Patent ID: 8041595

Claim:
A system, comprising: a server system that provides functionality for users to register with a service, and to selectively establish contact relationships with other registered users of the service such that each registered user can have one or more contacts, the server system additionally providing functionality for the registered users to supply and update personal data for viewing by their respective contacts; a computer data repository maintained by the server system, said computer data repository storing said personal data supplied by the registered users, and storing relationship data that specifies said contact relationships established between the registered users; and an application program executed by the server system, said application program operative to cause the server system to use the relationship data to generate, for a first registered user, a list of contacts of the first registered user, and to make said list available to the first registered user such that the first registered user can select a user from said list of contacts to view at least some of the personal data of the selected user; wherein the server system is operative to use the relationship data, in combination with personal data updates received from the registered users, to generate notification messages to notify the first registered user of updates made to the personal data of contacts of the first registered user, said server system further operative to determine whether to notify the first registered user of a personal data update made by a contact of the first registered user based at least partly on whether permission data specified by the contact authorizes the first registered user to access the updated personal data of the contact.