Patent ID: 8027931

Claim:
A method, comprising: automatically generating a private profile of an individual; identifying a subset of private data of the private profile of the individual that is publicly available in a public profile of the individual; removing the subset of the private data from the private profile; automatically comparing by a computing device the private profile of the individual with private profiles of a set of individuals such that one or more of the set of individuals are identified as matches for the individual, wherein the private profile of the individual includes private data and each of the private profiles of the set of individuals includes private data, wherein the private profile of the individual is not publicly available to other individuals that have access to the public profile of the individual, the computing device having a processor and a memory; and automatically notifying the individual that the individual has been matched with the one or more individuals, thereby enabling the individual to initiate communication with the one or more individuals; wherein similarities between the private profile of the individual and the private profiles of the one or more individuals are not revealed to the individual or the one or more individuals.