Transactional Email Obfuscation via Dynamic Address Segmentation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing email communication systems fail to effectively obfuscate both sender and recipient email addresses during transactions, leading to potential misuse such as bulk harvesting and spamming, while existing solutions either provide incomplete protection or only mask one party's address.
Innovation Solution
A method and apparatus that generate and assign transactional addresses to both senders and recipients by encoding their email addresses with identifiers, ensuring both parties' anonymity throughout the transaction period, using hashing or cryptographic methods to create unique transaction addresses valid for a predetermined period.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Object-affected harmful factors
If email addresses are obfuscated using existing methods, then one party's address is masked, but the other party's address remains exposed
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the email communication process into distinct phases: original email exchange, forwarding request, and forwarded email exchange. Transactional addresses are assigned specifically to the forwarding phase, allowing obfuscation during that segment while preserving original communication functionality. This segmentation enables selective application of obfuscation without compromising overall communication adaptability.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces transactional addresses as intermediary identifiers that mediate between the original email addresses and the forwarding system. These transactional addresses act as temporary proxies that enable the forwarding operation while shielding the actual email addresses from exposure during the transaction period.
2Object-affected harmful factors
If transactional addresses are assigned to both sender and recipient, then both parties' privacy is protected, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements dynamic transactional address assignment where addresses are created on-demand for each forwarding request and automatically expire after a predetermined period or upon transaction completion. This dynamic approach ensures privacy protection is active only when needed, reducing the burden of managing permanent obfuscation systems while effectively preventing bulk harvesting.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent employs disposable transactional addresses that are generated temporarily for each forwarding operation and then discarded. These short-lived addresses provide strong privacy protection without requiring long-term management infrastructure, as they automatically become invalid after their predetermined lifespan, reducing system complexity.
3Object-affected harmful factors
If email addresses are fully obfuscated, then privacy is maintained, but communication traceability is lost
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies different quality levels of obfuscation to different parts of the communication system. Transactional addresses provide full obfuscation for the forwarding pathway, while original email addresses remain intact and traceable in the source and destination systems. This local differentiation allows spamming prevention in the forwarding channel without losing communication metadata in the original systems.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent performs preliminary assignment of transactional addresses before the forwarding operation occurs. This advance preparation ensures that obfuscation is in place before any potential spamming or harvesting can occur, while the mapping between transactional and original addresses is established in advance, preserving traceability information in the system records.
Data Source
AI summary
A method, apparatus, and computer program product are disclosed for facilitating two-way email communication in manner that obfuscates sender and recipient email addresses. The method includes receiving a correspondence request indication; assigning a first transaction address to a sender and a second transaction address to a recipient; receiving a message from the sender; associating the message from the sender with the first transaction address; and causing a transmission of the message from the sender to the recipient using the first transaction address. A corresponding apparatus and computer program product are also provided.