Trusted third party clearing house for lead tracking
First Claim
1. A method for securely tracking sales leads sold within a lead sales system, the method being carried out by a computer having a processor and system memory, the method comprising:
- pre-processing lead information by the computer for a lead obtained by a participant of the system;
including;
grouping together at least two different items of personal lead information of the pre-processed lead information, wherein the personal information is of a person to be contacted to pursue the lead;
encrypting the group of personal lead information of the pre-processed lead information with a one-way hash algorithm;
assembling the encrypted group of personal lead information together with one or more individually-encrypted items of personal lead information into a message;
attaching to the message unencrypted lead information within unencrypted fields thereof;
sending, by the computer, the message containing the encrypted lead information and the unencrypted lead information to a lead clearing house server for storage therein;
comparing, with a processor of the lead clearing house server, the received encrypted lead information with encrypted leads stored in a system memory of the lead clearing house server, thereby finding a match between the received encrypted lead information and the stored encrypted leads;
updating, with the processor, a log related to the encrypted lead information with unencrypted log information associated with the matching encrypted lead information; and
selling, with the computer, an unencrypted version of the lead to a lead consumer.
9 Assignments
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Accused Products
Abstract
A method for tracking sales leads, including a lead clearing house logging receipt in a log of one or more encrypted leads received from a participant of the lead clearing house, the one or more leads including personal lead information having been encrypted with a one-way hash algorithm; comparing the received one or more encrypted leads with stored encrypted leads to find any matches; updating the log related to the one or more encrypted leads with unencrypted log information associated with the matching one or more encrypted leads; and communicating a status to the participant based on the log relating to the one or more leads.
42 Citations
16 Claims
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1. A method for securely tracking sales leads sold within a lead sales system, the method being carried out by a computer having a processor and system memory, the method comprising:
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pre-processing lead information by the computer for a lead obtained by a participant of the system;
including;grouping together at least two different items of personal lead information of the pre-processed lead information, wherein the personal information is of a person to be contacted to pursue the lead; encrypting the group of personal lead information of the pre-processed lead information with a one-way hash algorithm; assembling the encrypted group of personal lead information together with one or more individually-encrypted items of personal lead information into a message; attaching to the message unencrypted lead information within unencrypted fields thereof; sending, by the computer, the message containing the encrypted lead information and the unencrypted lead information to a lead clearing house server for storage therein; comparing, with a processor of the lead clearing house server, the received encrypted lead information with encrypted leads stored in a system memory of the lead clearing house server, thereby finding a match between the received encrypted lead information and the stored encrypted leads; updating, with the processor, a log related to the encrypted lead information with unencrypted log information associated with the matching encrypted lead information; and selling, with the computer, an unencrypted version of the lead to a lead consumer. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16)
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13. The method of claim further comprising the lead clearing house server:
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authenticating a connection between the participant and the lead clearing house server when receiving the encrypted lead information, wherein the unencrypted log information comprises a participant identification as a result of the authentication; and removing duplicate encrypted leads before updating the logs of received duplicate leads.
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Specification