Patent ID: 8103724

Claim:
A method of securing privacy of a sender's e-mail address, said method comprising the steps of: generating an e-mail message to one or more intended recipients in an e-mail application on a sender e-mail client; encrypting, using a privacy plug-in installed on said sender e-mail client, an e-mail address of sender of said e-mail message generated, wherein the encrypting further comprises: selecting a privacy option for said e-mail message for securing said e-mail address of said sender; and launching said privacy plug-in installed on said sender e-mail client for encrypting said e-mail address of said sender before transmitting said e-mail message to said one or more intended recipients, wherein encrypting said e-mail address of said sender uses a respective public key corresponding to said respective recipient of said one or more intended recipients; transmitting said e-mail message generated with said e-mail address of said sender being encrypted to said one or more intended recipients, wherein said transmitting step further comprises hiding an e-mail address corresponding to each of any other intended recipients before transmitting said e-mail message to said respective recipient such that each respective intended recipient is unable to view said e-mail address of each of any other intended recipients; and decrypting, after receipt by a respective recipient e-mail client corresponding to a respective recipient of said one or more intended recipients, said e-mail address of said sender to display a name of said sender and any other recipients of said one or more intended recipients without displaying said e-mail address of said sender or said any other recipients of said one or more intended recipients in said e-mail message received by said respective recipient such that said respective recipient cannot reply to each of said any other recipients of said one or more intended recipients, the decrypting being executed by a privacy plug-in installed on said respective recipient e-mail client corresponding to a respective recipient of said one or more intended recipients.