Patent ID: 7966326

Claim:
An information processing apparatus which is connected, via a network, to a data communication apparatus that transmits data in accordance with e-mail address information, and manages the e-mail address information used by the data communication apparatus, comprising: a first storage unit constructed to store address book data including a plurality of e-mail address information, wherein each of the plurality of e-mail address information is assigned to any one of a plurality of security levels, and the security levels are used to determine whether to process respective e-mail address information in the information processing apparatus; a first reception unit constructed to receive an address book data download request issued from the data communication apparatus; a first extraction unit constructed to extract e-mail address information, from the address book data, which is set with the security level corresponding to user authority of a user of the data communication apparatus which has issued the address book data download request; and a transmission unit constructed to transmit the e-mail address information extracted by said first extraction unit to the data communication apparatus, wherein the information processing apparatus processes e-mail address information for transmission to the data communication apparatus according to the security levels, wherein the data communication apparatus transmits data to destinations identified by the e-mail address information transmitted from the information processing apparatus, wherein the information processing apparatus processes e-mail address information which is set with the security level corresponding to the user authority, and wherein the information processing apparatus does not processes e-mail address information which is not set with the security level corresponding to the user authority.