Patent ID: 9679314
Date: 2017-06-13
CPC Classifications: G06F,G06Q

Claim:
1. A computer-implement method, implemented by a content distribution system in communication with at least one content item provider and at least one user device, the method comprising: receiving a request for a content item for presentation at a user device with a publisher resource; indicating, to a content item provider, that the request for a content item has been received; receiving, from the content item provider and in response to the indication that the request for a content item has been received, a first selection value for each of a plurality of content items provided by the content item provider, the first selection value indicating a degree of relevance between the respective content item and the request for a content item; accessing distribution parameters associated with the received request for a content item, the distribution parameters specifying criteria used to distribute content items; determining, for each of the content items and using the accessed distribution parameters, a second selection value distinct from the first selection value, the second selection value indicating a degree of relevance between the respective content item and the request for a content item, wherein the second selection value is determined based at least in part on data associated with the user not provided to the content item provider, thereby securing the data associated with the user; determining, for each of the content items and independent of a bid corresponding to the content item, a combined selection value based on the first selection value for the content item and the second selection value for the content item; identifying a particular content item for the plurality of content items having a highest combined selection value from among the combined selection values associated with each of the plurality of content items; and selecting a bid corresponding to the particular content item for submission to a content item selection process that selects, based at least in part on the bid, one or more content items for presentation at the user device with the publisher resource.