[54] APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR PASSING PRIVATE DEMOGRAPHIC INFORMATION BETWEEN HYPERLINK DESTINATIONS
[75] Inventors: Halsey M. Minor. San Francisco,
Calif.; Munish Gandhi. Bridgewater,
N.J.; William E. Headapohl. San
Francisco. Calif.; Jonathan Rosenberg.
Annandale. N.J.
[73] Assignee: C/NET, Inc.. San Francisco, Calif.
[21] Appl. No.: 542,564
[22] Filed: Oct. 13, 1995
[51] Int CI.6 H04L 9/00; H04L 9/32
[52] U.S. CI 380/49; 380/9; 380/21;
380/23; 380/25
[58] Field of Search 380/4. 9. 21. 23.
380/25. 49. 50. 59
[56] References Cited
U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS 5,416,842 5/1995 Aziz 380/4 X
OTHER PUBLICATIONS
Copy of U.S. Census Bureau Internet Homepage And Awards Page at http:// WWW.CENSUS.gov/. No Date. Copy of "U.S. Export Restricted Software Download FAQ" At http://WWWUS.Netscape.com-/lEng/US-Current/ faq.html. No Date.
Primary Examiner—Bernarr E. Gregory
Attorney; Agent, or Firm—Flehr Hohbach Test Albritton &
Herbert LLP; William S. Galliani; Clare T. Hartnett
[57] ABSTRACT
A method of passing demographic information between computers includes the step of associating a computer operator with a set of demographic information. When the computer operator requests a transfer to another computer, a remote site information repository is accessed to identify a remote site destination address and a remote site encryption key. The demographic information is then encrypted using the remote site encryption key to form an encoded demographic signal. The encoded demographic signal is then combined with the remote site destination address to form an encoded demographic hyperlink transfer request, which is used to access the remote computer specified by the remote site destination address. The remote computer decrypts the encoded demographic information. The demographic information can be used by the remote computer in a number of ways, including the generation of a customized reply to an inquiry from the computer operator.
21 Claims, 5 Drawing Sheets
