Patent ID: 8782684

Claim:
A method for collecting audience information of a group of users user devices in an audience measurement, the method comprising: each user device dividing a private information into a private portion and at least a first exchange portion and a second exchange portion, wherein the private information of each user device is a number or is represented by a number, and each user device divides its private information by splitting the number into a plurality of sub-numbers, wherein a sum of the plurality of sub-numbers equals to the number; each user device transmitting the first exchange portion to a first user device and the second exchange portion to a second user device, the first user device and the second user device selected from the group of user devices; each user device aggregating its private portion and exchange portions received from other user devices of the group of user devices, thereby producing randomized information, wherein the aggregating by each user device comprises summing its private portion and the exchange portions received from other user devices of the group of user devices; and aggregating the randomized information from each user device of the group of user devices, thereby producing aggregated private information for the group of user devices, wherein the aggregating of the randomized information comprises summing the randomized information of the group of user devices.