Patent ID: 8443044

Claim:
An apparatus, comprising: a device with a display; at least one of a device driver or an operating system to detect the device connecting to a network, and to determine an identity of the network responsive to the detecting, the identity of the network comprising at least one of a network name, a network type, a network address range name or gateway information associated with the network; and a processor configured to: automatically compose a list of active contacts by selecting at least one contact from an original list of contacts based on the identity of the network and a personal rule set associated with a user of the device; publish to the display, upon receiving a request, at least a portion of the list of active contacts, while hiding identification of members of a list of inactive contacts included in the original list, and not included in the list of active contacts; and respond, upon receiving attempted communication from an inactive contact in the original list that is not included in the list of active contacts, to the attempted communication with an automated status message or by rejecting the attempted communication.