Confidentiality management of e-mail users in redistributed e-mail messages

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10453034-B2
Application number	US-84077507-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 17, 2007
Priority date	Aug 17, 2007
Publication date	Oct 22, 2019
Grant date	Oct 22, 2019

Abstract

Embodiments of the present invention address deficiencies of the art in respect to instant messaging and provide a novel and non-obvious method, system and computer program product for managing e-mail user confidentiality. In one embodiment of the invention, a method for managing e-mail user confidentiality can be provided. The method can include transmitting an e-mail message for delivery to multiple e-mail users and corresponding e-mail addresses, identifying a privacy preference for a particular one of the e-mail users; and, concealing a display within the e-mail message of an e-mail address associated with the particular one of the e-mail users responsive to the privacy preference.

First claim

We claim:

1. A method, performed within and by a client computer system, comprising:
identifying a privacy preference, in association with an e-mail message to be transmitted to e-mail users having corresponding e-mail addresses, for a particular one of the e-mail users; and
modifying the e-mail message to be transmitted based upon the privacy preference; and
addressing the modified e-mail message to the e-mail users, wherein
during a display, by a recipient of the e-mail message, of content of the e-mail message, an e-mail address, associated with the particular one of the e-mail users, is not displayed based upon the privacy preference, wherein
each of the e-mail users is associated with a respective client computer system including an e-mail messaging client within the respective client computer system,
each of the respective client computer systems includes a confidentiality processor coupled to the e-mail messaging client within the respective client computer system, and
the confidentiality processor of the recipient uses the privacy preference to determine whether or not to cause the display of the email address associated with the particular one of the e-mail users.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein
the privacy preference is based upon a threshold number of the e-mail users also belonging to a social network of the particular one of the e-mail users.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein
the privacy preference is based upon a threshold number of the e-mail users appearing in a list.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein
the list is one of
a lightweight directory access protocol (LDAP) directory, and
an instant messaging (IM) buddy list.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein
the e-mail message is modified to completely remove the email address associated with the particular one of the e-mail users, and
a separate e-mail message copied from the e-mail message is sent, in lieu of the e-mail message, to the particular one of the e-mail users.

Assignees

• Jones Angela Richards
• Lyle Ruthie D
• IBM

Inventors

• Jones Angela Richards
• Lyle Ruthie D

Classifications

• G06Q10/107 Primary

  Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing] · CPC title