INITIATING CONTACT USING PROTECTED CONTACT DATA IN AN ELECTRONIC DIRECTORY

• US 20080044031A1
• Filed: 08/04/2006
• Published: 02/21/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 06/23/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Mishra, Abhishek Kumar
• Granted Patent: US 8,254,891 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 380/279
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/60 Digital content management, e.g. content distribution
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/083 involving central third party, e.g. key distribution center [KDC] or trusted third party [TTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/0891 Revocation or update of secret information, e.g. encryption key update or rekeying
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/6009 Personal information, e.g. profiles or personal directories being only provided to authorised persons
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/6081 Service authorization mechanisms
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42178 by downloading data to substation equipment
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/4931 Directory assistance systems

Abstract

A client application allows a user of a telecommunication device to retrieve contact data of a particular individual from a server to initiate contact with the particular individual without viewing content designated as private by the particular individual. The retrieved contact data includes encrypted content and non-encrypted content. The telecommunication device sends a directory request to the server requesting contact data from an electronic directory stored on the server. If the directory request is validated by the server, the telecommunication device receives the requested contact data from the server. The telecommunication device also receives a decryption key and a key expiration parameter from the server. The client application executing on the telecommunication device can use the decryption key within a time period defined by the key expiration parameter to decrypt encrypted contacted data on the telecommunication device to initiate contact with the particular individual.

Claims

1. A method of initiating a call with a telecommunication device using encrypted contact data received from a server, said method comprising:

generating, at the telecommunication device, a directory request to receive contact data from an electronic directory stored on the server, said electronic directory including contact data of a plurality of individuals, said contact data including encrypted content and non-encrypted content;

receiving the requested contact data from the server for storage in a local electronic directory of the telecommunication device;

displaying only the non-encrypted content of the received contact data for the plurality of individuals on a display of the telecommunication device;

receiving input from a user selecting a particular one of the plurality of individuals to call;

identifying encrypted content included in the received contact data of the selected particular one of the plurality of individuals;

decrypting the identified encrypted content for the selected individual; and

using the decrypted content to initiate a call to the particular individual without displaying the decrypted content on the display of the telecommunication device.

2. The method of claim 1 further including receiving decryption data from the server for storage in a memory of the telecommunication device, wherein said decryption data includes a decryption key, and wherein the telecommunication device uses the decryption key to decrypt the identified encrypted content.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the decryption key is a single-use session key randomly generated by the server.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the received decryption data further includes a key expiration parameter, said key expiration parameter defining a period of time during which the decryption key can be used by the telecommunication device to decrypt encrypted content.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the received contact data further includes a contact data expiration parameter, said contact data expiration parameter indicating a specific duration of time during which the contact data of the particular individual has been authorized for storage in the local electronic directory.

6. The method of claim 5 further including determining if the received contact data is authorized for storage in the memory of the telecommunication device as a function of the received expiration parameter, wherein the received contact data is determined to be authorized for storage if the specific duration of time during which the contact data of the particular individual has been authorized for storage has not expired, and wherein the received contact data is determined to be unauthorized for storage if the specific duration of time during which the contact data of the particular individual has been authorized for storage has expired.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the content of the contact data includes one or more of the following:

a first name;

a last name;

a job title;

an employer name;

a work phone number; and

a mobile phone number.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the generated directory request includes authentication data, and wherein contact data is received from the server when the authentication data included in the directory request is validated by the server, and wherein contact data is not received from the server when the authentication data included in the directory request is not validated by the server.

9. A system for initiating a call with a telecommunication device using encrypted contact data received from a server, said system comprising:

a user interface component responsive to a first input received from a user of the telecommunication device to send a directory request to the server to retrieve contact data from an electronic directory stored on the server, said electronic directory including contact data of a plurality of individuals, said contact data for each said individual including encrypted content and non-encrypted content;

a storage component for receiving the requested contact data from the server and for storing the received contact data in a local electronic directory; and

wherein said user interface component is responsive to the received contact data to display only the non-encrypted content of the received contact data for the plurality of individuals on a display of the telecommunication device; and

a decryption component responsive to a second input received from the user selecting a particular one of the plurality of individuals being displayed for which to initiate a call to decrypt the encrypted content of the contact data corresponding to the particular individual and to use the decrypted content to initiate a call to the particular individual.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the storage component further receives decryption data from the server for storage in a memory of the telecommunication device, and wherein said decryption data includes a decryption key that is used by the decryption component to decrypt the encrypted content.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the decryption key is a single-use session key randomly generated by the server.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein the received decryption data further includes a key expiration parameter, said key expiration parameter defining a period of time during which the decryption key can be used by the decryption component to decrypt encrypted content.

13. The system of claim 9, wherein the received contact data further includes a contact data expiration parameter, said contact data expiration parameter indicating a specific duration of time during which the contact data of the particular individual has been authorized for storage in the local electronic directory.

14. The system of claim 9, wherein user interface component further prevents decrypted contact data from being displayed on the display of the of the telecommunication device.

15. A method of storing contact data received from a server in telecommunication device, said method comprising:

sending a directory request to the server requesting contact data from an electronic directory stored on the server, said electronic directory including contact data for an individual, said contact data for the individual including encrypted content and non-encrypted content;

receiving, from the server, contact data and an expiration parameter of the individual, said expiration parameter specifying a duration of time during which the contact data of the individual has been authorized for storage;

identifying contact data authorized for storage in a memory of the telecommunication device as a function of the received expiration parameter; and

storing the identified authorized contact data in the memory of the telecommunication device.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the identifying includes determining whether the specified duration of time has expired, and wherein the storing includes storing the received contact data in the memory only if the specified duration has not expired.

17. The method of claim 15 further including deleting contact data for the individual stored in the memory of the telecommunication device when the duration of time specified by a corresponding expiration parameter has expired.

18. The method of claim 15 further including:

receiving a first user input requesting the display of contact data stored in the memory of the telecommunications device;

displaying only the non-encrypted content of the received contact data for the individual on a display of the telecommunication device;

receiving a second user input selecting individual being displayed for which to initiate a call;

decrypting the encrypted content for the individual; and

using the decrypted content to initiate a call to the individual without displaying the decrypted content on the display of the telecommunication device.

19. The method of claim 15 further including receiving decryption data from the server for storage in a memory of the telecommunication device, said decryption data including a decryption key for use by the telecommunication device to decrypt encrypted content.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein the decryption data further includes a key expiration parameter, said key expiration parameter defining a period of time during which the decryption key can be used by the telecommunication device to decrypt encrypted content.