Patent ID: 8296462

Claim:
A method for communicating electronic information comprising the computer-implemented steps of: intercepting, at an intermediary, a message sent from a service provider to a service requestor; wherein the message from the service provider is a reply to a request from the service requestor for a particular service and wherein the message includes: a) content associated with the particular service, and b) restriction information, selected by the service provider for inclusion in the message based on the particular service that was requested by the service requestor, about one or more restrictions that limit conditions under which the service requestor is permitted to receive the content that is included in the message; without requiring communication from the service provider, the intermediary performing the following steps in response to intercepting the message: reading the restriction information from the message; determining, based on information that is not included in the message, whether providing the content to the service requestor would violate any restrictions specified in the restriction information that the was selected by the service provider based on the particular service that was requested by the service requestor; in response to determining that no restrictions specified in the restriction information would be violated by providing the content to the service requestor, transmitting, via the intermediary, the message containing the content to the service requestor; wherein the method is performed by one or more computing devices.