Patent ID: 7079638

Claim:
A system comprising: a computing device providing privacy screening of incoming calls; at least one network interface which communicatively connects the computing device to a first switching means associated with a first telecommunications device and a second switching means associated with a second telecommunications device, wherein the first telecommunications device attempts connection of a call to the second telecommunications device; software operating in the computing device which detects a connection attempt to the second telecommunications device and directs one of the second switching means and an intelligent peripheral means to perform one of completion of the call and the generation of a tone that is indicative to the incoming call that a directory number for the connection of the call has no called party assigned to it; wherein the software directs completion of the call if a telephone number of the first telecommunications device is one of known and determinable by the computing device and wherein the software directs generation of a tone only if a telephone number of the first telecommunications device is one of unknown and undeterminable by the computing device.