WO2000067154A1

WO2000067154A1 - A network interface between clients and other entities

Info

Publication number: WO2000067154A1
Application number: PCT/US2000/011109
Authority: WO
Inventors: Arvind Goel
Original assignee: Infospace, Inc.
Priority date: 1999-04-30
Filing date: 2000-04-24
Publication date: 2000-11-09
Also published as: EP1190347A1; AU4802000A

Abstract

A method and a system for aggregating data (214) from multiple locations over a network (202, 204, 206) is disclosed. In one embodiment, the network system, which contains processing units and memory, is capable of identifying a plurality of nodes (202, 204, 206). Upon identification of the nodes, the system aggregates information (214) from multiple locations. The information aggregated may relate to financial, industrial, marketing, and individual transactions. The system subsequently updates client account information stored in the database in response to the information. After updating, the system makes the updated information available to system clients.

Description

A NETWORK INTERFACE BETWEEN CLIENTS AND OTHER ENTITIES

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to methods for operating a network of data processing systems. In particular, the present invention relates to a system for collecting information from various sources and distributing the information to one or more recipients in a controlled manner.

Description of the Related Art

Various systems are available for collecting and distributing information between multiple computer systems. Many times, the exchange of information between these computer systems occurs over a network. However, on larger networks, such as the Internet, end users may have greater difficulty in exchanging and collecting all the needed information from various sources.

For example, it is difficult for a financial institution to construct an integrated financial and behavioral profile on its customers by collecting complete information relating to its customers, because of the large number of locations that would have to be contacted and accessed. Further, many of these locations are owned by competitive financial institutions, that will not be willing to share their customer information with their competitors. Still, financial institutions desire more complete information about their customers, so they may provide better products and services designed to meet their customers' exact needs. In attempts to do so, they combine their internal information with information from demographic and financial information vendors such as Claritas of Arlington, VA, or FDC Englewood, CO. However, this compilation of information is either still not complete, or not accurate enough or both. To overcome this problem, financial institutions may resort to using sophisticated computer models in attempts to predict their customers' needs. Despite the sophistication of these models, it would be far better for financial institutions to obtain actual, accurate, timely and complete data on their customers, lire distributed and proprietary nature of this information makes this task impossible to accomplish.

Further, consumers have serious concerns about the privacy of their personal information. These concerns further inhibit the ability of service providers, such as financial institutions, to collect and use consumer information to improve their product and service offerings.

At the same time, consumers wish to have a place where all their financial information is stored for easy and quick access, while not having to personally bear the overhead or responsibility associated with ma taining such collection and storage. However, consumers would not appreciate unlimited access to such information by others, including financial institutions, for fear that it will be misused for purposes such as unwanted and bothersome solicitations or junk mail.

Similar problems are faced in the field of information relating to purchase of other products and services, by both consumers and the providers of these products and services. Precise, integrated consumer information is highly desirable to vendors, but is impossible to obtain due to its distributed and proprietary nature, and consumers' privacy concerns. Such information can also be used by consumers for planning their financial lives as well as future purchasing behavior. Accordingly, it is desirable to have a system that aggregates all relevant information into one location and distributes such information to selected parties in a controlled manner.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENΗON

A system and method for aggregating precise consumer information are described. In one embodiment, the consumer information is made available to both consumers and vendors of products and services in a manner that preserves consumers' privacy. In another embodiment, the system also allows vendors to develop customized, targeted offers for specific customers and to promote these offers to these customers, with the customers' permission. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present invention will be understood more fully from the detailed description given below and from the accompanying drawings of various embodiments of the invention, which, however, should not be taken to limit the invention to the specific embodiments, but are for explanation and understanding only.

Figure 1 illustrates one embodiment of a network configuration with an interface system coupling various entities to individuals.

Figure 2 is a block diagram of one embodiment of an interface system.

Figure 3 is a flow chart illustrating one embodiment of system controls.

Figure 4 is a flow chart illustrating data controls for one embodiment of a requester.

Figure 5 is a flow chart illustrating control flows for one embodiment of a client.

Figure 6 illustrates an exemplary query screen.

Figure 7 illustrates an exemplary client welcome screen.

Figure 8 illustrates an exemplary promotional screen.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

An interfacing technique for exchanging information over a network, such as the Internet, is disclosed. In the following description, for purposes of explanation, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention. It will be apparent, however, to one skilled in the art that the present invention can be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, well-known structures and devices are shown in block diagram form in order to avoid obscuring the present invention.

Some portions of the detailed descriptions that follow are presented in terms of algorithms and symbolic representations of operations on data bits within a computer memory. These algorithmic descriptions and representations are the means used by those skilled in the data processing arts to most effectively convey the substance of their work to others skilled in the art. An algorithm is here, and generally, conceived to be a self-consistent sequence of steps leading to a desired result. The steps are those requiring physical manipulations of physical quantities. Usually, though not necessarily, these quantities take the form of electrical or magnetic signals capable of being stored, transferred, combined, compared, and otherwise manipulated. It has proven convenient at times, principally for reasons of common usage, to refer to these signals as bits, values, elements, symbols, characters, terms, numbers, or the like.

It should be borne in mind, however, that all of these and similar terms are to be associated with the appropriate physical quantities and are merely convenient labels applied to these quantities. Unless specifically stated otherwise as apparent from the following discussions, it is appreciated that throughout the present invention, discussions utilizing terms such as "processing" or "computing" or "calculating" or "determining" or "displaying" or the like, refer to the action and processes of a computer system, or similar electronic computing device, that manipulates and transforms data represented as physical (electronic) quantities within the computer system's registers and memories into other data similarly represented as physical quantities within the computer system memories or registers or other such information storage, transmission or display devices.

The present invention also relates to apparatus for performing the operations herein. This apparatus may be specially constructed for the required purposes, or it may comprise a general purpose computer selectively activated or reconfigured by a computer program stored in the computer. Such a computer program may be stored in a computer readable storage medium, such as, but is not limited to, any type of disk including floppy disks, optical disks, CD-ROMs, and magnetic-optical disks, read-only memories (ROMs), random access memories (RAMs), EPROMs, EEPROMs, magnetic or optical cards, or any type of media suitable for storing electronic instructions, and each coupled to a computer system bus.

The algorithms and displays presented herein are not inherently related to any particular computer or other apparatus. Various general purpose systems may be used with programs in accordance with the teachings herein, or it may prove convenient to construct more specialized apparatus to perform the required method steps. The required structure for a variety of these systems will appear from the description below. In addition, the present invention is not described with reference to any particular programming language. It will be appreciated that a variety of programming languages may be used to implement the teachings of the invention as described herein.

Figure 1 is a diagram 200 illustrating connections between interface system 210 and an individual user 220 and various entities. In one embodiment, the connections are network connections to provide communication over a network, such as, for example, Internet 102. In other embodiments, these connections may also be proprietary communication networks. Interface system 210 includes system database 108 for storing aggregated information received from the network.

The entities may include one or more macroeconomic environment entities 202, such as the stock market, one or more financial institutions (FIs) 204, and one or more vendors and /or manufacturers 206. FIs 204 may include, for example, but are not limited to, banks, investment brokerages, insurance companies, credit card companies, mortgage and loan companies, IRA and other retirement account management institutions, etc. FIs 204 provide their information relating to specific customers into the interface system 210. The information provided by FIs 204 may include detailed transaction information, account summaries, balances, and other information, such as, but not limited to, including new or closed account information.

Macroeconomic environment entity 202 may provide information relating to industries, finances, economies, etc. Entity 202 commonly supplies financial information, such as activities of stock market, bonds, treasury bills, etc. For example, in one embodiment, entity 202 may provide information includes indexes from Dow Jones, Nasdaq, and S&P500. Entity 202 may also recommend stocks to buy and stocks to sell, analyst reports, and indications of overseas markets, such as Europe and Asia. It should be noted that interface system 210 can tailor receipt of certain types of information from the entity 202, by filtering out irrelevant information based on the particular customer's profile and offering relevant macroeconomic information.

Vendors /manufacturers 206 may comprise an advertising company or on-line retail shop or a discount retailer. In one embodiment, purchasing information of individual customers is provided by vendor /manufacturer 206 into the interface system 210. Other sources of customer information that may be fed into interface system 210 include data entry by customers themselves, online sessions between the client and the FI, automatic logins into the client's account by the system interface on the client's behalf, and other public and private sources of data.

The information arriving into interface system 210 is organized by data aggregator 214 into customer database 108. Interface system 210 is capable of receiving information from various nodes, such as FIs 204, environment 202, etc. Upon receipt of the information, interface system 210 identifies the information and updates information stored in the customer database. Accordingly, interface system 210 maintains a list of up-to-date information for every customer in database 108. The information may provide current income, IRA balance, net worth, purchasing history, demographic factors, and so forth.

Customer database 108 may be accessed by customers for financial planning purposes. To facilitate this, in one embodiment, interface system 210 includes an online financial planner 212. In one embodiment, financial planner 212 includes a set of software programs that enable the customer to organize his/her finances, carry out various financial analyses, such as asset allocation, prepare plans for the future, and track his/her performance according to these plans.

In one embodiment, interface system 210 further includes customer relationship management ("CRM") tool 216. In one embodiment, CRM tool 216 is a set of software routines that allow FIs 204 or vendors /manufacturers 206 to query database 108 to find individual customers who fit a selected profile. In one embodiment, only the set of an entity's current customers is made available to the entity for query purposes. Other restrictions may also be included to control the extent to which an entity may access information from database 108. In one embodiment, database 108 containing comprehensive financial profiles is stripped of individual identifying information, such as name, social security number, phone number, etc., and is replaced by unique numerical identifiers. This process, called "anonymization" allows entities to query the database and receive a list of numerical identifiers of individuals who fit a certain profile, without the identity of these individuals being disclosed to the entity. Thus, the privacy of individuals is preserved, while the entity is still able to make full use of the integrated information contained in database 108.

For example, an entity may run a query to find out how many of its customers have income greater than $100,000, at least one active brokerage account, at least 16 years of education, and are interested in buying books on financial planning. Based on the number of customers who fit this profile, the entity may choose to develop and promote a financial planning product to those customers. The promotion would be sent by the entity into offer aggregator 218, where offers for any given customer would be sorted according to the customer's preferences and level of access the promoting entity is allowed to that customer. The promotion would then be forwarded to individual 220 by offer aggregator 218. In one embodiment, offer aggregator 218 forwards the promotion to individual 220 by linking the customer's numerical identifier with the customer's email address. Other ways of forwarding would be apparent to one skilled in the art.

Thus, in one embodiment, to improve customer service, a retailer can use information on specific customers to separate consumers into different groups where different services, prices, etc. may be offered to different individual customers or groups of consumers. This ability for FIs and retailers to target not just groups or zip codes by specific individuals with offers best suited to those individuals will increase customer satisfaction and the ability of providers to increase loyalty, creating economic benefits to both consumers and providers.

In one embodiment, data aggregator 214 maintains a database storing account information for each client (e.g., individual 220). Data aggregator 214 selectively receives information from various network entities, such as FIs 204 and macroeconomic environment entity 202. After receipt of information, data aggregator 214 immediately updates the profiles of each of the customers contained in the database. In another embodiment, the account information is updated daily. In still another embodiment, the account information is updated as soon as new information is available. In essence, data aggregator 214 aggregates all information relating to one client into one place so that the client information can be accessed efficiently. In one embodiment, this information includes financial accounts, status of loans, mortgages, credit cards, purchasing histories and demographic information.

On-line financial planner ("planner") 212 is a component of the system 200 that accesses account information from data aggregator 214 and database 108 and uses the information to provide a customer with additional value-added information. In one embodiment, the value-added information is a summary of investments status for a particular customer. The value-added information may include personal data such as news, customer's total net worth, balance of bank account, balance of IRA, and so forth. It may also include recommendations on what steps to take to achieve certain future financial goals, advice on portfolio allocation, and optimization of the customer's overall financial profile taken as a whole. Each customer may also tailor the personal data by indicating what news and what summaries the client wants to receive. In another embodiment, planner 212 periodically updates the personal data and presents it to the customer via email.

CRM 216 is a tool for compiling customer information to understand customer's needs. In one embodiment, CRM 216 analyzes account information stored in database 108 to understand clients' behavior and potential needs. Upon discovery of clients' behavior, CRM 216 groups clients into different behavior groups. In one embodiment, numerical identification numbers are used to indicate clients so that the identities of the clients are not disclosed. In another embodiment, CRM 216 sends requested information to various entities, such as FIs 204 and vendor entity 206.

Offer aggregator 218 receives multiple requests and offers from various entities, such as FIs 204, vendors 206, etc. In one embodiment, FIs 204 or vendor 206 can request lists of customer IDs whose profiles fit certain combinations of criteria supplied by the requester. The criteria may be a range of household income, level of education, etc. In one embodiment, offer aggregator 218 compiles an anonymous list of clients in database 108 according to the criteria before it sends the list to the requester. Note that in one embodiment, the list of customer IDs a requesting entity receives may only contain those individuals who are already customers of the requesting entity.

In another embodiment, vendor 206 may send a promotional offer with a set of criteria to offer aggregator 218. Upon receipt of the promotional offer, offer aggregator 218 compiles a list of clients according to the criterion. Once the list is compiled, offer aggregator 218 sends the promotional offer to every client that appears on this list. It should be appreciated that a client may directly contact offeror if the client is interested in the promotional offer. It should be further noted that the offer may be a product or /and service offer, price discount, offer for rewards or other types of promotional offers.

In a further embodiment, individual customers 220 may also query database 108 to find other individuals in the same financial and /or demographic situation as themselves, flag these 'benchmark' individuals, and compare their financial performance and choices over time with their own. Again, the names and identities of such benchmark individuals are not revealed, but customers can still compare their profiles to those of others like themselves. In a further embodiment, certain individuals whose financial performance is exemplary, may be flagged as 'best in class' for a given demographic cross-section of the population, and others in that class may compare their performance with that of these best in class individuals, again without compromising the identity of these individuals.

Figure 2 is a block diagram of one embodiment of an interface system 180. Referring to Figure 2, the interface system 180 includes a bus 181 or other communications hardware and software, for communicating information and a processor 189 coupled with bus 181 for processing information. Processor 189 represents a central processing unit of any type architecture, such as for example, a CISC or RISC type architecture processor. The interface system 180 further includes a random access memory (RAM) or other dynamic storage device (referenced to as main memory 184) coupled to bus 181 for storing information and instructions to be executed by processor 189. Main memory 184 also may be used for storing temporary variables or other intermediate information during execution of instructions by processor 189. The interface system 180 also includes a read only memory (ROM) 186 and /or other static storage device coupled to bus 181 for storing static information and instructions for processor 189. Data storage device 187 is coupled to bus 181 for storing information and instructions. A data storage device 187, such as a magnetic disk or optical disk, and its corresponding disk drive, can be coupled to the interface system 100. The interface system 180 can also be coupled via bus 181 to a display device 121 for displaying information to a computer user. Display device 121 may include a frame buffer, specialized graphics rendering devices, a cathode ray tube (CRT), and /or a flat panel display. An alphanumeric input device 122, including alphanumeric and other keys, is typically coupled to bus 181 for communicating information and command selections to processor 189. Other user input devices, such as a cursor control 123 (e.g., a mouse, a trackball, a pen, a touch screen, or cursor direction keys for communicating direction information and command selections to processor 109) for controlling cursor movement on display device 121 may be included.

Figure 3 is a flow chart 500 illustrating a process by which processing logic in the interface system processes information. The processing logic may comprise hardware, software, or a combination of both.

Referring to Figure 3, the process begins with the receipt of information from over the network (processing block 502). Upon receipt of the information, processing logic determines whether the received information is an inquiry (processing block 504). If processing logic determines that the received information is an inquiry, the process proceeds to block 505 where processing logic assigns an identifier tag to the inquiry and then performs a search on the client database based on criteria in the received information (processing block 510). In one embodiment, the search is limited to clients of the requester that generated the inquiry; the inquiry indicates its source to enable the processing logic to only search selected clients. It should be noted that each inquiry may contain one or more criteria. For example, the criteria may be the range of household income, years of education, professions, and so forth.

Using the results of the search, processing logic creates a list of its clients that meet the criteria specified in the inquiry (processing block 512). In one embodiment, the list is created using only client identification numbers to maintain their anonymity. Once the list is compiled, processing logic sends the list to the requester (processing block 514) and saves the list along with the inquiry identifier for use when information regarding an offer is received (processing block 516). The process then ends. If processing logic determines that the received information is not an inquiry, processing proceeds to processing block 520 where processing logic determines whether the received information is an offer for selling a product or service. If the received information is an offer, processing proceeds to block 530 where processing logic receives the offer (processing block 530), identifies the previously created list of clients to whom the offer is directed (processing block 532), and sends the offer to those clients on the list (processing block 534) via, for example, email or via those clients' personalized web pages or in another manner. In such a case, the offer indicates the list of clients to which the offer applies. The offer may be received in response to receiving the list generated in processing block 512. In an alternative embodiment, if no list has been found, processing logic generates a list according to the criteria supplied by the requester along with the offer. Processing logic sends the offer to the network address stored in the client information for each client (processing block 514). Processing logic then saves the list so that the clients can be identified when an offer is to be sent (processing block 516). After sending the offer, processing ends.

If processing logic determines that the received information does not relate to an offer (processing block 520), processing proceeds to processing block 540 where the process checks whether the access is directed to an existing customer of the information source. If processing logic determines the received information is for one of the source's clients, the processing proceeds to block 550 where processing logic searches the client database (processing block 560) and updates the client database if the information represents an update request (processing block 562). After updating the client database, the process ends. In one embodiment, this access is one way only, which prevents the information provider from directly reading information on a specific customer.

If processing logic determines that the received information is not about one of the clients of the source of the requested information, processing ends. This prevents an entity or individual from gaining access to non-client information.

Figure 4 is a flow chart illustrating a process performed by an entity or individual offering products and/or services to clients. Such an entity or individual has processing logic that performs the process. The processing logic may be hardware, software or a combination of both.

Referring to Figure 4, the process begins with processing logic creating a product or/and service offer (processing block 602). After creating the offer, processing logic creates an inquiry with one or more criteria (processing block 604) and sends the inquiry to the interface system using the network (processing block 606). In response to the inquiry, processing logic receives an anonymous list with identification numbers from the interface system (processing block 608). This list includes its clients that satisfied the criteria in the inquiry. Upon receipt of the list, processing logic indicates to the interface system which of the customers on the list are to receive the offer. In one embodiment, the offer and the criteria for the inquiry are sent at the same time and the system interface automatically sends the offer to any client that meets the criteria. After sending the offer, the process ends.

Figure 5 is a flow chart 700 illustrating processing performed by processing logic in client systems. The processing logic may be software, hardware or a combination of both. Referring to Figure 5, the process begins with processing logic receiving information from the interface system (processing block 702). The information received may, in one embodiment, contain a summary of the client's personal finances, selected macroeconomic information, etc. (processing block 704). At the same time, processing logic also receives notification of promotional product or /and service offers (processing block 706). In one embodiment, if the client decides not to view these offers, the client may choose to ignore the notification, and if the client decides to view these promotional offers, the client may do so, for example, by clicking an icon to receive the offers. After browsing the offers, if the client wishes to not study any of them in detail, the client may, in one embodiment, choose to go back to the financial summary. If the client wishes to study an offer in detail, the client may, in one embodiment, click on the promotion icon to get more information, and if desired, go to the offeror's web site or call the offeror's phone number, or otherwise make contact, to make a purchase. In one embodiment, after a certain period of time, processing logic discards the promotional offers and replaces them with new ones (processing block 708). In one embodiment, acceptance of an offer may be directly sent to the offeror using conventional communication networks (without going through the system interface). In alternative embodiments, some or all offers are handled through the system interface. After accepting or discarding one, more or all offers, the process ends.

Figure 6 illustrates an exemplary query screen 800 for FI. Referring to Figure 6, query screen 800 includes a welcome message 802, a new query entry 804, and a query result box 806. Welcome message 802 indicates a welcome message and name of the FI, such as "Welcome back, Bank A." It should be noted that various names of participating FIs are stored in the interface system and are available for use.

New query entry 804 allows the FI to enter information to be used in a specific inquiry to the system interface. The query entry 804 may contain multiple qualifications, such as net worth, when a new checking account opened, average checking balance, average saving balance, planning significant purchase, and so forth. It should be appreciated that a variety of different qualifications and information may be used. Upon entering various qualifications, the process compiles the entered qualifications into a set of criteria. It should be noted that the qualifications can be customized by different end users.

Upon creation of the criterion, a submit query button 808 may be used to submit the query to the interface system. The button "go to advanced query" 810 further provides different entries for a query or customizes the query. Also, the button "submit custom SQL query" 812 causes submission of a sequence of queries at the same time. It should be noted that the words "query" and "inquiry" are used interchangeably herein.

The query result box 806 displays a result of a query, such as 239,436 customers have been found whose profile matches the criteria specified in the query. It should be noted that different options and designs are possible to achieve similar functions.

Figure 7 illustrates an exemplary client welcome screen 900. Referring to Figure 7, client welcome screen 900 is typically displayed during a client login screen where it contains a welcome message 902, a summary of bottom line 920, an economic environment section 930, a legal environment 940, and a promotional box 950.

In one embodiment, client welcome screen 900 further includes selections of the interface system home 910, my home 912, personal information 914, and economic environment 916. Interface system home 910 allows a client to access the interface system. My home 912 allows a client to jump to client's own home page. Personal information 914 permits a client to update client's personal information. In one embodiment, economic environment 916 includes a summary of macroeconomic data relevant to the client's financial affairs.

Summary 920 is a synopsis of the client's current financial situation. In one embodiment, summary 920 identifies the date, amount earned, amount spent, amount invested, amount saved, total change of asset value, today's net worth, and summary of total investment assets. It should be noted that listed elements in summary 920 can be changed or customized. Also a "more" button associated with each section allows a client to view more detailed information for the section.

Economic environment section 930 lists general factors that occurred today, such as today's interest rate, Dow Jones index, and so forth. Legal environment section 940 displays news headers to indicate regulatory, legislative and case law issues relevant to the client's financial life (e.g. changes in Roth IRA regulation). It should be noted that the economic and legal environments are tailored or customized for the needs of the client. In other words, the client can customize different news or environments to be displayed on the login screen. Alternatively, the system interface can be configured to automatically select news stories and developments that are most relevant to the client's profile.

Promotion box 950 indicates outstanding offers. For example, a number 3 indicates three offers or advertisements are waiting. It should be noted that client has an option to view or not view any promotional offers or advertisements.

Figure 8 illustrates an exemplary promotional screen 1000. Referring to Figure 8, promotional screen 1000 includes a financial investment advertisement 1002, bank advertisement 1004, and a credit card advertisement 1006. If the client accepts the offer, he or she could contact the offeror directly. For example, if the client wants to accept Citibank's offer, he or she can contact Citibank directly. In one embodiment, by selecting box 1004, a direct connection between the client's system and Citibank is established. In one embodiment, promotion screen 1000 further includes selections of interface system home 1010, my home 1012, personal information 1014, and economic environment 1016. Interface system home 1010 allows a client to access the interface system. My home 1012 allows a client to jump to client's home page. Personal information 1014 permits a client to update his or her personal information. Economic environment 1016 allows a client to access information on macroeconomic indicators.

In the foregoing detailed description, the method and apparatus of the present invention have been described with reference to specific exemplary embodiments thereof. It will, however, be evident that various modifications and changes may be made thereto without departing from the broader spirit and scope of the present invention. The present specification and figures are accordingly to be regarded as illustrative rather than restrictive.

Claims

CLAIMSWhat is claimed is:

1. A method for exchanging information over the network, the method comprising: maintaining a database of client data profiles comprising a plurality of attributes; receiving updates of client data; updating the database of client data profiles in response to the updates; and providing access to client data in the database while concealing individual client identity.

2. The method defined in Claim 1 wherein the plurality of attributes comprises net worth, financial accounts, purchasing history and demographic information.

3. The method defined in Claim 1 further comprising restricting access to client identifying information in the database to authorized entities only, while allowing access to other attributes to entities having permission.

4. The method defined in Claim 3 wherein an authorized entity comprises a client.

5. The method defined in Claim 3 wherein the entities having permission comprise one or more financial institutions having permission from the client.

6. The method defined in Claim 1 wherein providing access to client data comprises providing access to entities having a pre-existing relationship to the client whose data is being accessed.

7. The method denned in Claim 1 further comprising identifying clients by an anonymous identification code.

8. The method defined in Claim 1 further comprising maintaining a separate list that matches anonymous identification codes with client identification information.

9. The method defined in Claim 7 wherein the client identification information comprises a name, a social security number, a phone number, an address, and an electronic mail address.

10. The method defined in Claim 7 further comprising: receiving an inquiry to the database from an inquirer; and providing to the inquirer a list of the anonymous identification codes associated with client data profiles that match the inquiry.

11. The method defined in Claim 10 where the anonymous identification code associated with a client is not included on the list provided to the inquirer if the client is unwilling to allow the anonymous identification code to be provided to the inquirer.

12. The method defined in Claim 7 further comprising restricting queries to only current customers of the inquirer.

13. The method defined in Claim 1 further comprising: receiving an inquiry to the database from an inquirer; and providing a list of anonymous identification codes associated with client data profiles that match the inquiry to the inquirer.

14. The method defined in Claim 13 where the anonymous identification code associated with a client is not included on the list provided to the inquirer if the client is unwilling to allow the anonymous identification code to be provided to the inquirer.

15. The method defined in Claim 13 further comprising sending promotional information from the inquirer to clients whose anonymous identification code appear on the list, via the system interface maintaining the client data.

16. The method defined in Claim 15 further comprising matching anonymous identification codes on the list with client identifying information, and forwarding the promotional information to a client.

17. The method defined in Claim 16 wherein forwarding the promotional information to the client comprises sending the promotional material via electronic mail using an electronic mail address in the client identifying information.

18. The method defined in Claim 1 wherein receiving updates of client data comprises: collecting information from one or more of a financial institution, a client, a public source, a financial market, a retailer and an industrial market.

19. The method defined in Claim 18 wherein the public source comprises a market research firm, the Internet, and direct mail companies.

20. The method defined in Claim 1 wherein the client data profile includes information from financial institutions and other service/product providers of which the client is a current customer.

21. The method defined in Claim 1 further comprising restricting queries to only current customers of the inquirer.

22. An apparatus for exchanging information over the network, the apparatus comprising: means for mamtaining a database of client data profiles comprising a plurality of attributes; means for receiving updates of client data; means for updating the database of client data profiles in response to the updates; and means for providing access to client data in the database while concealing individual client identity.

23. The apparatus defined in Claim 22 wherein the plurality of attributes comprises net worth, financial accounts, purchasing history and demographic information.

24. The method defined in Claim 22 further comprising restricting access to client identifying information in the database to authorized entities only, while allowing access to other attributes to entities having permission.

25. The method defined in Claim 24 wherein an authorized entity comprises a client.

26. The method defined in Claim 24 wherein the entities having permission comprise one or more financial institutions having permission from the client.

27. The method defined in Claim 22 wherein providing access to client data comprises providing access to entities having a pre-existing relationship to the client whose data is being accessed.

28. The method defined in Claim 22 further comprising identifying clients by an anonymous identification code.

29. The apparatus defined in Claim 22 further comprising means for mamtaining a separate list that matches anonymous identification codes with client identification information.

30. The apparatus defined in Claim 29 wherein the client identification information comprises a name, a social security number, a phone number, an address, and an electronic mail address,

31. The apparatus defined in Claim 29 further comprising: means for receiving an inquiry to the database from an inquirer; and means for providing a list of the anonymous identification codes associated with client data profiles that match the inquiry to the inquirer.

32. The apparatus defined in Claim 24 further comprising means for restricting queries to only current customers of the inquirer.

33. The apparatus defined in Claim 22 further comprising: means for receiving an inquiry to the database from an inquirer; and means for providing a list of anonymous identification codes associated with client data profiles that match the inquiry to the inquirer.

34. The apparatus defined in Claim 33 further comprising a system interface for sending promotional information from the inquirer to clients whose anonymous identification code appear on the list, the system interface maintaining the client data.

35. The apparatus defined in Claim 34 further comprising means for matching anonymous information on the list with client identifying information, and means for forwarding the promotional information to a client.

36. The apparatus defined in Claim 35 wherein the means for forwarding the promotional information to the client comprises means for sending the promotional material via electronic mail using an electronic mail address in the client identifying information.

37. The apparatus defined in Claim 22 wherein the means for receiving updates of client data comprises means for collecting information from one or more of a financial institution, a client, a public source, a financial market, and a retailer and an industrial market.

38. The apparatus defined in Claim 37 wherein the public source comprises at least one market research firms, the Internet, and direct mail companies.

39. The apparatus defined in Claim 22 wherein the client data profile includes information indicating financial institutions and other service /product providers of which the client is a current customer.

40. The apparatus defined in Claim 22 further comprising means for restricting queries to only current customers of the inquirer.

41. An article of manufacture comprising one or more recordable media having executable instructions stored thereon, which when executed by at least one processing device cause the at least one processing device to: maintain a database of client data profiles comprising a plurality of attributes; receive updates of client data; update the database of client data profiles in response to the updates; and provide access to client data in the database while concealing individual client identity.

42. The article of manufacture defined in Claim 41 wherein the instructions further includes instructions, which when executed by at least one processing device, cause the at least one processing device to maintain a separate list that matches anonymous identification codes with client identification information.

43. The article of manufacture defined in Claim 42 wherein the instructions further includes instructions, which when executed by the at least one processing device cause the at least one processing device to: receive an inquiry to the database from an inquirer; and provide a list of the anonymous identification codes associated with client data profiles that match the inquiry to the inquirer.

44. The article of manufacture defined in Claim 43 wherein the instructions further includes instructions, which when executed by the at least one processing device cause the at least one processing device to restricting queries to only current customers of the inquirer.

45. A system interface comprising: a database of client data profiles having a plurality of attributes; a data aggregator receivmg updates to client data for storage in the database, the data aggregator providing access to client data in the database while concealing individual client identity; and an offer aggregator.