shown as self-directed arrows for operations that are carried out at one component, without necessarily involving passing information to another component.
  • Each of the high-level processes is depicted on a different sequence section of the timelines. Provisioning and device registration are shown in FIG. 5A. A horizontal dashed line 520 divides the two process, with a label “A” above the line 520 indicating the timeline portion corresponding to the operational flow of the provisioning process, and the label “B” below the line 520 indicating the portion of the timeline corresponding to device registration. User consent-choice selection, and device check-in and synchronization are shown in a similar manner in FIG. 5B. A horizontal dashed line 530 divides the two process, with a label “C” above the line 520 indicating the timeline portion corresponding to the operational flow of the user consent-choice selection, and the label “B” below the line 520 indicating the portion of the timeline corresponding to device check-in and synchronization. The ordering of the four high-level processes in FIGS. 5A and 5B is for convenience in the present discussion, and should not be viewed as limiting with respect to example embodiments described herein.
  • An example consent provisioning process is illustrated in timeline portion A in FIG. 5A, and involves operations P1-P5 between the cloud servers 206 and the administrative interface 212, as shown. The administrative interface 212 provide an interactive user interface, such as a browser, to an administrative user, show to the right of administrative interface 212. In the example, the administrative user may invoke a process P1 for provisioning a consent package. The administrative interface 212 may request a consent package file from a file server of the cloud servers 206 in operation P2, and the consent package file may be returned in operation P3. In operation P4, the administrative user may associate consent features and agreements to the package, assign the package to a consent campaign, and designate the campaign as active—the meaning of which is described below. In operation P5, the provisioned and configured package is returned to the file server. The term “file server” used herein may be taken to represent an example of data storage server or system, and not intended to be limiting with respect to example embodiments herein.
  • The operation P1-P5 represent an abbreviated version of provisioning operations. Further details are now described.
  • Information and data entered by way of the interface may be used to create one or more consent campaigns and consent packages are included therein. Consent packages may be stored in a file server on the consent management platform, and may be uploaded to the consent server and displayed in a browser. From the browser, an administrative user may configure or provision the uploaded consent package by associating it with consent features, which in turn are identified with consent agreements. As described above, consent features may also be associated with consent functions. Once a campaign and/or package is configured, it may designated as “active” and returned to the file server.
  • Designating a campaign, package, or feature as “active” applies it to all target devices, such that its associated agreements are ready to govern operation of the associated functions once a user selects consent-choice options. Through various aspects of the other three high-level processes described below, user devices may be alerted to the options, and guide users through an interactive process for consent choice selection. An active campaign, package, or feature may thus be considered as “ready to use.” It should be noted that the term “active” as applied to campaigns, packages, and/or features is not the same as “activate” as applied to consent functions of consent features on a device or in the cloud. The latter term applies to consent features to which a user has consented via accepting a consent choice. Acceptance of consent effectively gives permission for the associated functions to execute on the target device and/or in the cloud, and in this sense the functions are activated on the device and/or in the cloud. By contrast, a consent feature that is designated as active is one that is ready for, and possibly awaiting or already having, user consent-choice selection.
  • In creating and provisioning a consent package, an administrative user may customize its features with unique consent language, privacy policy and terms of services as necessary for the applicable jurisdiction. This information may be linked or associated with consent agreements. As constructed, a consent package includes or is associated with information needed to present user with consent requests relating to the consent features of the package. Presentation may include consent language, privacy policy, terms of service (if applicable) and other details such as layout, color and branding. Consent language may be human-readable text stored in a text file, for example. Further, multiple language versions of the consent language of any or all consent agreements, such as English, Spanish, French, Japanese, and so on, may be maintained for retrieval and display according to an appropriate language indicator provided and/or associated with each particular content-presentation device. Consent packages can be customized by model and jurisdiction, as required. A consent package can also be designed to allow the consumer to consent to some services and not others. Thus, while presentation to the user may be part of the consent-choice selection is a process, the consent package include the information to enact the user process.
  • In addition to creating and provisioning consent packages, and other elements of consent data infrastructure, provisioning may also support updating these elements. Updating may address changes to a jurisdiction and related changes to agreement language, for example. Other updates could include deactivating or reactivating a campaign, package, or feature, for example. These types of changes could affect all or some target content-presentation devices. Still other updates could revoke or reinstate consent choices already recorded for one or more target devices.
  • Device registration is a process by which a device makes itself known to, and registers with, the consent management platform. Device registration may be initiated by the device transmitting an authentication certificate in a registration request to the platform. The certificate may have been previously signed by a trust entity known to both the device and the platform. In example embodiments, the trust entity may be the device manufacturer, and the certificate may be installed in the device, for example in firmware, by the manufacturer. A non-limiting example of an authentication certificated is an X.509 certificate. Upon receiving the registration request, the device and platform may mutually authenticate using the certificate, and establish a trust relationship that includes or facilitates a secure communication connection between the two. The platform may then determine an appropriate device group and device group ID for the device based on information in the certificate and/or information sent by the device over the secure connection. Next, the platform may generate a global ID (GID) as a combination (e.g, a concatenation) of the device group ID and a random number, for example. The GID becomes a unique identifier for the device from among all devices known to the consent management platform, and it also embeds the device group identifier. In addition, the GID may be used as an index key into the flat database for rapid and efficient access to a server-based device record associated with the device, as described below.
  • An example device registration process is illustrated in timeline portion B in FIG. 5A, and involves operations R1-R11 between the content-presentation device 202, the cloud servers 206, and the flat database 208, as shown. The content-presentation device may provide an interactive user interface, such as a browser, to an end user, show to the left of the content-presentation device 202. Other forms of interactive interface could be used as well, such as simple dialog boxes, or the like. In an example embodiment, an authentication certificate 501 may be provided to or installed in the content-presentation device. At operation R1, the end user may invoke the registration process, which sends a registration request including the certificate 501 to the cloud servers 206 in operation R2. Using the certificate 501, a secure communicative connection is set up between the device 202 and the servers 206 at operation R3. Communications carried out over the secure connection as shown within a dashed rectangle.
  • In operation R4, the device 202 sends a device ID and group ID to the cloud servers 206 over the secure connection, and in operation R5 the servers 202 a cryptographically-signed token that is unique to the device, and enables the servers 202 to quickly and uniquely identify the device in future communications as having been registered and certified by the consent management platform. In operation R5, the servers 202 also generate a GID for the device, and device-based device record that includes a sequence number and a device-specific URL (or other form of web-address indicator). The GID is generated by the servers 206 as described above, as is the device-based device record. The device-specific URL may be used by the device to establish subsequent secure interactive communication sessions, such as web-based communications, with the consent management platform 102 for user selection of consent options, as described below. In operation R6, the servers 206 transmit the device token, GID, and device-based device record to the device 202, which stores these received items locally on the device in operation R7. The token may be used by the device 202 to certify its unique identification in subsequent secure communication sessions with the consent-management platform for device check-ins, as also described below.
  • In operation R8, the servers 202 generate a server-based device record that includes the information in the device-based device record, and determine which consent campaigns, packages, features and agreements apply to the device 202, based on its GID, for example. The identified consent agreements may be added to the server-based device record, initially marked as undeclared. In operation R9, the server-based device record may be stored in the flat database, using the GID as an index for subsequent access to the record.
  • In operation R10, the servers 206 transmit a consent notification request to the device 202, indicating that at least one consent agreement is marked undeclared. In operation R11, the device 202 sets an open consent request status in response to the consent request notification. As described below, the open consent request will cause the device to launch the user consent-choice selection process upon an occurrence of a device consent event, as described below.
  • User consent-choice selection is a process by which user input data indicating selection of consent-choice options is obtained and processed and recorded by the consent-management platform in order to put the user's choices into effect. The consent-choice selection includes a launching action that navigates the content-presentation device 202 to a device-specific webpage, followed by operations of presenting consent options of consent packages targeted to the device, guiding the user through the associated agreements, including display of terms and conditions configured during provisioning, and obtaining the user's choices via interactive selection functions of the webpage. The device may navigate to the device-specific webpage using the device specific URL returned in the registration process.
  • While the example operations are described as involving URL and webpage display, it should be understood that other implementations of a device-specific unique identifier for accessing and retrieving remotely-stored consent-package information, as well as other implementations of interactive user displays, may be used. For example, a device-specific unique identifier could be or include a network address of a file server, or the like, that stores consent-package information specific to a device. And an interactive display could be or include a simple browser or even simple dialog boxes for receiving user input. Accordingly, the description of example operations in the context of URLs and webpage displays are illustrative and presented by way of example, and are not intended to be limiting with respect to example embodiments herein.
  • The action that launches the user consent-choice selection process entails sending a consent-processing request that includes a device-specific identifier string that specifies a cloud-based location from which consent data specific to the device may be retrieved and used to display consent options at the device. By way of example, the location could correspond to a network address of webserver of the consent management platform 102, and the device-specific identifier string could be a URL that points to the webserver. The webserver may be one of the cloud servers 206, for example. Again, other types of servers besides a webserver could be used. As discussed above, the example of a webserver, URL, and webpage display that is generally used throughout the present disclosures is not intended to be limiting with respect to example embodiments herein.
  • In the example operation flow of FIG. 5B, a condition that causes the process to launch is occurrence of a consent event while the device has an open consent request. This scenario ensures that the user consent-choice selection process will be invoked when there are changes or updates to campaigns, packages, and/or features that require updated consent. In this case, the URL request received at the consent management platform is referred to as “solicited,” since it is triggered by a condition set by the consent management platform. The user consent-choice selection process can also be launched by a user action to review existing agreement status, even if there have not been any changes or updates that would otherwise require updated consent. In this case, the URL request received at the consent management platform is referred to as “unsolicited,” since it is triggered by user input, independently of any condition that may have been set by the consent management platform. While the URL is the same for both solicited and unsolicited requests, the formal request to the webserver that includes the URL may distinguish whether the request is responsive to a consent request notification or a user request to review consent options.
  • An example user consent-choice selection process is illustrated in timeline portion C in FIG. 5B, and involves operations C1-C7 between the content-presentation device 202, the cloud servers 206, and the flat database 208, as shown. Again, the content-presentation device may provide an interactive user interface, such as a browser, to an end user, shown to the left of the content-presentation device 202. In operation C1 on the device 202, a device consent event occurs while an open request is pending. This causes the user consent process to be launched, which includes sending a webpage request that is or includes the device-specific URL to the servers 202 in operation C2. Non-limiting examples of device consent request include receipt of a consent request notification or a user action that invokes a particular feature or function on the device 202.
  • In operation C3, a webserver that may be one of the servers 206 returns webpage data specific to the device 202, and including data relating to the consent package that includes consent feature(s) associated with the open consent request. This operation includes or results in presentation of an interactive user interface, such as a web browser, at the content-presentation device 202. More particularly, a webpage or series of webpages may be displayed that walk the end user through the consent process. Each agreement may be shown to the user, and the user may be prompted to either accept or reject (or decline) consent to the feature identified with agreement. Part of the process may include displaying the language of the agreement, as set during the provisioning process. Although shown explicitly, the webpage request may include a language indicator for the device. The language indicator may be used by the webserver to determine which of possibly multiple language versions (e.g., English, Spanish, French, Japanese, etc.) of any agreements should be displayed. In operation C4, the user may enter (or select) one of the binary choices (accept or reject) of each consent option. In operation C5, the user's input data including the selected options are returned via the secure web session to the web server in consent management platform
  • In operation C6, the server-based device record is updated with the user's selections. More particularly, a server-based activation whitelist is either added to the server-based device record if no activation whitelist already exists, or an existing server-based activation whitelist is updated according the user's choices. The server-based activation whitelist includes a list the consent functions associated with the consent features for which the consent choice designates user acceptance is added to the server-based device record. If server-based activation list already exits, it is modified to include new accepted consent choices that were not previously in the existing whitelist, and/or to delete previously-accepted consent choice that were rejected by the user in the most recent consent process. The functions identified in the server-based whitelist may be server-side or cloud-side functions associated with delivering services associated with consented-to features. The operation C6 may also include storing identifications of corresponding device-side functions that are associated with the consent-to features. In this way, the consent management platform keeps a record of the device functions to which the user as consented.
  • In operation C7, synchronization data is sent from the servers 206 to the device 202 that causes the device to update its device-based device record to include information that corresponds to the server-based device record. In particular, the synchronization data includes the same identifications of device-side functions stored at the platform in operation C6. These identifications are then used to update the device-base activation whitelist at the device (or to store a new one if it did not previously exist on the device). This process is part of what is considered synchronization. It also includes setting the device-based sequence number in the device-based device record to the same value as the server-based sequence number in the server-based device record. As described below, during device check-in, agreement or disagreement between the device-based sequence number and the server-based sequence number may be used as a very fast and efficient way to quickly, with little processing and/or data access overhead, determine whether or not device synchronization is required.
  • After the consent-choice selection is a process has completed, the secure web session may be removed. The now-updated device-based activation whitelist will include identifiers (e.g., names and/or links) of functions that carry out various aspects of consent features to which the user consented (i.e., selected acceptance of consent). Inclusion in the activation whitelist gives permission for the functions in the list to execute as necessary on the device when the associated consent features are invoked. The now-updated server-based activation whitelist may include identifiers of the device-based functions, as well as information about cloud-side operations associated with the consent-to features. This information may be used to give permission for these operations to be carried out as necessary for delivery of the associated service(s) to the particular content-presentation device. The term “whitelist” as used herein should be understood to describe or specify a list, table, or the like, that associates some form of permission with items in the list. For example embodiments of consent management, the list items identify functions associated with consent features. Other terms for “whitelist” may be used as well, such as “allowlist.”
  • Device check-in and synchronization is a process by which devices are kept current of updates and/or to campaigns, packages, and/or features that require updated consent, and by which the consent management platform is kept current of changes or updates to the devices, including device changes or updates that both do and don't require updates to consent agreements and associated user choices. When both the device and the consent management platform are current with respect to shared, corresponding, and/or complementary information relating to consent status and/or device updates, they are considered to be synchronized. When this is not the case, they are considered be out of synchronization. The check-in process entails a periodic check-in procedure in which the device 202 contacts the server 206, providing information that enables the server to rapidly and efficiently identify the device and determine the platform and the device are synchronized or out of synchronization. Device check-in and synchronization is initiated by the device periodically (or episodically). Doing so helps ensure that changes or updates that need to be addressed will be discovered. The description below applies to one instance or invocation of the procedure.
  • Check-in is carried out over a secure communication session established using the authentication certificate and further certified with the device token returned the device during the provisioning process. The device token enables the consent management platform to positively confirm that the device is exactly who it claims to be. The device also provides data that includes or indicates its device-based sequence number and GID, which enables the consent management platform to quickly and efficiently determine the mutual synchronization state. When the consent management platform determines that the shared/complementary information is synchronized, it sends a check-in complete message to the device and removes the secure connection. This completes the check-in procedure, and in this case no synchronization operations are necessarily needed or carried out. When the consent management platform determines that the shared information is out of synchronization, it launches a synchronization procedure that either addresses a need to update consent choices for the device, updates device information stored in the cloud relating to software versions and/or other changes to the device, or both.
  • An example device check-in and synchronization process is illustrated in timeline portion D in FIG. 5B, and involves operations S1-S9 between the content-presentation device 202, the cloud servers 206, and the flat database 208, as shown. In operation S1, the device 202 launches one instance of the check-in procedure, which begins with a check-in request including the authentication certificate 501 to the cloud servers 206 in operation S2. The authentication certificate 501 is used to establish a secure communicative connection between the device and the servers in operation S3. The device then transmits the token over the secure connection in operation S4. This transmission also includes the device-based sequence number and the GID. The token enables the servers 206 to positively certify the device's identity as well as to be able to trust any data it receives over the secure connection as originating from the device and pertaining to the device. In operation S5, the cloud servers 206 use the GID as an index into the flat database 208 to retrieve the server-based device record, which includes the server-based sequence number.
  • In operation S6, the server compares the server-based sequence number with the device-based sequence number to determine whether or not the synchronization procedure needs to be run. If the two sequence numbers are the same, as indicated in operation S6(a), then the device and the server have synchronized data, so no further data synchronization is needed. In this case, the cloud servers 206 send a check-in complete message in operation S7(a), and removes the secure connection to complete the check-in procedure.
  • If the two sequence numbers are not the same, as indicated in operation S6(b), then the device and the server are deemed to be out of synchronization, and the synchronization procedure needs to run. At least one of two types of synchronization may be needed, as determined and carried out by the server 206 in one or both of operations S7(b)(i) or S7(b)(ii). More specifically, if the device-based device record indicates an change or update to the device, such as a new software version, that has not been recorded in the server-based device record, as indicated in operation, then the server updates the server-based device record with the device-update information in the device-based device record in S7(b)(ii). Then in operation S8(b)(i), the server and the device synchronize the respective sequence number in their respective device records by setting the two sequence numbers to the same value.
  • If one or more campaigns, packages, features, and/or associate agreements have been update since the last device check-in (assuming the device and the platform were previously synchronized) as indicated in operation S7(b)(ii), then the server may transmit a consent request notification to the device in operation S8(b)(ii). The server may determine the need for updated consent choices from the device by finding one or more consent agreements with undeclared status in the server-based device record. This could be the result of an earlier provisioning action. For example, a consent package may have been updated such that one or more agreements changed in a manner that now requires a new user selection. Setting the changed agreement's status to undeclared during provisioning may thus serve as an alert during synchronization that new user selection is needed. After the consent request notification is sent in operation S8(b)(ii), a subsequent launch of the user consent-choice selection process may be triggered in operation C1, as described above.
  • In operation S9, the updated server-based device record may be stored back in the flat database 208. It may be noted that operations S7(b)(i) and S7(b)(ii), as well as operations S8(b)(i) and S8(b)(ii), are not necessarily exclusive. That is, synchronization may involve both types of operations. Also, in the context of the organizational description of the four high-level processes, the synchronization process for updating consent choices may appear to complete with the consent request notification. However, in accordance with example embodiments, this type of synchronization also involves the user consent-choice selection process to carry out the actual updating and synchronization of the server-based device record and the device-based device record.
  • Further, the description of the four high-level processes in connection with FIGS. 5A and 5B does not represent a complete and comprehensive inventory of all aspects of consent management that the consent management system 100 may carry out or perform. Other aspects of consent management may involve various arrangements of operations described in the context of the four high-level process. An example of another aspect includes deregistering or unregistering a device, for example by a factory reset action at the device. This may result in the device returning to an unregistered state in which it ceases check-ins, and instead initiates a new registration with the consent management platform on its next communication with the platform. During the new registration, the platform treats the device as if it has never before registered, generating a new token and other registration/consent data, as described above. The platform may deleted all previous cloud-side data it had created for the device, or it may retain the data in an “orphaned” state—i.e., having no currently known device with which to associate the data. Another aspect consent management could involve discovery during synchronization that a device has changed jurisdictions. This could be determined from location information of the device, such as its network address when contacting the server, or another geolocation method, such as GPS (global positioning satellite) system measurement. Determination of a change in jurisdiction could then cause the consent management platform to update consent agreements for the device accordingly, which may subsequently cause the user consent-choice selection process to be invoked. Other examples are possible as well.
  • In accordance with example embodiments, a given content-presentation device may have multiple instances of consent data corresponding to multiple jurisdictions from which it has checked in. Also in accordance with example embodiments, not all updates to consent campaigns or packages may necessarily require updated consent choices from a device. For example, some changes to consent agreement language may not effect terms in a manner that require the user to update all or any associated consent options. An updated package may necessitate some updated choices and leave others untouched.
  • The use of the GID to access the server-based device record from the flat database 208, and application of the comparison of the server-based sequence number and the device-based sequence number, advantageously enables very efficient and rapid determination of the mutual synchronization state of the content-presentation device 202 and the consent management platform 102. This approach is particularly beneficial in view of the very large number of content-presentation devices that may require consent management and the periodicity with which device check-in is carried out.
  • FIGS. 6A, 6B, 6C, and 6D depict example webpage displays of a content-presentation device relating to operations of a consent management system, in accordance with example embodiments. In an example embodiment, the webpages may be displayed on a smart TV device, for example, that has an internet connection or other communications network connection. A uses may navigate the webpages using a remote control device or other input device, such a keyboard.
  • FIG. 6A shows an example webpage that may be displayed at the start of a web session for user selection of options relating to personalized advertising. In this example, a user may be prompted to review options by selecting “Review” and clicking the “Enter” button on the display.
  • FIG. 6B shows an example webpage that displayed according to a personalized advertising consent package. The language of the agreement (shown in the figure as “gibberish” text for illustrative purposes only) is displayed for the user's review. As described above, consent agreements may be presented in any one of one or more languages, depending on a language indicator or other information provided by the device. Selection options are presented below the agreement language. There is also a selection for reviewing more details about personalized advertising. In example embodiments, clicking this selection may display details on a separate webpage, as illustrated in FIG. 6C. The user may return to the webpage of FIG. 6B by clicking the “Back” button on the webpage of FIG. 6C. In this illustration, a user may then check “Enable” or “Disable” for each feature of the consent package displayed in FIG. 6B. Once consent choices have been checked, they may be entered and recorded by clicking the “Enter” button on the display.
  • FIG. 6D shows an example webpage for completing the user selection process. The user may signal completion by clicking the “Exit” button on the webpage display. In this example, the webpage display evidently assumes the user is using a remote control device. However, other input device may be used as well.
  • FIGS. 7A, 7B, 7C, and 7D depict example webpage displays of a server of a consent management system, in accordance with example embodiments. In particular, these webpages may be displayed on a display component of the administrative operations and interfaces 212 as part of the consent provisioning and configuration process, for example. It may be assumed for purposes of the present discussion that an administrative user is reviewing and entering information via webpages such as those shown.
  • FIG. 7A shows an example webpage for configuring whitelist items for a consent package relating to dynamic advertising and audience measurement. As shown by way of example, two items have been selected for configuration according to associated check boxes.
  • FIG. 7B shows an example webpage that presents a preview of webpage that will displayed on a content-presentation device. This allow an administrative user to evaluate and assess the form and format of what users will see.
  • FIG. 7C shows an example webpage that presents options for jurisdictions for the associated consent campaign. Selections are made according to associated check boxes next to specific countries, which in this example server as jurisdictions. Other definitions of jurisdictions could apply as well.
  • FIG. 7D shows an example webpage that an administrative user might use to associated a consent package with a consent campaign.
  • The above example webpages of FIGS. 6A, 6B, 6C, and 6D, and of FIGS. 7A, 7B, 7C, and 7D, are presented for purposes of illustration. They are not intended, and should not be considered, limiting with respect to example embodiments described here. IV. Example Method
  • The discussion above of example operation of a consent management system presented descriptions of four high-level processes that carry out various aspects of consent management, in accordance with example embodiments. Further details of consent provisioning are now described in connection with an example method.
  • FIGS. 8A and 8B collectively make up a flow chart of an example method 800 of consent provisioning that could be carried out in connection with, or in the context of, a consent management system, such as that described above. The example method 800 could be implemented on and/or carried out by a computing system, such as computing system 300 described above, and/or a computing cloud, such as computing cloud 104 also described above. More particularly, the example method 800 could be implemented on and/or carried out by a consent management system including one or more processors, and non-transitory computer-readable storage medium and/or media having stored thereon program instructions that, upon execution by the one or processors, cause the consent management system to carry out operations including operations of example method 800. Blocks 802, 804, and 806 are shown in FIG. 8A; blocks 808, 810, 812, 814, 816, and 818 are shown in FIG. 8A, and are a continuation of the method 800 that begins in FIG. 8A. In example embodiments, the method 800 may be carried out at a consent management server and or other elements of a consent management platform disposed in a computing cloud.
  • At block 802, the method 800 includes, at the consent manager server, retrieving a consent-package data file from a consent-package file server. The consent-package data file may identify a consent package, and may include presentation-description information for rendering an interactive graphical user interface at one or more content-presentation devices for user selection of consent-agreement options associated with one or more consent features of a media distribution system that require prior end-user consent in order to be activated for the at least one content-presentation device.
  • At block 804, the method 800 includes, at the consent manager server, receiving administrative-user first input specifying one or more consent agreements. Each of the consent agreements may identify a respective consent feature with the consent package. Each given consent agreement may be associated with a given textual language description of the given consent agreement, where the given textual language description is or includes a human-readable explanation of both the respective consent feature identified by the given consent agreement and a regulatory-compliant statement of what acceptance of consent to the respective consent feature by a given user means and/or implies in relation to the given user. For example, the textual language description could be a written explanation of the terms of the given agreement—i.e., what a user agrees to when giving (accepting) consent.
  • At block 806, the method 800 includes, at the consent manager server, receiving administrative-user second input that associates each of a group of one or more content-presentation devices with the consent package, and that specifies an indicator of a common geographic location of the group of the one or more content-presentation devices. In this arrangement, the regulatory-compliant statement may be compliant with respect to a jurisdiction associated with the common geographic location.
  • At block 808, the method 800 includes, at the consent manager server, receiving administrative-user third input designating each respective consent feature of the consent package as active. As described above, a consent feature that is designated as active effectively labels or identifies it as ready for use, and possibly awaiting or already having, user consent-choice selection. As such any given consent feature of the consent package designated as active may require end-user acceptance of consent in order to be activated for the any given content-presentation device of the group. Again, in the context of example embodiments herein, the meaning of the term “activated” is different from that of “activate,” as also described above.
  • At block 810, the method 800 includes, at the consent manager server, updating the consent-package data file by recording the first, second, and third inputs in the consent-package data file.
  • At block 812, the method 800 includes storing the updated consent-package data file in the consent-package file server.
  • At block 814, the method 800 includes, at the consent management platform, responsive to receiving a consent-processing request from a particular content-presentation device of the group, transmitting to the particular content-presentation device response data associated with the consent package. In particular, the response data may be configured for causing the particular content-presentation device to display an interactive user interface for receiving user input specifying user choices of options associated with the one or more consent agreements of the consent package.
  • At block 816, the method 800 includes, at the consent management platform, receiving the user choices entered via the interactive user interface.
  • Finally, at block 818, the method 800 includes activating for the particular content-presentation device any consent feature associated with any consent agreement for which the user accepted consent. As described above, activating a consent feature for a content-presentation device effectively gives permission for functions that perform or carry out the feature to run or execute. Some such functions may operate on the device, while others may operate in the cloud.
  • In accordance with example embodiments designating each respective consent feature of the consent package as active may entail designating the consent package as active. That is, designating a consent package as active may have the effect of designating all of the features of the package as active.
  • In further accordance with example embodiments, the consent package may be one of one or more consent packages of a consent campaign associated with the group of one or more content-presentation devices, and each of the one or more consent packages of the consent campaign may have a respective consent-package data file in the consent-package file server. In addition, each of the one or more consent packages may include a respective set of one or more consent features and associated set of one or more consent agreements. As such, designating the consent package as active may entail designating each of the one or more consent packages of the consent campaign as active by designating the consent campaign as active. That is, designating a consent campaign as active may have the effect of designating all of the package of the campaign as active.
  • In accordance with example embodiments, the consent-package request from the particular content-presentation device may include an identifier string specific and unique to the particular content-presentation device. The identifier string may be configured to provide access to the content-package data file. With this arrangement, the method 800 further may further entail operations carried out prior to receiving the consent-package request from the particular content-presentation device. These prior operations may include retrieving a server-based device record associated with the particular content-presentation device from a flat database of the consent management platform, and then updating the server-based device record for the particular content-presentation device by inserting (i) an identifier of the consent package, (ii) identifiers of the one or more consent agreements identified with the consent package, and (iii) one or more consent agreement status indicators corresponding to the consent agreements and initialized to undeclared status. The prior operations may then include storing the updated server-based device record for the particular content-presentation device in the flat database, and transmitting to the particular content-presentation device a consent request notification indicating that at least one consent agreement status indicator in the server-based device record is marked as undeclared.
  • In further accordance with example embodiments, the consent-processing request may be a webpage request, and the identifier string that is specific and unique to the particular content-presentation device may be or include a uniform record locator (URL) for a web resource associated with the one or more consent packages.
  • In further accordance with example embodiments, the consent-package request from the particular content-presentation device, again, may include the identifier string specific and unique to the particular content-presentation device. The identifier string may be configured to provide access to each content-package data file of the consent campaign. For this arrangement, the method 800 may further entail other operations carried out prior to receiving the consent-package request from the particular content-presentation device. The other prior operations may include retrieving a server-based device record associated with the particular content-presentation device from a flat database of the consent management platform, and updating the server-based device record for the particular content-presentation device by inserting (i) an identifier of each consent package of the consent campaign, (ii) identifiers of the set of one or more agreements associated with each consent package of the consent campaign, and (iii) one or more consent agreement status indicators corresponding to the one or more consent agreements. Each status indicator may be initialized to undeclared status. The other prior operations may then include storing the updated server-based device record for the particular content-presentation device in the flat database, and transmitting to the particular content-presentation device a consent request notification indicating that at least one consent agreement status indicator in the server-based device record is marked as undeclared.
  • In accordance with example embodiments, the method 800 may further entail operations carried out subsequent to storing the updated consent-package data file in the consent-package file server. These subsequent operations may include retrieving the updated consent-package data file from a consent-package file server, and receiving administrative-user modification input specifying a modification to the updated consent-package data file. The modification may be one or more of (i) adding one or more additional consent agreements, where each identifies a respective additional consent feature with the consent package, (ii) revising the given textual language description of one or more of the given consent agreements, or (iii) designating one or more of the respective consent features of the consent package as inactive. The subsequent operations may further include storing the modified updated consent-package data file in the consent-package file server, and making an update to a respective server-based device record associated with each respective content-presentation device of the group. All of the respective server-based device records may be stored in a flat database of the consent management platform, and the update may include an indication that the consent-package of the updated consent-package file has been modified. In example embodiments, the indication may be configured to cause each respective content-presentation device to communicate with the consent management platform in a process for obtaining updated respective user choices of options associated with one or more consent agreements of the consent package associated with the modification to the updated consent-package data file.
  • In accordance with example embodiments, activating for the particular content-presentation device the any consent feature associated with any consent agreement for which the user accepted consent may entail making an activation update to a server-based device record associated with the particular content-presentation device and stored in a flat database of the consent management platform. The activation update may include an indication of the any consent feature associated with any consent agreement for which the user accepted consent. With this arrangement, activating the any consent feature may also entail causing the particular content presentation device to make the activation update to a device-based device record associated with the particular content-presentation device and stored at the particular content presentation device.
  • In further accordance with example embodiments, the server-based device record may be associated with the particular content-presentation device and may further include an indication of a geographic location of the particular content-presentation device and a list of the one or more consent agreements. With this arrangement, the method 800 may further entail operations carried out subsequent to receiving the user choices entered via the interactive user interface. These subsequent operation may include making a consent update to the server-based device record associated with the particular content-presentation device, where the consent update entails removing one or more of the one or more listed consent agreements. The subsequent operations may also include causing the particular content-presentation device to communicate with the consent management platform in a process for obtaining updated user choices of options corresponding to the consent update to the server-based device record associated with the particular content-presentation device.
    • V. Example Variations
  • Although the examples and features described above have been described in connection with specific entities and specific operations, in practice, there are likely to be many instances of these entities and many instances of these operations being performed, perhaps contemporaneously or simultaneously, on a large-scale basis. Indeed, in practice, the content-modification system 100 is likely to include many content-distribution systems (each potentially transmitting content on many channels) and many content-presentation devices, with some or all of the described operations being performed on a routine and repeating basis in connection with some or all of these entities.
  • In addition, although some of the operations described in this disclosure have been described as being performed by a particular entity, the operations can be performed by any entity, such as the other entities described in this disclosure. Further, although the operations have been recited in a particular order and/or in connection with example temporal language, the operations need not be performed in the order recited and need not be performed in accordance with any particular temporal restrictions. However, in some instances, it can be desired to perform one or more of the operations in the order recited, in another order, and/or in a manner where at least some of the operations are performed contemporaneously/simultaneously. Likewise, in some instances, it can be desired to perform one or more of the operations in accordance with one more or the recited temporal restrictions or with other timing restrictions. Further, each of the described operations can be performed responsive to performance of one or more of the other described operations. Also, not all of the operations need to be performed to achieve one or more of the benefits provided by the disclosure, and therefore not all of the operations are required.
  • Although certain variations have been described in connection with one or more examples of this disclosure, these variations can also be applied to some or all of the other examples of this disclosure as well and therefore aspects of this disclosure can be combined and/or arranged in many ways. The examples described in this disclosure were selected at least in part because they help explain the practical application of the various described features.
  • Also, although select examples of this disclosure have been described, alterations and permutations of these examples will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art. Other changes, substitutions, and/or alterations are also possible without departing from the invention in its broader aspects as set forth in the following claims.

Claims (20)

1. A method comprising:
at a consent manager server of a consent management platform disposed in a computing cloud, retrieving a consent-package data file from a consent-package file server, the consent-package data file identifying a consent package, and comprising presentation-description information for rendering an interactive graphical user interface at at least one content-presentation device for user selection of consent-agreement options associated with one or more consent features of a media distribution system that require prior end-user consent in order to be activated for the at least one content-presentation device;
at the consent manager server, receiving administrative-user first input specifying one or more consent agreements, each identifying a respective consent feature with the consent package, wherein each given consent agreement of the one or more consent agreements is associated with a given textual language description of the given consent agreement, the given textual language description comprising a human-readable explanation of both the respective consent feature identified by the given consent agreement and a regulatory-compliant statement of what acceptance of consent to the respective consent feature by a given user means and/or implies in relation to the given user;
at the consent manager server, receiving administrative-user second input (i) associating each of a group of one or more content-presentation devices with the consent package, and (ii) specifying an indicator of a common geographic location of the group of the one or more content-presentation devices, wherein the regulatory-compliant statement is compliant with respect to a jurisdiction associated with the common geographic location;
at the consent manager server, receiving administrative-user third input designating each respective consent feature of the consent package as active, wherein any given consent feature of the consent package designated as active requires, for any given content-presentation device of the group, end-user acceptance of consent in order to be activated for the any given content-presentation device of the group;
at the consent manager server, updating the consent-package data file by recording the first, second, and third inputs in the consent-package data file;
storing the updated consent-package data file in the consent-package file server;
at the consent management platform, responsive to receiving a consent-processing request from a particular content-presentation device of the group, transmitting to the particular content-presentation device response data associated with the consent package, and configured for causing the particular content-presentation device to display an interactive user interface for receiving user input specifying user choices of options associated with the one or more consent agreements of the consent package;
at the consent management platform, receiving the user choices entered via the interactive user interface; and
activating for the particular content-presentation device any consent feature associated with any consent agreement for which the user accepted consent.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein designating each respective consent feature of the consent package as active comprises designating the consent package as active.
3. The method of claim 2, wherein the consent package is one of one or more consent packages of a consent campaign associated with the group of one or more content-presentation devices, each having a respective consent-package data file in the consent-package file server,
wherein each of the one or more consent packages comprises a respective set of one or more consent features and associated set of one or more consent agreements,
and wherein designating the consent package as active comprises designating each of the one or more consent packages of the consent campaign as active by designating the consent campaign as active.
4. The method of claim 1, wherein the consent-processing request from the particular content-presentation device comprises an identifier string specific and unique to the particular content-presentation device, and is configured to provide access to the content-package data file,
and wherein the method further comprises, prior to receiving the consent-processing request from the particular content-presentation device:
retrieving a server-based device record associated with the particular content-presentation device from a flat database of the consent management platform;
updating the server-based device record for the particular content-presentation device by inserting an identifier of the consent package, identifiers of the one or more consent agreements identified with the consent package, and one or more consent agreement status indicators corresponding to the consent agreements and initialized to undeclared status;
storing the updated server-based device record for the particular content-presentation device in the flat database; and
transmitting to the particular content-presentation device a consent request notification indicating that at least one consent agreement status indicator in the server-based device record is marked as undeclared.
5. The method of claim 4, wherein the consent-processing request is a webpage request, and the identifier string specific and unique to the particular content-presentation device comprises a uniform record locator (URL) specific and unique to the particular content-presentation device.
6. The method of claim 3, wherein the consent-processing request from the particular content-presentation device comprises an identifier string specific and unique to the particular content-presentation device, and is configured to provide access to each content-package data file of the consent campaign,
and wherein the method further comprises, prior to receiving the consent-processing request from the particular content-presentation device:
retrieving a server-based device record associated with the particular content-presentation device from a flat database of the consent management platform;
updating the server-based device record for the particular content-presentation device by inserting (i) an identifier of each consent package of the consent campaign, (ii) identifiers of the set of one or more agreements associated with each consent package of the consent campaign, and (iii) one or more consent agreement status indicators corresponding to the one or more consent agreements, each status indicator initialized to undeclared status;
storing the updated server-based device record for the particular content-presentation device in the flat database; and
transmitting to the particular content-presentation device a consent request notification indicating that at least one consent agreement status indicator in the server-based device record is marked as undeclared.
7. The method of claim 1, further comprising, subsequent to storing the updated consent-package data file in the consent-package file server:
retrieving the updated consent-package data file from a consent-package file server;
receiving administrative-user modification input specifying a modification to the updated consent-package data file, the modification being at least one of:
adding one or more additional consent agreements, each identifying a respective additional consent feature with the consent package,
revising the given textual language description of one or more of the given consent agreements,
or designating one or more of the respective consent features of the consent package as inactive;
storing the modified updated consent-package data file in the consent-package file server; and
making an update to a respective server-based device record associated with each respective content-presentation device of the group, wherein all of the respective server-based device records are stored in a flat database of the consent management platform, wherein the update comprises an indication that the consent-package of the updated consent-package file has been modified, and wherein the indication is configured to cause each respective content-presentation device to communicate with the consent management platform in a process for obtaining updated respective user choices of options associated with one or more consent agreements of the consent package associated with the modification to the updated consent-package data file.
8. The method of claim 1, wherein activating for the particular content-presentation device the any consent feature associated with any consent agreement for which the user accepted consent comprises:
making an activation update to a server-based device record associated with the particular content-presentation device and stored in a flat database of the consent management platform, the activation update comprising an indication of the any consent feature associated with any consent agreement for which the user accepted consent; and
causing the particular content presentation device to make the activation update to a device-based device record associated with the particular content-presentation device and stored at the particular content presentation device.
9. The method of claim 8, wherein the server-based device record associated with the particular content-presentation device further includes an indication of a geographic location of the particular content-presentation device and a list of the one or more consent agreements,
and wherein the method further comprises, subsequent to receiving the user choices entered via the interactive user interface:
making a consent update to the server-based device record associated with the particular content-presentation device, the consent update comprising removing one or more of the one or more listed consent agreements; and
causing the particular content-presentation device to communicate with the consent management platform in a process for obtaining updated user choices of options corresponding to the consent update to the server-based device record associated with the particular content-presentation device.
10. A consent manager server of a consent management platform disposed in a computing cloud, the consent manager server comprising:
one or more processors; and
a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon program instructions that, upon execution by the one or processors, cause the consent manager server to carry out operations including:
retrieving a consent-package data file from a consent-package file server, the consent-package data file identifying a consent package, and comprising presentation-description information for rendering an interactive graphical user interface at at least one content-presentation device for user selection of consent-agreement options associated with one or more consent features of a media distribution system that require prior end-user consent in order to be activated for the at least one content-presentation device;
receiving administrative-user first input specifying one or more consent agreements, each identifying a respective consent feature with the consent package, wherein each given consent agreement of the one or more consent agreements is associated with a given textual language description of the given consent agreement, the given textual language description comprising a human-readable explanation of both the respective consent feature identified by the given consent agreement and a regulatory-compliant statement of what acceptance of consent to the respective consent feature by a given user means and/or implies in relation to the given user;
receiving administrative-user second input (i) associating each of a group of one or more content-presentation devices with the consent package, and (ii) specifying an indicator of a common geographic location of the group of the one or more content-presentation devices, wherein the regulatory-compliant statement is compliant with respect to a jurisdiction associated with the common geographic location;
receiving administrative-user third input designating each respective consent feature of the consent package as active, wherein any given consent feature of the consent package designated as active requires, for any given content-presentation device of the group, end-user acceptance of consent in order to be activated for the any given content-presentation device of the group;
updating the consent-package data file by recording the first, second, and third inputs in the consent-package data file;
storing the updated consent-package data file in the consent-package file server;
responsive to receiving a consent-processing request from a particular content-presentation device of the group, transmitting to the particular content-presentation device response data associated with the consent package, and configured for causing the particular content-presentation device to display an interactive user interface for receiving user input specifying user choices of options associated with the one or more consent agreements of the consent package;
receiving the user choices entered via the interactive user interface; and
activating for the particular content-presentation device any consent feature associated with any consent agreement for which the user accepted consent.
11. The consent manager server of claim 10, wherein designating each respective consent feature of the consent package as active comprises designating the consent package as active.
12. The consent manager server of claim 11, wherein the consent package is one of one or more consent packages of a consent campaign associated with the group of one or more content-presentation devices, each having a respective consent-package data file in the consent-package file server,
wherein each of the one or more consent packages comprises a respective set of one or more consent features and associated set of one or more consent agreements,
and wherein designating the consent package as active comprises designating each of the one or more consent packages of the consent campaign as active by designating the consent campaign as active.
13. The consent manager server of claim 10, wherein the consent-processing request from the particular content-presentation device comprises an identifier string specific and unique to the particular content-presentation device, and is configured to provide access to the content-package data file,
and wherein the operations further include, prior to receiving the consent-processing request from the particular content-presentation device:
retrieving a server-based device record associated with the particular content-presentation device from a flat database of the consent management platform;
updating the server-based device record for the particular content-presentation device by inserting an identifier of the consent package, identifiers of the one or more consent agreements identified with the consent package, and one or more consent agreement status indicators corresponding to the consent agreements and initialized to undeclared status;
storing the updated server-based device record for the particular content-presentation device in the flat database; and
transmitting to the particular content-presentation device a consent request notification indicating that at least one consent agreement status indicator in the server-based device record is marked as undeclared.
14. The consent manager server of claim 13, wherein the consent-processing request is a webpage request, and the identifier string specific and unique to the particular content-presentation device comprises a uniform record locator (URL) specific and unique to the particular content-presentation device.
15. The consent manager server of claim 12, wherein the consent-processing request from the particular content-presentation device comprises an identifier string specific and unique to the particular content-presentation device, and is configured to provide access to each content-package data file of the consent campaign,
and wherein the operations further include, prior to receiving the consent-processing request from the particular content-presentation device:
retrieving a server-based device record associated with the particular content-presentation device from a flat database of the consent management platform;
updating the server-based device record for the particular content-presentation device by inserting (i) an identifier of each consent package of the consent campaign, (ii) identifiers of the set of one or more agreements associated with each consent package of the consent campaign, and (iii) one or more consent agreement status indicators corresponding to the one or more consent agreements, each status indicator initialized to undeclared status;
storing the updated server-based device record for the particular content-presentation device in the flat database; and
transmitting to the particular content-presentation device a consent request notification indicating that at least one consent agreement status indicator in the server-based device record is marked as undeclared.
16. The consent manager server of claim 10, wherein the operations further include, subsequent to storing the updated consent-package data file in the consent-package file server:
retrieving the updated consent-package data file from a consent-package file server;
receiving administrative-user modification input specifying a modification to the updated consent-package data file, the modification being at least one of:
adding one or more additional consent agreements, each identifying a respective additional consent feature with the consent package,
revising the given textual language description of one or more of the given consent agreements,
or designating one or more of the respective consent features of the consent package as inactive;
storing the modified updated consent-package data file in the consent-package file server; and
making an update to a respective server-based device record associated with each respective content-presentation device of the group, wherein all of the respective server-based device records are stored in a flat database of the consent management platform, wherein the update comprises an indication that the consent-package of the updated consent-package file has been modified, and wherein the indication is configured to cause each respective content-presentation device to communicate with the consent management platform in a process for obtaining updated respective user choices of options associated with one or more consent agreements of the consent package associated with the modification to the updated consent-package data file.
17. The consent manager server of claim 10, wherein activating for the particular content-presentation device the any consent feature associated with any consent agreement for which the user accepted consent comprises:
making an activation update to a server-based device record associated with the particular content-presentation device and stored in a flat database of the consent management platform, the activation update comprising an indication of the any consent feature associated with any consent agreement for which the user accepted consent; and
causing the particular content presentation device to make the activation update to a device-based device record associated with the particular content-presentation device and stored at the particular content presentation device.
18. The consent manager server of claim 17, wherein the server-based device record associated with the particular content-presentation device further includes an indication of a geographic location of the particular content-presentation device and a list of the one or more consent agreements,
and wherein the operations further include, subsequent to receiving the user choices entered via the interactive user interface:
making a consent update to the server-based device record associated with the particular content-presentation device, the consent update comprising removing one or more of the one or more listed consent agreements; and
causing the particular content-presentation device to communicate with the consent management platform in a process for obtaining updated user choices of options corresponding to the consent update to the server-based device record associated with the particular content-presentation device.
19. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon program instructions that, upon execution by one or more processors of a consent manager server of a consent management platform disposed in a computing cloud, cause the consent management platform to carry out operations including:
retrieving a consent-package data file from a consent-package file server, the consent-package data file identifying a consent package, and comprising presentation-description information for rendering an interactive graphical user interface at at least one content-presentation device for user selection of consent-agreement options associated with one or more consent features of a media distribution system that require prior end-user consent in order to be activated for the at least one content-presentation device;
receiving administrative-user first input specifying one or more consent agreements, each identifying a respective consent feature with the consent package, wherein each given consent agreement of the one or more consent agreements is associated with a given textual language description of the given consent agreement, the given textual language description comprising a human-readable explanation of both the respective consent feature identified by the given consent agreement and a regulatory-compliant statement of what acceptance of consent to the respective consent feature by a given user means and/or implies in relation to the given user;
receiving administrative-user second input (i) associating each of a group of one or more content-presentation devices with the consent package, and (ii) specifying an indicator of a common geographic location of the group of the one or more content-presentation devices, wherein the regulatory-compliant statement is compliant with respect to a jurisdiction associated with the common geographic location;
receiving administrative-user third input designating each respective consent feature of the consent package as active, wherein any given consent feature of the consent package designated as active requires, for any given content-presentation device of the group, end-user acceptance of consent in order to be activated for the any given content-presentation device of the group;
updating the consent-package data file by recording the first, second, and third inputs in the consent-package data file;
storing the updated consent-package data file in the consent-package file server;
responsive to receiving a consent-processing request from a particular content-presentation device of the group, transmitting to the particular content-presentation device response data associated with the consent package, and configured for causing the particular content-presentation device to display an interactive user interface for receiving user input specifying user choices of options associated with the one or more consent agreements of the consent package;
receiving the user choices entered via the interactive user interface; and
activating for the particular content-presentation device any consent feature associated with any consent agreement for which the user accepted consent.
20. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 19, wherein the operations further include, subsequent to storing the updated consent-package data file in the consent-package file server:
retrieving the updated consent-package data file from a consent-package file server;
receiving administrative-user modification input specifying a modification to the updated consent-package data file, the modification being at least one of:
adding one or more additional consent agreements, each identifying a respective additional consent feature with the consent package,
revising the given textual language description of one or more of the given consent agreements,
or designating one or more of the respective consent features of the consent package as inactive;
storing the modified updated consent-package data file in the consent-package file server; and
making an update to a respective server-based device record associated with each respective content-presentation device of the group, wherein all of the respective server-based device records are stored in a flat database of the consent management platform, wherein the update comprises an indication that the consent-package of the updated consent-package file has been modified, and wherein the indication is configured to cause each respective content-presentation device to communicate with the consent management platform in a process for obtaining updated respective user choices of options associated with one or more consent agreements of the consent package associated with the modification to the updated consent-package data file.
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