WO2007080422A1

WO2007080422A1 - Privacy system for telephone numbers

Info

Publication number: WO2007080422A1
Application number: PCT/GB2007/000104
Authority: WO
Inventors: Nic Hughes
Original assignee: Chartplay Computing Limited
Priority date: 2006-01-13
Filing date: 2007-01-15
Publication date: 2007-07-19

Abstract

The present system and method allows the called party and / or the calling party to keep their “real” telephone numbers secret, more particularly it provides a method for connecting a call between a first party and a second party in a telecommunications system, the method comprising storing an incoming identifier for the second party; storing an outgoing identifier for the second party; storing an outgoing identifier for the first party, and associating that identifier with a second party; receiving a call request from the first party, the request including the incoming identifier of the second party; retrieving the outgoing identifier corresponding to the received incoming identifier only if the first party outgoing identifier is associated with the second party concerned; and connecting the call to the second party by means of a first uni-directional connection using the retrieved outgoing identifier for the second party. Also provided is an exchange server to carry out said method.

Description

PRIVACY SYSTEM FOR TELEPHONE NUMBERS

Background to the invention

The present invention relates to a method for connecting a call between a first party and a second party in a telecommunications system whilst retaining the anonymity of the telephone number of one or more parties to the call. In addition, the present invention provides an exchange server for carrying out said method.

With the increase in popularity of communication by telephone, and in particular, mobile telephone, the provision of a telephone number by an individual to third parties, whether professionally or personally, is a common everyday occurrence.

However, may individuals prefer not to distribute their telephone number to third parties (unless they are well known to them) as once distributed, their telephone number is available for use at any time by that third party and is even available for further distribution by that third party to commercial companies to sell onwards for the purposes of telephone-based promotional campaigns and the like. Once a third party has possession of the telephone number and misuses it, for example by becoming a nuisance caller, or it makes it way onto commercially used telephone lists, the only way to prevent further impact from unwanted or distressing phone calls is often for the individual being inconvenience to have their telephone number changed. This is clearly undesirable and disruptive.

Where individuals meet new friends in social situations and wish to be able to contact their new friend after the initial social occasion has ended, exchanging telephone numbers is an obvious and well-used technique to allow further contact to be made. In addition, it is considered safer in the first instance than handing out address details to virtual strangers. However, such distribution of telephone numbers can prove undesirable should the new friendship sour and subsequent phone calls pose either a nuisance or even distressing in their nature. There already exists in the prior art a number of services which enable the quick and easy exchange of telephone numbers, especially of mobile telephone numbers. However, although some of these services are technologically very sophisticated, they face social resistance due to the obvious risks of giving out telephone numbers to relatively unknown parties or individuals. For example, in the field of dating services, there is a need for participants to directly contact one another yet retain the mutual ability to remain anonymous, at least for the initial period of contact, and be able to break off contact if desired. In a similar vein, auto-exchanging of telephone numbers by means of Bluetooth connection to others running such software as 'find a friend' and the like, is available in the prior art, but has been slow to gain popularity in the market-place in the absence of associated technology to safe-guard the privacy and anonymity of participants.

Thus, there is a need for a way in which a first party can provide telephone contact details to one or more third parties whilst retaining the privacy of their actual telephone number from each third party, and where the first party can also prevent calls coming through from selected third parties should the relationship between the parties make such action desirable. In addition, there is a need for a system whereby the first party can selectively ensure that only calls from a specified incoming telephone number are accepted and connected with their incoming telephone number.

Summary of the Invention

The present invention seeks to address the problems of the prior art.

Accordingly, a first aspect of the present invention provides a method for connecting a call between a first party and a second party in a telecommunications system, the method comprising the steps of: storing an incoming identifier for the second party; storing an outgoing identifier for the. second party; storing an identifier for the first party, and associating that identifier with a second party; receiving a call request from the first party, the request including the incoming identifier of the second party; retrieving the outgoing identifier corresponding to the received incoming identifier only if the first party outgoing identifier is associated with the second party concerned; and connecting the call to the second party by means of a first uni-directional connection using the retrieved outgoing identifier for the second party.

Throughout the specification, the identifiers for callers or called numbers are intended to include any unique identifier for a telephony device which originates or terminates a communication and is intended to include, but not be restricted to, telephone numbers.

By using only one way links between the parties the invention provides significant improvements over the prior art. In one embodiment the first party and the second party reside in different countries with different telephony numbering schemes. The link presented to the first party presents as appropriate for the numbering scheme of the country of the first party, whilst when receiving a call it is presented as appropriate for the numbering scheme of the second party. The invention thus addresses problems with the prior art in that many telephony number ranges do not permit direct international dialling, the indirection provided by the invention bypasses this limitation.

In one embodiment, the second party may call the first party by means of a second uni-directional connection, the method further comprising the steps of: storing an incoming identifier for the first party; receiving a call request from the second party, the request including an incoming identifier for the first party; retrieving the outgoing identifier corresponding to the received incoming identifier only if the second party outgoing identifier is associated with the first party concerned; and connecting the call to the first party by means of a second uni- direction connection to the first party using the retrieved outgoing identifier for the first party.

In a further embodiment, the outgoing identifier corresponding to the received incoming identifier is retrieved only if the first party outgoing identifier is associated with the stored identifier for the second party.

Thus, a method according to the present invention enables a first party (the second party) to set up incoming connections over which they retain privacy control in terms of originating caller identifiers. In this way, the first party can issue a set of connection details which will result in third parties being able to contact them without divulging more information or control than is desired.

This is possible because the system maintains privacy at the exchange, rather than relying on handset features alone.

The calling and called parties may be communicating by means of any suitable telecommunications handset, such as, but not limited to, a landline or mobile telephone, PDA, computer, or any other wireless telecommunications device.

In one embodiment, the incoming identifier for the second party is the incoming telephone number dialed by the first party.

The outgoing identifier for the second party may be the actual telephone number of the second party.

The outgoing identifier for the first party may be the telephone number the call request has originated from. The telephone number the call request has originated from may be detected by automatic number identification (ANI) or caller identification (CID), or any other suitable method known to the skilled person and appropriate for the function.

Where the automatic number identification is not available for any reason, such as it not being supported in a territory, the referring exchange can instead use Caller ID as supported on that network.

The exchange server operating the method according to a first aspect of the present invention may operate as a normal telephony exchange in as much as it refers incoming calls forward to a selected destination point. However, it does this by maintaining a persistent store of number pairs (rather than single telephone numbers) to identify who is being called and whether the caller should be connected, whilst allowing the party being called to protect the privacy of their actual telephone number.

Each number pair (i.e. each incoming identifier for the second party and the identifier for the first party referred to above), has an outgoing number (i.e. the outgoing identifier for the second party) stored within the persistent code held by the exchange server. On receiving an incoming call request, the number pair is checked against the stored database of outgoing identifiers to see if an associated outgoing identifier exists for that number combination. If such a number does exist, then the call will be forwarded onwards for connection with the second party in accordance with the call request. If no such number exists, then the call will not be forwarded for connection in accordance with the call request.

In one embodiment, two or more methods are used to detect the telephone number that the call request has originated from and the detected telephone numbers compared and the call not forwarded for connection as requested if the detected telephone numbers are not the same. In this way, validation of the caller ID may be carried out. For example, where both ANI and CID are supported, the referring exchange can optionally validate that these numbers match. If no match is found, the exchange can automatically take one of several actions, including recording an attempt to bypass the security of the system, disconnect the call or redirect the call to where the potential abuse of the system can be further investigated and resolved.

The present invention may use CID encoding to detect and disregard discrepancies caused by chains of referring exchanges.

In a further embodiment of the present invention, the outgoing identifier for the first party is substituted by a specifically generated reply identifier.

This allows anonymity i.e. the privacy of the source telephone number to be retained in both directions. Thus, by substituting the outgoing identifier for the first party with a specifically identified reply identifier, the privacy of the telephone number of the first party is protected.

Thus, in order to retain two-way anonymity, the present invention may include the capability of replacing the caller ID with a reply number that is a return number- pair reference. Hence, in circumstances where it is desirable, a symmetrical anonymous connection can be set up and maintained in which both participants retain anonymity of their contact details and can manage the ability of the other to make incoming calls.

Where a service requires two-way anonymity, and a call is made for which no return number pair exists, the referring exchange can, as part of the call connection process, create a reply number pair automatically before continuing its normal process of substituting CID and connecting the call. A call may be made to a specific service number which then enables a user to enter a public telephone number to which they wish to be connected. The management interface then calls the referring exchange to generate a reply number (to be paired with the public telephone number being called and associated with the user's actual telephone number). This generated reply number is then made the CID for the user's call before the call is forwarded to the requested public telephone number. In this way, a public telephone number can be called by a user whilst still maintaining the privacy of the user's actual telephone number. In addition, the reply number which has been made the user's CID before connection to the public number can be left as a valid reply number. Any call from the public number to the reply number would retrieve a number pair stored at the exchange server which would then authorise onward connection to the user's actual telephone number whilst still protecting the privacy of the user's actual telephone number.

For applications where immediate calls to newly generated contacts on the handset are likely, the referring exchange may be configures to error handle non-existent number pairs by placing the call on hold until all current synchronisation sessions have been completed and then retry the number pair search with the synchronisation updates.

For selected business applications, number pairs may be generated without a handset being involved, for example, where a server-side request results in the need for a new number pair. In such a situation, the server may have the capability of initiating an update to the handset and to continue such attempts until the update is confirmed as successful or rendered unnecessary by a user proactively updating their contact information.

For example, if a potential contact is identified in response to a search by a subscriber on a dating service, in addition to sending out the personal details input by the potential contact, the search result would also include synchronising the identified potential contact onto the subscriber's handset with a newly generated number pair reference to be held on a central server. The identified potential contact may then (depending on the exact service being provided by the dating service) also have the contact details of the subscriber synchronised onto their handset as a result of this action.

In one embodiment, when no number pair match can be found, the actions that may be typically be configured include, but are not limited to, forwarding failed connect attempts to a rules-based number (such as for call centres). Current exchanges have a number of rules based forwarding capabilities which go under the general heading of intelligent networking. The exchange server could revert to using these existing capabilities, for example, to refer the failed call to a call centre to give advice/guidance to the user (and possibly a sales opportunity to the service provider) Alternatively, failed connect attempts may be forwarded to a recorded message or an unavailable response returned to the caller, such as a specific dial tone or equivalent indicator.

In one embodiment, the first party outgoing identifier and incoming identifier for the second party is also associated with the content type or types that the caller has authorised for onward transmission from the caller.

The exchange server is, in principle, capable of transmitting from caller to recipient, any content type that can be transferred between normal telephone handsets, such as, but not limited to^ voice, text, video messaging, rich media content and the like. For many applications, a user may not wish to give access for a caller to transmit the full range of content types. Thus, the number pair record can additionally hold information on accepted content types and only retrieve the outgoing identifier for the second party where the content type currently being handled matches that of an accepted type for that number pair. A further aspect of the present invention provides an exchange server for a telecommunications system for connecting calls between calling and called parties, the server comprising: a storage device operable to store incoming and outgoing identifiers for a second party and operable to store first party outgoing identifiers, and to associate those outgoing identifiers with incoming identifiers for called parties; and a control device operable to receive a call request from a first party, the request including an incoming identifier for the second party, and to connect the requested call using the outgoing identifier of the second party.

The system of operating a method according to a first aspect of the present invention using an exchange server according to a second aspect of the present invention requires an identification number generation element in order to generate the unique number pair that is necessary to authorise connection between the first and second parties. The location of the number generating element may be located at an exchange server. Alternatively, for example where telephone numbers are exchanged locally i.e. proximity auto-contacts-exchange, the number generating element may be located locally also, for example, on the enabled handsets of the participants.

Where the number pairs are generated locally, the number pairs may be generated within allocated number ranges by the handset and synchronized directly onto the handset of the other participant in the communication. Each handset is then able to synchronise the updates for its incoming number onto a management interface in order to enable the communications link to take place. Real time validation would ensure that neither handset is allocated a duplicate number; the nature of the number system protects the server from duplicates if no duplicate is permitted on the handset. Number ranges may be synchronized between handsets and server on a periodic basis to maximize the efficient use of the number space. For server-driven applications, the server may generate number pairs within its allocated number ranges. The synchronisation process with handsets and partition of numbers spaces is intended to protect the system as a whole form duplicate number pairs being generated.

A further aspect of the present invention provides a management interface for use with the method according to a first aspect of the invention.

Such an interface would allow a user to input new numbers which are authorised for connection to their handset or to remove numbers for inbound connections they no longer wish to be connected with should they try and call. In addition, a user may redirect selected inbound connections, for example to a new telephone number. In fact, the management interface could be used to provide a user with complete control over all aspects of incoming and outbound connection authorisations.

The management interface may be delivered via handsets or via a web interface. In either case, a high level of security will need to be employed with respect to permitting access to the interface in order to protect a user from unauthorised changes being made to their account.

Brief Description of the Drawings

An embodiment of the invention will now be described, by way of example only, and with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure 1 illustrates an embodiment of an exchange server according to a second aspect of the present invention for carrying out the method of figure 1; and

Figure 2 is a flow chart illustrating the method according to a first aspect of the present invention. Detailed Description of the Invention

Figure 1 illustrates an embodiment of a method according to a first aspect of the present invention involving a control device 10 in connection with a storage device 20. Two telephone transmitter receivers 30, 40 are provided in communication with control device 10.

When a call request is placed by telecommunications handset 40 to telecommunications handset 30 (or vice versa), the call is placed via the control device, which interacts with the storage device before determining if the call request should be connected.

Figure 2 is a flow chart illustrating the method according to a first aspect of the present invention. The method will now be described with reference to both figures 1 and 2.

When a first party, with telecommunications handset 40, wishes to provide their telephone number to a second party, with telecommunications handset 30, for the purposes of making future contact, rather than provide the second party with their actual telephone number, the first party instead provides the second party with an identification number X and by means of software installed on handset 40 retrieves a unique reference for that handset. The software on handset 40 then provides the unique reference of handset 40 to the exchange server by means of a suitable management interface which retrieves the telephone numbers of the handsets by use of their unique references to create a number pair i.e. X, Y, which is then stored on storage device 10. At A in figure 2, a call request is generated by handset 30 (operating from telephone number Y) to be connected with telecommunications handset 40 by dialling identification number X.

The call is received at control device 20 of exchange server 1 where the caller's telephone number Y is detected by ANI or CID (see B).

Control device 20 then communicates with storage device 10 to determine if the number pair made up of the identification number X and the caller telephone number Y is currently stored in the storage device 10 (see C).

The storage device is then checked to see if the X, Y number pair is present (see D)

If the X, Y number pair is a stored number pair, the associated telephone number Z (the actual telephone number for telecommunications handset 40) is retrieved by control device 10 (see El).

On receipt of telephone number Z, control device 10 connects the call to telephone number Z. At this point, handset 30 has been connected to handset 40 whilst maintaining the privacy of the actual telephone number Z of handset 40.

In this way, the call from the second party to the first party can take place without the second party at any time being in possession of the actual telephone number of the first party as the connection between the dialled identification number X and the destination telephone number X takes place at the server exchange. If, at any future date, the first party of handset 40 should wish to stop the second party of handset 30 from making contact by telephone, the first party can access a management interface and withdraw authorisation for any calls from telephone number Y to be connected with telephone number Z, even if identification number X is called from telephone number Y. This will remove number pairing X, Y from the storage device 20 and thus, should a call for identification number X be received from telephone number Y, the number pair X, Y will no longer be held by storage device 20 and thus destination number Z will not be retrieved by control device 10 of exchange server 1, and the call will not be connected to handset 40.

It will be appreciated that a method according to the present invention may be adapted for two way privacy. One example of this would involve each of users 1 and 2 registering with a central repository prior to use of the two-way privacy service. When each user registers for the service (and downloads the relevant software to their handset, where appropriate), they will be required to provide details of their actual telephone number (along with billing information etc.). The service then generates and provides to each user a generated unique ID (GUID). All of this information is held centrally. For server-side applications, the two users may make contact without either user (or their handsets) having details of the actual telephone number of the other user. When the two users meet and wish to be able to make future telephone contact with one another, they simply exchange GUID numbers. Then, for example, when user 1 tries to call user 2, using the GUID of user 2, the only information that is passed is the GUIDs of both parties. The central server then uses these two numbers to generate a number pair as described above and retrieve the actual number of user 2 and connecting the call. The actual number of user 2 never appears on the handset of user 1 or even within its software as the number exchange is taking place at a remote server.

In one embodiment, it may be desirable to update the handset GUID after every exchange of details to avoid the theoretical risk that the GUID could be intercepted and used to .create fake number exchanges by third parties hacking into the software. If so, the server could be user to generate a new GUID and send it to the handset so that anyone attempting to use an intercepted GUID would find it immediately out of date and therefore of no value. W

14

Although aspects of the invention have been described with reference to the embodiment shown in the accompanying drawings, it is to be understood that the

₍ invention is not limited to the precise embodiment shown and that various changes and modifications may be effected without further inventive skill and effort, for

5 example, as the use of IP telephony becomes widespread, the issue of spurious

'junk' calls is likely to become as serious as the issue of 'spam' has become to the user of email. Conventional blocking of incoming calls lacking a caller ID is ineffective in this case as a faked ID is provided. Thus, the use of personalised telephone numbers i.e. incoming identifiers for the first party is inherently resistant 0 to abuse of this kind as a spurious call would require both a faked caller ID and knowledge of a genuinely issued personal number i.e. identifier for the first party, in order to effectively connect with the second party. Even if a mass-dialler is able to compromise individuals to gain such information, it is relatively easy via the management interface to disable compromised numbers until the genuine owner of 5 the caller ID is able to replace them with new, secured, number pairs.

The use of in-call privacy protection could enable users to call normal i.e. public telephone numbers without revealing their true return number, thus protecting them from systems which might 'harvest' telephone numbers for mass dialling purposes. 0

Claims

W15CLAIMS

1. A method for connecting a call between a first party and a second party in a telecommunications system, the method comprising the steps of:

5 storing an incoming identifier for the second party; storing an outgoing identifier for the second party; storing an outgoing identifier for the first party, and associating that identifier with the second party; receiving a call request from the first party, the request including the 0 incoming identifier of the second party; retrieving the outgoing identifier corresponding to the received incoming identifier only if the first party outgoing identifier is associated with the second party concerned; and connecting the call to the second party by means of a first uni-directional 5 connection using the retrieved outgoing identifier for the second party.

2. A method according to Claim 1, wherein the second party may call the first party by means of a second uni-direction connection, the method further comprising the steps of: 0 storing an incoming identifier for the first party; receiving a call request from the second party, the request including an incoming identifier for the first party; retrieving the outgoing identifier corresponding to the received incoming identifier only if the second party outgoing identifier is associated with the 5 first party concerned; and connecting the call to the first party by means of a second uni-direction connection to the first party using the retrieved outgoing identifier for the first party.

3. A method according to any preceding Claim, wherein the outgoing identifier corresponding to the received incoming identifier is retrieved only if the first party outgoing identifier is associated with the stored incoming identifier for the second party.

4. A method as claimed in any preceding Claim, wherein the incoming identifier for the second party is the incoming telephone number dialed by the first party.

5. A method as claimed in any preceding Claim, wherein the outgoing identifier for the calling party is the telephone number the call request has originated from.

6. A method as claimed in Claim 5, wherein the telephone number the call request has originated from is detected by means of automatic number identification (ANI) o.r caller identification (CID) technology.

7. A method as claimed in Claim 5 or Claim 6, wherein a plurality of methods are used to detect the telephone number the call request has originated from and the detected telephone numbers compared in order to validate the outgoing identifier for the first party.

8. A method as claimed in any preceding Claim, wherein the identifier for the first party is substituted by a specifically generated reply identifier.

9. A method as claimed in Claim 8, wherein the outgoing identifier for the first party is automatically substituted by a specifically generated reply identifier.

10. A method as claimed in any preceding Claim, wherein if the first party outgoing identifier is not associated with the second party concerned, the call is connected to a recorded massage.

11. A method as claimed in any preceding Claim, wherein the first party ougoing identifier is also associated with the content type or types that are authorized for transmission to the second party.

12. An exchange server for a telecommunications system for connecting calls between calling and called parties, the server comprising: a storage device operable to store incoming and outgoing identifiers for a second party and operable to store first party outgoing identifiers, and to associate those identifiers with incoming identifiers for called parties; and a control device operable to receive a call request from a first party, the request including an incoming identifier for the second party, and to connect the requested call using the outgoing identifier of the second party.

13. A method substantially as hereinbefore described and with reference to the accompanying drawings.

14. An exchange server substantially as hereinbefore described and with reference to the accompanying drawings.