Patent ID: 8271424

Claim:
A method of preserving privacy in a system where information is associated with an existing web page having an address, the method comprising: receiving at a server a store command from a first user system, the store command including at least a database key and information to be associated with the web page, wherein the database key was created by performing a cryptographic hash function on the address of the web page; storing the information at a location in an electronic storage database; associating the location with the database key; receiving at the server a retrieve command from a second user system that has accessed the web page, the retrieve command including the database key created by the second user system by performing a cryptographic hash function on the address of the web page; retrieving stored information from one or more locations in the electronic database associated with the database key; and transmitting the stored information from the server to the second user system; wherein transmitting includes transmitting a tuple that includes a transformed version of the address and a constant identifying a transformation that was applied to the transformed version of the address and an encrypted portion.