AU2012238283B2

AU2012238283B2 - Contact details service

Info

Publication number: AU2012238283B2
Application number: AU2012238283A
Authority: AU
Inventors: Bernard James Terrill
Original assignee: Accenture Global Services Ltd
Current assignee: Accenture Global Services Ltd
Priority date: 2007-05-07
Filing date: 2012-10-10
Publication date: 2015-01-22
Anticipated expiration: 2028-05-07
Also published as: AU2012238283A1

Abstract

Abstract A method for a user to advise related entities with respect to a consumer service of their contact details wherein the user submits data to a Contact 5 Details Registration Service to register their use of the consumer service; the Contact Details Registration Service allocating the user with a unique identification indicia and transmitting same to the user for subsequent use in communications with the Contact Details Registration Service and/or any related entities of the consumer service registered with the Contact Details 10 Registration Service; the data submitted by the user including their contact details and having at least an address to which correspondence is to be sent, the contact details being associated with the unique identification indicia of the user by the Contact Detail Registration Service and stored in a database; and the user's contact details being accessible to the consumer service, or related 15 entities thereof, upon provision of the user's associated unique identification identifier to the Contact Details Registration Service database.

Description

- 1 CONTACT DETAILS SERVICE Field of the Invention 5 The invention relates generally to a system, method, computer software program and product to accurately maintain contact details of users of a consumer service. The invention is particularly well suited to accurately record the details of all related entities that are related to the user by the consumer service thus allowing users to alert all related entities of a change to 10 their contact details or at least allow users to review a record of all related entities. Background of the Invention For various reasons, including the increasingly transient nature of 15 employment, people are generally finding that they have a need to change one or more of their contact details on an increasingly regular basis. For example, amongst the younger recently employed generation, it is not unusual for home ownership to be delayed with housing needs satisfied by 20 rental accommodation. For older generations, with employment arrangements usually only lasting two to three years before either a change in employment or change in location occurs, contact details are also more frequently in need of updating as compared with generations past. 25 A particularly good example of this problem occurs when users of a postal service change their address and it becomes necessary to provide the new address details to every entity that has previously sent, or may need to send, postal items to the user. To address this problem, postal services around the world usually provide a "change of address" service wherein a user 30 completes a change of address form, lodges it with the postal service and all postal items directed to the user at their old address are intercepted and -2 redirected to the new address. This is usually effected by the postal service intercepting postal items to the user's old address and the application of an adhesive label to the postal item with the user's new address. Generally, users will request the "change of address" service to be implemented for a 5 sufficiently long period of time to enable them to formally advise their new address details to all related entities that have a record of their old address. Of course, there are entities that will regularly send postal items to the user and whilst the "change of address" service is implemented by the postal service, the user will receive redirected items of post from that entity which will act as a 10 reminder to the user to formally advise that entity of their new address details. However, there are entities that will send postal items on an irregular and/or infrequent basis and hence may not send an item of post to the user whilst the "change of address" service is in effect with the postal service. In 15 order to reduce instances of neglecting to notify all related entities, the user may implement the "change of address" service for an extended period of time (e.g. more than twelve (12) months) in order to provide a sufficient period of time in which to receive postal items from entities that may only send items of mail to them on an irregular and/or infrequent basis. In some instances, users 20 maintain their own lists of entities to notify in the event of a change of address to avoid implementing a re-direction service. The usual "change of address" services offered by postal systems are clearly problematic in that there is a cost associated with requesting and 25 implementing a "change of address" service and the longer the period of time that this service is in effect, the greater the cost to the user. Further, unless the user implements the "change of address" service for a substantially long period of time, there is always a risk that they will neglect to formally advise one or more related entities of their change of address details. Further, users may 30 need to commit a substantial amount of time and effort advising all the related entities of their change of address which can involve completing different forms and procedures for each entity.

-3 The ineffectiveness of current "change of address" services is also problematic for organisations that seek to send items of post to users as part of their usual communication or for marketing purposes. In some instances, users 5 may have elected to receive information by post of events and/or products/services that would be of interest to them. This type of postal item is a particularly good example of an item that would be sent to a user on an irregular and/or infrequent basis and it is in the best interest of the organisation to be aware of the user's new address as any marketing information or 10 literature that is sent to the wrong person or address represents an unnecessary cost to the organisation that they seek to minimize. The present arrangements for organisations to record a users change of address is also problematic with respect to the cost and likelihood of error 15 associated with manual entry of data. When a user submits change of address details, effort, and hence cost, is incurred processing the new details. For example, when new details are advised by post, the organisation is required to open the envelope, process the correspondence and pass it to the appropriate personnel to manually alter the organisations' computer records to reflect the 20 user's new details. Clearly, for organisations that receive a large number of requests to change users details, the cost can be significant. In an attempt to address this problem, some postal services around the world provide a list of organisations to users that the postal service will advise 25 of a change to their address details. Unfortunately, the list is usually relatively short and only comprises those organisations that have entered into a specific arrangement with the postal service to enable the transfer of new address details electronically. Further, each organisation on the list that a user can select may require additional and/or different information to identify the user to 30 the organisation. This could take the form of a membership number or a policy number, etc.

-4 Accordingly, the usual service offering by postal systems to alert related entities of a user's change of address details fails to effectively address the problem and does not provide a user with a list of all related entities (whether individual users or organisations) that have previously sent, or may need to send, items of 5 post to them, and continues to require a substantial amount of time and effort on the part of the user. Any discussion of documents, acts, materials, devices, articles or the like which has been included in this section of the present specification is solely for the 10 purpose of providing a context for the present invention. It is not to be taken as an admission that any or all of these matters form part of the prior art or were common general knowledge in the field of the invention as it existed before the priority date of any of the claims herein. 15 Summary of the Invention In one aspect, the present invention provides a computer-implemented method including: receiving, by one or more computing devices, data indicating contact information associated with a validated, mail-receiving user of a contact 20 details registration service, in response to receiving the data indicating the contact information, providing, by the one or more computing devices, a unique passphrase to the validated, mail-receiving user of the contact details registration service, receiving, by the one or more computing devices and from a particular, validated, mail-sending user of the contact details registration service, a request for the 25 contact information associated with the validated, mail-receiving user of the contact details registration service, the request including the unique passphrase of the validated, mail-receiving user of the contact details registration service, determining, by the one or more computing devices, that the particular, validated, mail-sending user is authorized to receive the contact information associated with 30 the validated, mail-receiving user based on the request, in response to determining that the validated, mail-sending user is authorized to receive the contact information associated with the validated, mail-receiving user based on the request, providing, by the one or more computing devices, the contact information -5 associated with the validated, mail-receiving user to the particular, validated, mail sending user, receiving, by the one or more computing devices, a request to update the contact information from the validated, mail-receiving user of the contact details registration service, the request including updated contact information, in 5 response to the request to update the contact information from the validated, mail receiving user of the contact details registration service, providing, by the one or more computing devices, to the validated, mail-receiving user, a list of validated, mail-sending users, including the particular, validated, mail-sending user, that have provided the unique passphrase, receiving, by the one or more computing devices, 10 data indicating a selection, by the validated, mail-receiving user, of a subset of the validated, mail-sending users; and in response to receiving the data indicating the selection of the subset of the validated, mail-sending users, providing, by the one or more computing devices, the updated contact information to one or more validated, mail-sending users of the subset. 15 In yet another aspect, the present invention provides a system including one or more computers and one or more storage devices storing instructions that are operable, when executed by the one or more computers, to cause the one or more computers to perform operations including receiving data indicating contact 20 information associated with a validated, mail-receiving user of a contact details registration service, in response to receiving the data indicating the contact information, providing a unique passphrase to the validated, mail-receiving user of the contact details registration service, receiving, from a particular, validated, mail sending user of the contact details registration service, a request for the contact 25 information associated with the validated, mail-receiving user of the contact details registration service, the request including the unique passphrase of the validated, mail-receiving user of the contact details registration service, determining that the particular, validated, mail-sending user is authorized to receive the contact information associated with the validated, mail-receiving user based on the request, 30 in response to determining that the validated, mail-sending user is authorized to receive the contact information associated with the validated, mail-receiving user based on the request, providing the contact information associated with the validated, mail-receiving user to the particular, validated, mail-sending user, -6 receiving a request to update the contact information from the validated, mail receiving user of the contact details registration service, the request including updated contact information, in response to the request to update the contact information from the validated, mail-receiving user of the contact details 5 registration service, providing to the validated, mail-receiving user, a list of validated, mail-sending users, including the particular, validated, mail-sending user, that have provided the unique passphrase, receiving data indicating a selection, by the validated, mail-receiving user, of a subset of the validated, mail sending users; and in response to receiving the data indicating the selection of the 10 subset of the validated, mail-sending users, providing the updated contact information to one or more validated, mail-sending users of the subset. In a further aspect, the present invention provides a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing software including instructions executable by 15 one or more computers which, upon such execution, cause the one or more computers to perform operations including: receiving data indicating contact information associated with a validated, mail-receiving user of a contact details registration service, in response to receiving the data indicating the contact information, providing a unique passphrase to the validated, mail-receiving user of 20 the contact details registration service, receiving, from a particular, validated, mail sending user of the contact details registration service, a request for the contact information associated with the validated, mail-receiving user of the contact details registration service, the request including the unique passphrase of the validated, mail-receiving user of the contact details registration service, determining that the 25 particular, validated, mail-sending user is authorized to receive the contact information associated with the validated, mail-receiving user based on the request, in response to determining that the validated, mail-sending user is authorized to receive the contact information associated with the validated, mail-receiving user based on the request, providing the contact information associated with the 30 validated, mail-receiving user to the particular, validated, mail-sending user, receiving a request to update the contact information from the validated, mail receiving user of the contact details registration service, the request including updated contact information, in response to the request to update the contact -7 information from the validated, mail-receiving user of the contact details registration service, providing to the validated, mail-receiving user, a list of validated, mail-sending users, including the particular, validated, mail-sending user, that have provided the unique passphrase, receiving data indicating a 5 selection, by the validated, mail-receiving user, of a subset of the validated, mail sending users; and in response to receiving the data indicating the selection of the subset of the validated, mail-sending users, providing the updated contact information to one or more validated, mail-sending users of the subset. 10 Other systems, methods and features of the invention will become apparent to one with skill in the relevant field of technology upon examination of the following figures and detailed description. It is intended that all such additional systems, methods and features included within this description, be within the scope of the invention and be protected by the following claims. 15 Brief Description of the Drawings One or more embodiments of the invention are described below with reference to the accompanying figures in which: Figure 1 is a flow chart detailing the steps of the user registering their 20 details with a Contact Details Registration Service; Figure 2 is a flow chart detailing the steps of a Contact Detail Recipient (CDR) registering with a Contact Details Registration Service; Figure 3 is a flow chart detailing the steps of a user interacting with a CDR; Figure 4 is a flow chart detailing the steps associated with a user altering 25 one or more of their contact details. Description of Embodiments of the Invention -8 Pages 8 to 13 intentionally left blank - 14 The process begins with a user registering with a Contact Details (CD) Registration Service. With reference to figure 1, this process commences at step 10. 5 An embodiment of the invention will be described with reference to a postal service where the CD Registration Service is used to provide users of the postal service with up-to-date address details of intended recipients of postal items. Of course, in this embodiment, there can be multiple forms of address as required/applicable, such as home address, street address, postal address, 10 work address, post office address, etc. In alternative embodiments of the invention, other contact details may be relevant such as contact phone numbers and/or electronic mail addresses. The use of consumer services that require additional or alternative contact details should be considered equally within the scope of this invention despite the following detailed description being 15 restricted to an embodiment relating to a postal service. At step 20 of Figure 1, the user provides all of their contact details to the CD Registration Service. The registration process is expected to require the user to supply all of the contact details and proof of identity in order to 20 complete the registration process and thus receive a unique identification indicia (UlI) (refer step 30). With reference to figure 2, it is expected that Contact Detail Recipients (CDR's) would be expected to prove their identity to the CD Registration Service to enable them to commence registering with the service 25 (refer step 40). In addition to proving their identity, the CDR would also provide their full contact details to the service and in the instance of a commercial organisation, it is likely that multiple types of address would be permitted (e.g. street address, shipping address, post office box address, etc). Assuming that a CDR is able to satisfy the identification requirements, a 30 security protocol is then established (refer step 50) for the purpose of communications between the CDR and the CD Registration Service. A security protocol would most likely include a requirement to encrypt data - 15 communications between the CDR and the CD Registration Service and the requirement to provide details of any other security measures to ensure that user's contact details are not inappropriately supplied to non authorised CDR's. 5 At step 60, the CDR completes the registration process and is subsequently recognised as being authorised to submit requests for contact details relating to a UII of the user. The UII for users could comprise numeric and/or alphabetic characters 10 although it is expected that they would need to be of a length sufficient to allow UII's to be generated for the expected total number of CD Registration Service users whilst remaining as short as possible for ease of memorizing, for example, "AID54365". 15 Having obtained a UII, a user may then complete the contact details section of forms and/or documents belonging to an entity that is a registered CDR by only providing their UII. This process is detailed in figure 3 wherein at step 100, a user who has registered their contact details with the service is required to complete a form belonging to an entity that is a registered CDR and 20 in so doing, the user completes that portion of the document requiring the user's contact details by providing only their UII. In this instance, it is expected that the entity that is registered with the CD Registration Service would indicate this facility to users by the use of a graphical icon (as some other form of visual identification) on their forms and/or documents. At this 25 stage the user benefits by a reduction in the amount of time required to complete the form. At step 110, the CDR processes the form internally and records the UII associated with the user who has completed the documents. At this stage 30 in the process, the CDR gains a significant benefit as a result of internally recording the user's contact details by only recording the UII associated with the user. Although there may be data entry errors associated with recording a - 16 user's UII, this process will clearly be less prone to errors as compared with attempting to record all of the user's contact details and will also significantly reduce the data entry effort of the CDR. 5 At a point in time where the CDR is required to send an item of post to the user, they will require the user's up-to-date physical address. The CDR may wait until they actually need to send an item of post, but they may also decide to retrieve the address details immediately upon entering the UII, as organisations often require, or prefer, user's address details for reasons other 10 than sending items of post (e.g. demographic/customer profiling studies or statutory/regulatory requirements). Accordingly, at step 120, the CDR transmits a request to the CD Registration Service to obtain the user's physical address details in order to send a postal item to the user. 15 Once a CDR has received a completed form, they will seek to enter the details into their internal computer system to record the relevant information pertaining to the user including the user's UII and the details of the sale of a product and/or service. In the case of a computer based form (e.g. on line forms) the information is provided to the CDR in electronic form so 20 manual data entry is not required. In the case of paper based forms, the CDR may utilise Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology in order to convert hand written responses into electronic form. Irrespective of the method used, the final result is that the CDR has 25 the information provided by the user, including their UII, in electronic form in an internal computer system. Using a computing technology such as "web services" the CDR's computer system can send a request to the CD Registration Service to obtain the physical address details that correspond with the user's UII. 30 Web services are a computing technology that, amongst other things, provides the necessary standards, procedures, hardware and software to permit -17 the automatic and secure request and provision of data between two otherwise independent computer systems. Being a standard technology, web services can be used for a wide range of applications although for any such requests to function correctly, the CDR must have previously registered with the CD 5 Registration Service and passed the relevant security checks as applied by the CD Registration Service. At step 130, the CD Registration Service determines whether the CDR is sufficiently authorised. If the request for a user's address details fails, the 10 process diverts to step 140 wherein the request is denied and the CDR is notified accordingly. However, in the event that the request for a user's address details is permitted, the process proceeds to step 150 where the CD Registration Service provides the relevant requested user contact details to the CDR and records the details of the CDR along with the details of the successful 15 request for the user's address details. Upon receipt of a web service request, the CD Registration Service retrieves the address details for the UII and using the same web services technology, the CD Registration Service may transmit the details back to the CDR. The address details are then stored and processed by the CDR's internal computer system. 20 In some instances, CDR's may require a user's physical address in advance of their need to send any postal items to the user. An example of this requirement would be insurance companies that need to obtain the address details of the user as part of the assessment of insurance risk or alternatively, various organisations may be required by law to actually record the physical 25 address details of their customers in their internal computer systems. In any event, at any point in time where a CDR requests the address details of the user, the CD Registration Service records the submission of a successful request and the transmission of the user's address details to the CDR. 30 The recordal by the CD Registration Service of the CDR successfully requesting the address details of a user allows the CD Registration Service to subsequently provide a list to the user of all CDR's that have previously - 18 requested their address details and presumably sent items of post to the user. However, for internal purposes, in an embodiment of the invention, unsuccessful requests by CDR's for a user's address details are also recorded to allow repeated unsuccessful attempts to be subsequently investigated as they 5 could represent a willful attempt to fraudulently obtain the address details of the user. Accordingly, in an embodiment, unsuccessful requests for a users address details are recorded for internal purposes and may possibly be shared with the user in the event that further investigation is required. 10 With reference again to figure 3, at step 160 the CDR, having obtained the users address details, processes the postal item in the usual manner with the reassurance that they have obtained the up-to-date address details of the user to whom they are sending a postal item. Of course, the CDR does not need to request the user's address details each time they send a postal item. In an 15 embodiment, the CDR is only required to request the details once and can then rely upon a notification service to advise them of any change to the contact details of a user. Accordingly, at any given point in time, a CDR can be confident they have the latest address, without needing to check details each time an item of post is to be sent. 20 At some point in time, a user will change one or more of their contact details and in the particular example described, where they change their physical address details, related entities that are also users of the postal service will need to be advised. 25 With reference to figure 4, when a user wishes to notify the CD Registration Service of a change of their address details, they access the CD Registration Service to register that change (refer step 200). 30 Upon selecting the appropriate CD Registration Service function (step 210), the user is then presented with a listing of all CDR's who have successfully previously obtained the user's address details. The listing of all - 19 CDR's who have previously obtained the user's address details at least include all entities that have previously transmitted items of post to the user. The listing is provided to the user to enable them to allow the formal notification of their change of address details to the CDR's in the list. As it is most likely that 5 users will simply elect to notify all CDR's of their new address details, the default option is preferably for all CDR's to be notified of the change. However, in an embodiment, the user is provided with the facility to select various CDR's and exclude them from formal notification of their new 10 address details. This may occur in instances where a user is receiving postal items from a CDR from whom they do not wish to receive any further items of post (e.g. mail order catalogues, etc). Whilst users are generally provided with the facility to formally notify entities that they no longer wish to receive items of post from them, at the time of changing their physical address details, a user 15 may decide to use that particular opportunity to make a decision regarding all the entities from whom they no longer wish to receive items of post (refer step 220). Upon obtaining a list of all the CDR's that the user wishes to formally 20 notify of the change to their address details, the CD Registration Service generates and transmits the formal notification (refer step 230). In an embodiment, the formal notification to CDR's of a users new physical address details also occurs as a web service call to the computer 25 system of the CDR, with the provision of the user's UlI and the new address details as parameters of the call. The formal notification process may be fully automated and thus does not require any manual intervention, thereby further reducing the manual data entry requirements of the CDR in keeping their records of users' address details up-to-date. 30 Of course, step 230 may be omitted in embodiments where CDR's would immediately obtain up-to-date address details at the point in time in -20 which they intend to transmit postal items to the user. However, in view of the requirement of some CDR's to maintain up-to-date physical address details of their customers irrespective of their requirements with regard to transmitting items of post, step 230 allows such CDR's to fulfill any statutory or regulatory 5 compliance. Further, in embodiments where there is a desire to avoid a large communication infrastructure demand at the time of sending postal items to a large number of users, step 230 would be included. Further, for CDR's that have been selected by the user for exclusion 10 from the list of CDR's to be formally notified of their change of address details, these CDR's may either be formally notified in a similar manner to the CDR's that will be provided with the users new address details, or they may receive a relevant notification at the next point in time that those particular CDR's seek to obtain a users physical address details for the purpose of 15 transmitting items of post. Of course, whilst the above example relates primarily to physical address details and use of the postal service, the invention is equally applicable to other forms of contact information or other forms of personal information 20 commonly entered in forms and/or documents. In addition to reducing potential errors and the manual data entry requirements of CDR's, the provision of a single UII to a user also has the beneficial effect of reducing the user's time requirement to complete forms and documents with respect to the provision of their contact details. 25 In addition to organisations registering as a CDR, users may also register as a CDR in order to obtain formal notification of any change to the contact details of another user with whom they wish to communicate. 30 Although postal services may not have sufficient optical character recognition technology to accurately translate hand written address details into electronic form, it may be possible for the existing OCR technology utilised by - 21 postal systems around the world to translate a sufficiently configured UII into electronic form with minimal potential for erroneous translation. In this instance, by effecting the necessary changes to existing postal system information technology and postal processing facilities, items of post could be 5 transmitted to users by use of their UII only on an external surface of an item of post with the postal system OCR technology translating the handwritten UII into electronic form and submitting a request to the CD Registration Service to obtain the corresponding up-to-date physical address. 10 The translation of a UI on an external surface of an item of post to a physical address could involve the printing of the physical address onto an adhesive label that would subsequently be applied to an external surface at the time of processing the postal item to enable a delivery agent to deliver the item of post to the physical address. Alternatively, the translation of a UII into a 15 corresponding physical address could be effected by the delivery agent by sufficiently equipping the delivery agent with the necessary technology to scan the handwritten UII and submit the necessary request to the CD Registration Service and obtain the corresponding physical address. 20 It will be appreciated by persons skilled in the relevant field of technology that numerous variations and/or modifications may be made to the invention as detailed in the embodiments without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention as broadly described. The present embodiments are, therefore, to be considered in all aspects as illustrative and not restrictive. 25

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method including: receiving, by one or more computing devices, data indicating contact 5 information associated with a validated, mail-receiving user of a contact details registration service; in response to receiving the data indicating the contact information, providing, by the one or more computing devices, a unique passphrase to the validated, mail-receiving user of the contact details registration service; 10 receiving, by the one or more computing devices and from a particular, validated, mail-sending user of the contact details registration service, a request for the contact information associated with the validated, mail-receiving user of the contact details registration service, the request including the unique passphrase of the validated, mail-receiving user of the contact details registration service; 15 determining, by the one or more computing devices, that the particular, validated, mail-sending user is authorized to receive the contact information associated with the validated, mail-receiving user based on the request; in response to determining that the validated, mail-sending user is authorized to receive the contact information associated with the validated, mail 20 receiving user based on the request, providing, by the one or more computing devices, the contact information associated with the validated, mail-receiving user to the particular, validated, mail-sending user; receiving, by the one or more computing devices, a request to update the contact information from the validated, mail-receiving user of the contact details 25 registration service, the request including updated contact information; in response to the request to update the contact information from the validated, mail-receiving user of the contact details registration service, providing, by the one or more computing devices, to the validated, mail-receiving user, a list of validated, mail-sending users, including the particular, validated, mail-sending 30 user, that have provided the unique passphrase; -23 receiving, by the one or more computing devices, data indicating a selection, by the validated, mail-receiving user, of a subset of the validated, mail sending users; and in response to receiving the data indicating the selection of the subset of the 5 validated, mail-sending users, providing, by the one or more computing devices, the updated contact information to one or more validated, mail-sending users of the subset.

2. A method according to claim 1, wherein providing to the validated, mail 10 receiving user, a list of validated, mail-sending users, including the particular, validated, mail-sending user, that have provided the unique passphrase, includes: determining validated, mail-sending users that have provided the unique passphrase; and generating the list of validated, mail-sending users, including the particular, 15 validated, mail-sending user, that have provided the unique passphrase based on the determined validated, mail-sending users that have provided the unique passphrase.

3. A method according to claim 2, wherein determining validated, mail 20 sending users that have provided the unique passphrase includes: determining validated, mail-sending users that have provided the unique passphrase and that were previously authorized to receive the contact information associated with the validated, mail-receiving user. 25

4. A method according to any one of the preceding claims, further including: in response to receiving the data indicating the selection of the subset of the validated, mail-sending users, providing a notification to one or more validated, mail-sending users that are not part of the subset that the validated, mail-receiving user has withheld the updated contact information. 30 -24

5. A method according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein providing the updated contact information to one or more validated, mail-sending users of the subset includes: providing the updated contact information to one or more validated, mail 5 sending users of the subset without the one or more validated, mail-sending users of the subset requesting the updated contact information.

6. A method according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein providing the updated contact information to one or more validated, mail-sending users of the 10 subset includes: providing one or more validated, mail-sending users of the subset a notification of the updated contact information; and providing the updated contact information to the one or more validated, mail-sending users of the subset in response to one or more requests for the 15 updated contact information from the one or more validated, mail-sending users of the subset.

7. A method according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the unique passphrase includes alphanumeric characters. 20

8. A method according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the contact information includes a street mailing address.

9. A system including: 25 one or more computers and one or more storage devices storing instructions that are operable, when executed by the one or more computers, to cause the one or more computers to perform operations including: receiving data indicating contact information associated with a validated, mail-receiving user of a contact details registration service; 30 in response to receiving the data indicating the contact information, providing a unique passphrase to the validated, mail-receiving user of the contact details registration service; -25 receiving, from a particular, validated, mail-sending user of the contact details registration service, a request for the contact information associated with the validated, mail-receiving user of the contact details registration service, the request including the unique passphrase of the 5 validated, mail-receiving user of the contact details registration service; determining that the particular, validated, mail-sending user is authorized to receive the contact information associated with the validated, mail-receiving user based on the request; in response to determining that the validated, mail-sending user is 10 authorized to receive the contact information associated with the validated, mail-receiving user based on the request, providing the contact information associated with the validated, mail-receiving user to the particular, validated, mail-sending user; receiving a request to update the contact information from the 15 validated, mail-receiving user of the contact details registration service, the request including updated contact information; in response to the request to update the contact information from the validated, mail-receiving user of the contact details registration service, providing to the validated, mail-receiving user, a list of validated, mail 20 sending users, including the particular, validated, mail-sending user, that have provided the unique passphrase; receiving data indicating a selection, by the validated, mail receiving user, of a subset of the validated, mail-sending users; and in response to receiving the data indicating the selection of the 25 subset of the validated, mail-sending users, providing the updated contact information to one or more validated, mail-sending users of the subset.

10. A system according to claim 9, wherein providing to the validated, mail receiving user, a list of validated, mail-sending users, including the particular, 30 validated, mail-sending user, that have provided the unique passphrase, includes: determining validated, mail-sending users that have provided the unique passphrase; and -26 generating the list of validated, mail-sending users, including the particular, validated, mail-sending user, that have provided the unique passphrase based on the determined validated, mail-sending users that have provided the unique passphrase. 5

11. A system according to claim 10, wherein determining validated, mail sending users that have provided the unique passphrase includes: determining validated, mail-sending users that have provided the unique passphrase and that were previously authorized to receive the contact information 10 associated with the validated, mail-receiving user.

12. A system according to any one of claims 9 to 11, the operations further including: in response to receiving the data indicating the selection of the subset of the 15 validated, mail-sending users, providing a notification to one or more validated, mail-sending users that are not part of the subset that the validated, mail-receiving user has withheld the updated contact information.

13. A system according to any one of claims 9 to 12, wherein providing the 20 updated contact information to one or more validated, mail-sending users of the subset includes: providing the updated contact information to one or more validated, mail sending users of the subset without the one or more validated, mail-sending users of the subset requesting the updated contact information. 25

14. A system according to any one of claims 9 to 13, wherein providing the updated contact information to one or more validated, mail-sending users of the subset includes: providing one or more validated, mail-sending users of the subset a 30 notification of the updated contact information; and providing the updated contact information to the one or more validated, mail-sending users of the subset in response to one or more requests for the -27 updated contact information from the one or more validated, mail-sending users of the subset.

15. A system according to any one of claims 9 to 14, wherein the unique 5 passphrase includes alphanumeric characters.

16. A system according to any one of claims 9 to 15, wherein the contact information includes a street mailing address. 10

17. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing software including instructions executable by one or more computers which, upon such execution, cause the one or more computers to perform operations including: receiving data indicating contact information associated with a validated, mail-receiving user of a contact details registration service; 15 in response to receiving the data indicating the contact information, providing a unique passphrase to the validated, mail-receiving user of the contact details registration service; receiving, from a particular, validated, mail-sending user of the contact details registration service, a request for the contact information associated with the 20 validated, mail-receiving user of the contact details registration service, the request including the unique passphrase of the validated, mail-receiving user of the contact details registration service; determining that the particular, validated, mail-sending user is authorized to receive the contact information associated with the validated, mail-receiving user 25 based on the request; in response to determining that the validated, mail-sending user is authorized to receive the contact information associated with the validated, mail receiving user based on the request, providing the contact information associated with the validated, mail-receiving user to the particular, validated, mail-sending 30 user; -28 receiving a request to update the contact information from the validated, mail-receiving user of the contact details registration service, the request including updated contact information; in response to the request to update the contact information from the 5 validated, mail-receiving user of the contact details registration service, providing to the validated, mail-receiving user, a list of validated, mail-sending users, including the particular, validated, mail-sending user, that have provided the unique passphrase; receiving data indicating a selection, by the validated, mail-receiving user, 10 of a subset of the validated, mail-sending users; and in response to receiving the data indicating the selection of the subset of the validated, mail-sending users, providing the updated contact information to one or more validated, mail-sending users of the subset. 15

18. A medium according to claim 17, wherein providing to the validated, mail receiving user, a list of validated, mail-sending users, including the particular, validated, mail-sending user, that have provided the unique passphrase, includes: determining validated, mail-sending users that have provided the unique passphrase; and 20 generating the list of validated, mail-sending users, including the particular, validated, mail-sending user, that have provided the unique passphrase based on the determined validated, mail-sending users that have provided the unique passphrase. 25

19. A medium according to claim 18, wherein determining validated, mail sending users that have provided the unique passphrase includes: determining validated, mail-sending users that have provided the unique passphrase and that were previously authorized to receive the contact information associated with the validated, mail-receiving user. 30

20. A medium according to any one of claims 17 to 19, the operations further including: -29 in response to receiving the data indicating the selection of the subset of the validated, mail-sending users, providing a notification to one or more validated, mail-sending users that are not part of the subset that the validated, mail-receiving user has withheld the updated contact information. 5

21. A medium according to any one of claims 17 to 20, wherein providing the updated contact information to one or more validated, mail-sending users of the subset includes: providing the updated contact information to one or more validated, mail 10 sending users of the subset without the one or more validated, mail-sending users of the subset requesting the updated contact information.

22. A medium according to any one of claims 17 to 21, wherein providing the updated contact information to one or more validated, mail-sending users of the 15 subset includes: providing one or more validated, mail-sending users of the subset a notification of the updated contact information; and providing the updated contact information to the one or more validated, mail-sending users of the subset in response to one or more requests for the 20 updated contact information from the one or more validated, mail-sending users of the subset.

23. A medium according to any one of claims 17 to 22, wherein the unique passphrase includes alphanumeric characters. 25

24. A medium according to any one of claims 17 to 23, wherein the contact information includes a street mailing address.