Anonymous Messaging Conversation

• US 20130070672A1
• Filed: 09/11/2012
• Published: 03/21/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 09/16/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: TeleCommunication Systems Inc (Comtech Telecommunications Corporation)
• Original Assignee: TeleCommunication Systems Inc (Comtech Telecommunications Corporation)
• Inventors: McFarland, Keith, Jain, Vishal
• Granted Patent: US 9,544,271 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/328
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/48 Message addressing, e.g. address format or anonymous messages, aliases
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/2525 Translation at a client
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/2539 Hiding addresses; Keeping addresses anonymous
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0421 Anonymous communication, i.e. the party's identifiers are hidden from the other party or parties, e.g. using an anonymizer
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1069 Session establishment or de-establishment
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1073 Registration or de-registration
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/12 Messaging; Mailboxes; Announcements

Abstract

An anonymous communication module that provides full conversational anonymous messaging and voice/video communication between two or more parties interacting over a wireless/landline network. An anonymous messaging module accepts an anonymous initiation message to a public address to trigger the start of an anonymous voice/video conversation between a message originator and a message recipient. An anonymous communication module performs intercept and address substitution on a message and/or voice/video call transmitted between two or more parties via an anonymous communication service. The anonymous communication module substitutes a real address in the source field of an intercepted message and/or voice/video call, with an anonymous address mapped to that real address, and substitutes an anonymous address in the destination field of an intercepted message and/or voice/video call with a real address mapped to that anonymous address. The anonymous communication module then forwards the newly formatted message and/or voice/video call to an intended message/call destination.

Claims

1. Apparatus to anonymize at least two digital text communication devices actively interacting in two-way digital packet text communication with one another, comprising:

an anonymous digital text communication module to form a digital packet gateway between said at least two actively interacting digital text communication devices, said anonymous digital text communication module anonymizing said active two-way digital packet text communication by substituting for a real address in source fields of digital packets associated with said active interaction passing therethrough with an anonymous address, and substituting for an anonymous address in destination fields of digital packets associated with said active interaction passing therethrough with an affiliated real address, before forwarding said intercepted digital packet text communication to an intended destination associated with said real address;

wherein anonymity is maintained between said at least two digital text communication devices vis-à

-vis each other.

2. The apparatus to anonymize at least two digital text communication devices actively interacting in two-way digital packet text communication with one another according to claim 1, wherein said real address comprises:

a mobile directory number.

3. The apparatus to anonymize at least two digital text communication devices actively interacting in two-way digital packet text communication with one another according to claim 1, wherein said real address comprises:

an Internet Protocol (IP) address.

4. The apparatus to anonymize at least two digital text communication devices actively interacting in two-way digital packet text communication with one another according to claim 1, wherein said digital packet text communication comprises:

Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP).

5. The apparatus to anonymize at least two digital text communication devices actively interacting in two-way digital packet text communication with one another according to claim 1, wherein said digital packet text communication comprises:

video.

6. The apparatus to anonymize at least two digital text communication devices actively interacting in two-way digital packet text communication with one another according to claim 1, wherein said digital packet text communication comprises:

a short message.

7. The apparatus to anonymize at least two digital text communication devices actively interacting in two-way digital packet text communication with one another according to claim 1, wherein said digital packet text communication comprises:

a multimedia message (MMS).

8. The apparatus to anonymize at least two digital text communication devices actively interacting in two-way digital packet text communication with one another according to claim 1, wherein said digital packet text communication comprises:

an instant message (IM).

9. The apparatus to anonymize at least two digital text communication devices actively interacting in two-way digital packet text communication with one another according to claim 1, further comprising:

an internal address mapping database to affiliate real addresses to at least one anonymous address, for each of said at least two digital text communication devices.

10. The apparatus to anonymize at least two digital text communication devices actively interacting in two-way digital packet text communication with one another according to claim 9, wherein:

said anonymous digital text communication module intercepts said digital packet corresponding to said active two-way digital packet text communication;

queries said internal address mapping database to determine said anonymous source address to substitute in for said real source address supplied in said digital packet, queries said internal address mapping database to determine said real destination address to substitute in for said anonymous destination address supplied in said digital packet, and forwards a newly, anonymously-addressed digital packet to an intended destination digital text communication device.

11. A method of providing full conversational anonymous text communication between two or more digital text communication devices, comprising:

intercepting an anonymously addressed digital text packet transmitted between two or more digital text communication devices;

substituting for a real source address associated with said digital text packet with an anonymous source address, in said intercepted digital text packet;

substituting for an anonymous destination address associated with said intercepted digital text packet in a destination address field of said intercepted digital text packet with a real destination address for an intended destination digital text communication device; and

forwarding said intercepted digital text packet to said intended destination.

12. The method of providing full conversational anonymous text communication between two or more digital text communication devices according to claim 11, further comprising:

querying an internal address mapping database to affiliate said real destination address with said anonymous destination address; and

querying said internal address mapping database to affiliate said real source address with said anonymous source address.