Apple Inc.
PRIVACY PROTECTED DATABASE QUERYING

Abstract:

Systems, methods, and devices are described herein to query data in an entity data database. A query for information about a set of entities is received from a requesting system. The query is in a predefined format and includes search conditions. A querying strategy is determined based on the received query. The entity data database is queried by identifying a set of user records that fulfill a first search condition. A numerical value of the set of user records is next compared to a threshold. Depending on the numerical value, the set of user records is assigned to a first numerical bucket. Depending on the bucket, the numerical value is changed to a second numerical value, which is used to generate an aggregated count value. The aggregated count value is shared with the requesting system.