Patent ID: 8244813

Claim:
An apparatus, comprising: a communication unit which receives email through a communication line, the email having been sent by a user and including data; an accumulation unit which stores therein the data; a printout unit; an input unit which receives a first identifier entered by the user through direct operation thereof; and a control unit which generates a second identifier corresponding to the data, and sends the second identifier to the user by email via the communication unit, said control unit controlling said printout unit to print the data corresponding to the second identifier by reading the data from said accumulation unit if the first identifier matches the second identifier, wherein the email received by said communication unit includes a third identifier, wherein the third identifier is a character string that is written in a text of the email along with a specific character string, and said input unit receives a fourth identifier entered by the user in addition to the first identifier, said control unit controlling said printout unit to print the data corresponding to the second identifier by reading the data from said accumulation unit if the first identifier matches the second identifier and if the third identifier matches the fourth identifier; and the control unit controls whether to print the data, by operating in one of a first mode in which only the first and second identifiers are used, a second mode in which only the third and fourth identifiers are used, and a third mode in which the first, second, third, and fourth identifiers are used.