Meta Platforms, Inc.
Identity prediction for unknown users of an online system

Abstract:

For a visit of a user to a web page where the user's identity on an online system is not presently known to the online system, the online system uses a machine learning model to make a prediction of the user's identity. The online system obtains visit data about the visit of the user to the web page. The online system identifies candidate user IDs that may represent the user, based on the visit data and data known about previous visits of the candidate user IDs. The online system derives visit features for each candidate user ID based on a relationship between the current visit data and previous visit data for the candidate user ID. The online system provides the visit features for each candidate user ID to a prediction model that determines whether, or how likely, the candidate user ID accurately identifies the visiting user, and based on the determinations selects one of the candidate user IDs as the most likely user ID for the visiting user.