Contact Information Retrieval System and Communication System Using the Same

A communication system according to any preceding claim, wherein contact information is asymmetrically encrypted using a public key associated with the second party, and the encrypted contact information is decrypted using a private key associated with the second party.

A communication system according to any preceding claim, wherein the access granting mechanism comprises a server operable to store account information for the first party and the second party.

A communication system according to any preceding claim, wherein at least one electronic communication identifier is in the form of a Universal Resource Identifier.

A communication system according to any preceding claim, wherein the access granting mechanism is operable to store the encrypted contact information in association with a sub-domain of the domain, said sub-domain being associated with the second party, and to provide the second party with access to the identity of said sub-domain, and

• wherein the network apparatus is operable to retrieve the encrypted contact information from the part of the zone datafile associated with said sub-domain.

A domain name server storing a zone datafile for a domain associated with a first party, the zone data file including contact information associated with the first party, the contact information including a plurality of electronic communication identifiers associated with the first party with each electronic communication identifier being associated with a corresponding communication protocol,

• wherein the contact information comprises encrypted contact information.

A network apparatus comprising:

• a browser program operable to retrieve encrypted contact information for a person from a zone datafile associated with the person;
• and
• a decryption engine operable to decrypt retrieved encrypted contact information using a cryptographic key to recover one or more electronic communication identifiers.

A computer program comprising computer-implementable instructions for programming a network apparatus to:

• retrieve encrypted contact information for a person from a zone datafile associated with the person;
• and
• decrypt retrieved encrypted contact information using a cryptographic key to recover one or more electronic communication identifiers.

A method of providing access to contact information for a first party to a second party, the method comprising:

• the second party sending an access request to the first party;
• following receipt of said access request, the second party encrypting one or more electronic communication identifiers associated with the first party to generate encrypted contact information, and storing the encrypted contact information in a zone datafile for a domain associated with the first party.