Patent ID: 8578150

Claim:
A communication system allowing communication over one or more communication networks, the communication system comprising: a domain name server storing a zone data file 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; an access granting system enabling the first party to grant a second party access to one or more of the plurality of electronic communication identifiers, said access granting system being operable to encrypt said one or more electronic communication identifiers to generate encrypted contact information, to store said encrypted contact information in the zone data file; and a network apparatus remote from said domain name server, the network apparatus comprising: means for retrieving said encrypted contact information from the zone data file; and means for decrypting said encrypted contact information to recover said one or more electronic communication identifiers associated with the first party, wherein said access granting system is arranged to encrypt said one or more electronic communication identifiers using a public key of an asymmetric encryption algorithm, said public key being associated with the second party, and said network apparatus is arranged to decrypt said encrypted contact information using a private key corresponding to said public key, wherein the access granting system is further 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, the network apparatus comprising a database storing a plurality of domain names, wherein for each domain name, the database is configured to store a corresponding sub-domain, and wherein, in response to user input of a domain name, the network apparatus is arranged to check the database to determine if the input domain is listed in the database and, in the event that the input domain is listed in the database, to identify from the database the sub-domain corresponding to the input domain name and to send a request for contact information identifying the corresponding sub-domain.