Anonymous Communication via Relay Servers
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Solution Overview
Problem
Users cannot contact members of social or professional networks anonymously, as they do not have access to the members' email addresses or phone numbers, which hinders potential connections without revealing personal identifiers.
Innovation Solution
A system and method that enables users to contact potential contacts via content provider web sites or applications without knowing their identifiers, using a content server, identity server, and message server to facilitate anonymous calling and texting by retrieving and configuring messaging code that allows users to initiate communications without revealing device identifiers.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If users attempt to contact members of social or professional networks via email, then communication can be established, but the user must know the member's email address which compromises privacy
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an email relay service that acts as an intermediary between users and network members. Instead of directly accessing member email addresses, users send emails through the relay service which then forwards them to the appropriate members. This mediator approach allows communication to occur without exposing actual email addresses, thereby maintaining privacy while enabling contact.
Solution Approach 2:
The system creates anonymous relay email addresses that copy or represent the actual member identifiers. These relay addresses serve as substitutes that can be shared publicly without revealing the true email addresses. The relay service maps these anonymous copies back to the real identifiers internally, allowing communication while protecting the original identifier information.
2Reliability
If the web site sends email messages to member addresses, then messages can be delivered, but the member's email address is not revealed to the user
Solution Approach 1:
The web site implements an email relay service as an intermediary layer between the user and the member's email system. The relay service receives emails from users, processes them, and forwards them to the appropriate members using the members' actual email addresses. This allows reliable message delivery while keeping the member's email address hidden from the user, as the relay service handles the address translation internally.
3Loss of information
If users want to maintain anonymity in communications, then privacy is preserved, but direct contact methods requiring identifier exchange are prevented
Solution Approach 1:
The system creates and distributes anonymous relay email addresses that can be used as contact information without revealing the user's actual identity or email address. These relay addresses act as anonymous copies that can be freely shared with network members. When members send emails to these relay addresses, the system forwards them to the appropriate users while maintaining the anonymity of both parties, thus preserving privacy while enabling contact capability.
Data Source
AI summary
A device provides for display, to a first user device, information associated with a potential contact, and an option to communicate with the potential contact. The device receives a selection of the option from the first user device, and obtains, based on the selection, an identifier for a second user device associated with the potential contact. The device provides a communication request and the identifier to a message server to cause the message server to selectively cause a communication session to be established between the first user device and the second user device. An indication that the communication session is denied may be provided to the first user device when the second user device does not accept the communication request. The communication session may be established, without revealing the identifier to the first user device, when the second user device accepts the communication request.