SYSTEM AND METHOD OF FILTERING ELECTRONIC MESSAGES

摘要

Unwanted and/or unsolicited messages in a digital communications network are filtered based on the identity of the sender of the message (Figure 6). Bloom filters can represent the identities within address books in the social network of identities, (S610) thereby minimizing data to be exchanged and maintaining the privacy of address books within the social network. The message is passed to a user (S650) if the sender's identity is found within a social network of identities for the user (S650) by checking if the sender's identity is found within the user's electronic address book or within the address book of a person whose identity is found within the user's electronic address book. Checking is performed by comparing hashed information of the received message to the Bloom filter (S620).