Patent ID: 7472091

Claim:
A method of delivering personalized services to a consumer operating a communication device, the method comprising: receiving a request for information from a communication device, the request comprising a unique identifier of the communication device; querying a participating communications provider database; identifying a virtual key associated with the communication device from the participating communications provider database based on the unique identifier of the communication device, wherein the virtual key is a universal and anonymous identifier of the consumer that is also stored in association with sensitive consumer information securely stored by each of a plurality of participating businesses; identifying a user associated with the virtual key; determining an intent of the request from the request; verifying an authorization level of the user based on the intent and the virtual key; identifying one of the plurality of participating businesses that, based on the intent of the request, is able to respond to the request; querying a participating company database associated with the identified one of the plurality of participating businesses; identifying from the participating company database an internal customer ID assigned by the identified one of the participating businesses to the consumer, the query comprising the virtual key and the intent of the request; from the participating company database identifying the internal customer ID of the consumer that is unique to the one of the participating businesses and is associated with the virtual key in the participating company database; and forwarding the request and the internal customer ID to the identified at least one of the participating businesses responsive to the request as a function of the internal customer ID.