Individually controlled and protected targeted incentive distribution system

摘要

A targeted information and incentive distribution system that protects consumer privacy and analyzes individuals', including individual households' or individual groups, purchase histories obtained from several retailers and other providers of goods and/or services to determine targeted information and/or incentives to deliver to individuals. Purchase history and other relevant data for each individual user are accumulated at a computer that is under the control of that user and analyzed to determine which targeted information items and/or incentives to deliver to that individual user. Purchase history data in the exemplary embodiment is only maintained at the user's computer so as to increase the privacy for the user of this extensive purchase history data that was derived from multiple sources. Abridged purchase history data that does not contain information to identify the individual to which it pertains is uploaded for comprehensive analysis to develop future purchase incentive programs.