Securely publishing user profile information across a public insecure infrastructure
First Claim
1. In a messaging system, a method of publishing user profile information amide a community of individuals that interact with one another via electronic messages, the method comprising acts of:
- generating an electronic message to be sent from a sender to a recipient, the electronic message including one or more fields for message data that is to be presented at a messaging client user interface and at least one machine readable field for including metadata that by default is not presented at the messaging client user interface;
accessing a user profile, which includes metadata about characteristics of the sender;
automatically encoding at least a portion of the user profile into the at least one machine readable field of the electronic message; and
sending the electronic message that includes the at least a portion of the user profile to the recipient for subsequent use thereof.
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Accused Products
Abstract
The present invention utilizes existing encapsulation or encoding mechanisms for embedding user profile information in electronic messages. Such information may then be distributed amid a community of users for which an individual, organization or other entity interact. The present invention takes advantage of hidden fields, i.e., machine readable fields that contain metadata that by default are not presented at client user interface, for including the user profile information. The user profiles may be stored in a repository of user profiles, wherein a recipient of the user profiles may subsequently query the repository using keywords for accessing desired information about individuals or organizations for which they interact with.
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Citations
40 Claims
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1. In a messaging system, a method of publishing user profile information amide a community of individuals that interact with one another via electronic messages, the method comprising acts of:
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generating an electronic message to be sent from a sender to a recipient, the electronic message including one or more fields for message data that is to be presented at a messaging client user interface and at least one machine readable field for including metadata that by default is not presented at the messaging client user interface;
accessing a user profile, which includes metadata about characteristics of the sender;
automatically encoding at least a portion of the user profile into the at least one machine readable field of the electronic message; and
sending the electronic message that includes the at least a portion of the user profile to the recipient for subsequent use thereof. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 7)
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6. The method of claim 6, wherein the characteristics are one or more of a name, alias, home address, phone number, email address, IP address for alternate deliver schemes, occupational preference or specialty, affiliations, hobbies, services provided, goods provided, IM addresses, Web addresses of a contact, public keys, current projects or schedule availability.
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8. In a message system for communicating messages amid a community of users, a method of utilizing user profile information received through electronic message interactions, without having to have a central database for storing and accessing such information, the method comprising acts of:
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receiving an electronic message including one or more fields for message data that is to be presented at a messaging client user interface and at least one machine readable field for including metadata that by default is not presented at the messaging client user interface, the at least one machine readable field including a user profile, which is metadata about characteristics of a sender of the electronic message;
storing the user profile in a repository of user profiles for subsequent use in querying of desired information. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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21. In a message system for communicating messages amid a community of users, a method of assisting a recipient in verifying user profile information received through electronic message interactions with a sender, the method comprising acts of:
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receiving a plurality of electronic messages each including one or more fields for message data that is to be presented at a messaging client user interface and each including at least one machine readable field with metadata that by default is not presented at the messaging client user interface, each of the at least one machine readable field including a user profile, which is metadata about characteristics of a sender of the plurality of electronic messages;
comparing each of the user profiles within the plurality of electronic messages for validating the consistency thereof; and
based on the comparison, generating a confidence level that the user profiles within the plurality of messages are from the sender. - View Dependent Claims (22, 23, 24, 25, 26)
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27. In a messaging system, a computer program product for implementing a method of publishing user profile information amide a community of individuals that interact with one another via electronic messages, the computer program product comprising one or more computer readable media having stored thereon computer executable instructions that, when executed by a processor, can cause the messaging system to perform the following:
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generate an electronic message to be sent from a sender to a recipient, the electronic message including one or more fields for message data that is to be presented at a messaging client user interface and at least one machine readable field for including metadata that by default is not presented at the messaging client user interface;
access a user profile, which includes metadata about characteristics of the sender;
automatically encode at least a portion of the user profile into the at least one machine readable field of the electronic message; and
send the electronic message that includes the at least a portion of the user profile to the recipient for subsequent use thereof. - View Dependent Claims (28, 29, 30, 31, 32)
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33. In a message system for communicating messages amid a community of users, a computer program product for implementing a method of utilizing user profile information received through electronic message interactions, without having to have a central database for storing and accessing such information, the computer program product comprising one or more computer readable media having stored thereon computer executable instructions that, when executed by a processor, can cause the messaging system to perform the following:
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receive an electronic message including one or more fields for message data that is to be presented at a messaging client user interface and at least one machine readable field for including metadata that by default is not presented at the messaging client user interface, the at least one machine readable field including a user profile, which is metadata about characteristics of a sender of the electronic message;
store the user profile in a repository of user profiles for subsequent use in querying of desired information. - View Dependent Claims (34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40)
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Specification