A
system and method for communicating information or a cryptographic key therefore between a first party and a second party, comprising the steps of receiving, by an intermediary, an identifier of desired information and accounting information for a transaction involving the information from the first party, transmitting an identifier of the first party to the second party, and negotiating, by the intermediary, a comprehension function for obscuring at least a portion of the information communicated between the first party and the second party. The
data transmission may be made secure with respect to the intermediary by providing an asymmetric key or direct
key exchange for
encryption of the communication between the first and second party. The
data transmission may be made secure with respect to the second party by maintaining the information in encrypted format at the second party, with the decryption key held only by the intermediary, and transmitting a secure composite of the decryption key and a new
encryption key to the second party for
transcoding of the data
record, and providing the new decryption key to the first party, so that the information transmitted to the first party can be comprehended by it. According to the present invention, asymmetric key
encryption may be employed to provide the establishment of secure communications channels involving an intermediary, without making the intermediary privy to the decryption key or the message.