Patent ID: 8892642

Claim:
A computer system comprising: at least one processor; a computer readable medium that is operatively coupled to the processor; network access circuitry that is operatively coupled to the processor; and comparison logic (i) that executes at least in part in the processor from the computer readable medium and (ii) that, when executed, causes the computer system to determine similarity of a test person to a reference person by at least: sending logic to a test computer device that, when executed by the test computer device, generates one or more data elements representing characteristics of the test computer device; receiving system information pertaining to the test computer device that has been used by the test person, wherein the system information includes the one or more data elements representing characteristics of the test computer device selected from a group consisting essentially of: a hardware component, a hardware configuration, a software component, a software configuration, and a usage of the test computer device; identifying one or more corresponding items of system information of a reference computer device used by the reference person, wherein the corresponding items each correspond to at least one of the data elements representing characteristics of the test computer device; for each of the corresponding items: comparing the corresponding item to the at least one data element to determine a degree of similarity between the corresponding item and the at least one data element; and adjusting a correlation score according to the degree of similarity; and determining a measure of similarity between the test person and the reference person according to the adjusted correlation score; wherein identifying comprises determining that each of one or more predetermined device profile correlation rules applies to both (i) at least one of the items of data representing characteristics of the test computer device and (ii) at least one of the items of system information of a reference computer device.