Secure data transfers over computer networks are an important component of electronic commerce. Business transactions between parties from around the world can now occur safely within seconds largely due to the security and reliability that secure data transfers offer. Furthermore, as electronic commerce continues to grow as a part of the world economy, the importance of secure data transfers will continue to increase as well.
By analyzing a representative portion of the secure data transfers that take place on a network such as the Internet, businesses may be given reliable data on the preferences of users, the popularity of certain products, and other valuable information. The data obtained from this analysis can then be used by businesses to plan advertising and marketing campaigns, as well as to help guide future product development and electronic commerce initiatives. Therefore, understanding the purchasing patterns of users engaging in electronic commerce may be very beneficial for many businesses.
An important protocol involved in secure data transfers is the secure sockets layer protocol (SSL). SSL enables private documents to be securely transmitted across public networks such as the Internet by utilizing a public key to encrypt data. The SSL protocol is often used in electronic commerce as a way to safely transmit private user information necessary to complete a transaction, such as the user's billing address and credit card number. The address of web pages utilizing the SSL protocol often begins with “HTTPS”, which stands for HyperText Transfer Protocol Secure.
Existing methods of analyzing HTTPS web pages that a user visits on the Internet have only been able to capture the Universal Resource Locator (URL), or address, of the web page. These prior art designs have not been able to capture the actual content of the web page, or data that the user submits.
Accordingly, it is desirable to have a system and method for monitoring secure data (e.g., HTTPS web pages) on a network (e.g., the Internet) that overcomes the above deficiencies associated with the prior art.