Patent ID: 8473733

Claim:
A method for a presentity to provide private presence information for a watcher, comprising: the presentity providing the private presence information in an encrypted form; a presence access layer (PAL) obtaining the private presence information; wherein the PAL includes a server in communication with a presence server, and wherein the PAL is configured to consolidate presence information on behalf of a watcher; and the PAL performing one of: decrypting the private presence information and sending the decrypted private presence information to the watcher, and leaving the private presence information in the encrypted form and sending the encrypted private presence information to the watcher, wherein the watcher decrypts the private presence information, wherein the presentity provides the private presence information to the presence access layer via a presence server, and wherein the presentity provides both the private presence information and non-encrypted presence information to the presence server, the presence server creates a presence document containing both the private presence information and the non-encrypted presence information, the presence server provides the presence document to the presence access layer.