Patent ID: 6882987

Claim:
An information providing and collecting system comprising: information transmitting means for establishing a connection between an information providing side and an information collecting side; transmitting and receiving means for transmitting and receiving information between said information providing side and said information collecting side through said information transmitting means; information medium reading means for reading information of a non-unique information medium having encoded information recorded thereon; key encoding means which uses a plurality of specific information possessed by said information collecting side and transmitted from said information collecting side so as to encode key information required to decode said encoded information of the information medium, wherein said plurality of specific information is non-specific to said information medium, and includes a user ID, a user password and a medium reading apparatus ID; encoded-key decoding means located at the collecting side for receiving encoded key information electronically transmitted from said information providing side and for decoding the encoded key information by using said specific information; and encoded-information decoding means for decoding said encoded information read from said information medium by using said decoded key information.