System and method for providing a proxied contact management system

• US 20060156022A1
• Filed: 01/13/2005
• Published: 07/13/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 01/13/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kyndryl Incorporated
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Grim, Clifton E. III, Wilson, John D., Schmidt, Christopher I.
• Granted Patent: US 9,917,819 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 713/182
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6245 Protecting personal data, e.g. for financial or medical purposes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6263 during internet communication, e.g. revealing personal data from cookies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0442 wherein the sending and receiving network entities apply asymmetric encryption, i.e. different keys for encryption and decryption cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for public-key encryption H04L9/30
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/08 for authentication of entities cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication H04L9/32
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/102 Entity profiles

Abstract

A system and method for providing a Proxied Contact Management System (PCMS) so that individual owners of personal contact data may control and manage the access and dissemination of their personal data and also control who may contact them. The owner of personal contact data may securely register the data with a secured information vault of the PCMS and specify which other parties may contact them. In this way, duplication of the personal data is avoided, but at the same time is always current. In use, a second party'"'"'s device, such as a telephone or a PDA may request that the PCMS, under public key infrastructure (PKI) control, establish a connection with the first party. Once verified, the PCMS may establish a proxy connection between the first and second parties according to the permitted mode of communication defined by criteria established by the first party and managed by the PCMS. In this way, personal contact information, such as a telephone number, is kept secure and private and not provided to the second party.

Claims

1. :

A method of managing communications, comprising;

depositing personal contact data of a first party into a secured proxied contact management system (PCMS);

identifying at least one entity to the secure PCMS to enable proxied communications by the at least one entity to the first party;

specifying indicia to control access to the personal contact data; and

establishing or denying the proxied communications to the first party from the at least one entity based on the indicia.

2. :

The method of claim 1, further comprising charging a fee for establishing the communications.

3. :

The method of claim 1, wherein the personal contact data is encrypted and associated with an owner'"'"'s public key.

4. :

The method of claim 1, further comprising authenticating the first party and the at least one entity.

5. :

The method of claim 1, wherein the specifying the indicia includes defining which modes of communications is assessable by the at least one entity.

6. :

The method of claim 1, further comprising submitting a request to the PCMS to establish the connection, wherein the request includes a public key of the first party.

7. :

The method of claim 1, wherein the submitting step is accomplished using a device being at least any one of a telephone device, a personal digital assistant device (PDA) and a computer, the device avoids storing the personal contact data in persistent memory.

8. :

The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of;

verifying that the at least one entity has permission to contact the first party based on the indicia; and

denying the proxied communications when the indicia indicates that the at least one entity is ineligible to contact the first party and establishing proxied communications when the indicia indicates that the at least one entity is eligible to contact the first party.

9. :

The method of claim 8, wherein the indicia indicates the mode of communication that the entity is permitted to use in establishing the communications with the first party including one of email, telephone, facsimile, paging, video phone and text messaging.

10. :

The method of claim 8, wherein when the proxied communications are established, the at least one entity is prevented from receiving any information regarding the first party, other than a public key.

11. :

The method of claim 8, wherein the establishing step is accomplished substantially under control of the PCMS.

12. :

The method of claim 1, further comprising one of updating the personal contact data, revoking access to the personal contact data and changing the indicia.

13. :

The method of claim 1, further comprising establishing a PCMS account for depositing the personal contact data.

14. :

The method of claim 13, wherein the PCMS account is deleted from the PCMS.

15. :

The method of claim 1, further comprising logging into the PCMS to revoke a right of the at least one entity to contact the first party.

16. :

A method of providing communications, comprising;

requesting a connection to a first party by a second party at a PCMS by submitting a public key to identify the first party;

validating whether the second party is permitted to contact the first party by using the public key to locate indicia associated with the first party; and

if permitted, establishing communications between the first party and the second party while preventing the second party from receiving any information regarding contact information of the first party.

17. :

The method of claim 16, wherein the requesting a connection step includes encrypting a message using a public key of the PCMS and the message is digitally signed by the second user.

18. :

The method of claim 16, further comprising verifying the second party using at least any one of a password, a biometric and a pass-phrase.

19. :

The method of claim 16, wherein the indicia defines at least any one of an entity that is permitted to make a contact with the first party, a mode of communication and a time period during which the contact may occur.

20. :

The method of claim 16, further comprising revoking a right of the second party to make a contact with the first party.

21. :

A proxied contact management system (PCMS), comprising;

a data storage medium which securely contains personal contact information;

a contact information storage system which securely stores the personal contact information of a first user of a plurality of users; and

a contact information accessing system which accesses the contact information when a request is made by a second user of the plurality of users, wherein the accessing is controlled based upon an identification of the first user; and

a connection control system which establishes, maintains and releases a connection between the first user of a plurality of users and the second user of the plurality of users based upon indicia associated with the first user.

22. The PCMS of claim 21, further comprising a charging system for charging a fee when establishing the connection.

23. The PCMS of claim 21, wherein the indicia define which of the plurality of users may contact the first user.

24. The PCMS of claim 21, wherein the indicia specifies a mode of communication that the second user of the plurality of users is permitted to use in communicating with the first party.

25. The PCMS of claim 21, wherein the identification of the first user is a public key.

26. The PCMS of claim 21, further comprising:

means for creating an account associated with one or more of the plurality of users; and

means for revoking the account associated with the one or more of the plurality of users.

27. The PCMS of claim 21, wherein the connection uses voice-over-IP protocol.

28. The PCMS of claim 21, further comprising one or more devices for use by users to establish the connection, the device being any one of a telephone, a personal digital assistant, a video phone, a computer, a computing device with facsimile (Fax).

29. A computer program product comprising a computer usable medium having readable program code embodied in the medium, the computer program product includes at least one component to:

deposit personal contact data of a first party into a secured proxied contact management system (PCMS);

identify at least one entity to the secure PCMS to enable proxied communications by the at least one entity to the first party;

specify indicia to control access to the personal contact data; and

establish or deny the proxied communications to the first party from the at least one entity based on the indicia.