US 12,229,317 B1
Systems and methods for protecting user data privacy against web tracking on Wi-Fi captive portals
Iskander Sanchez Rola, Antibes (FR); and Christopher Gates, Mountain View, CA (US)
Assigned to GEN DIGITAL INC., Tempe, AZ (US)
Filed by GEN DIGITAL INC., Tempe, AZ (US)
Filed on Aug. 1, 2022, as Appl. No. 17/816,624.
Int. Cl. G06F 21/62 (2013.01); H04L 9/40 (2022.01); H04L 67/02 (2022.01); H04L 67/50 (2022.01)
CPC G06F 21/6263 (2013.01) [H04L 63/1408 (2013.01); H04L 67/02 (2013.01); H04L 67/535 (2022.05)] 20 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A computer-implemented method for protecting user data privacy against web tracking on a captive portal, at least a portion of the method being performed by one or more computing devices comprising at least one processor, the method comprising:
detecting, by the one or more computing devices, telemetry data generated from establishing a connection with a network access device associated with the captive portal;
determining, by the one or more computing devices and based on the telemetry data, a target set of domains associated with a service set identifier assigned to the network access device;
analyzing, by the one or more computing devices, web tracking behavior data associated with the target set of domains to identify web trackers on the captive portal for a dataset of potential users by:
communicating a query for on-demand telemetry detected by a web tracking service on a security server;
receiving, in response to the query, a group of web tracking behaviors exhibited by a candidate list of web trackers based on the on-demand telemetry; and
classifying a set of the candidate list of web trackers appearing to a threshold number of the potential users as the web trackers;
calculating, by the one or more computing devices, a privacy risk score associated with the web trackers on the captive portal; and
performing, by the one or more computing devices, a security action that protects against a potential invasion of user data privacy by presenting a privacy risk score notification associated with the web trackers on the captive portal.