| 摘要 |
A communication request from a subscriber of a network to establish a communication with a third party includes an indication of the third party's telephone number (i.e. a desired destination number), an indication of the telephone number of the user's telephone handset (i.e. its CLI), and an indication that the user wishes to withhold their handset's telephone number from the third party (e.g. this a predefined prefix added to the dialled destination number). On determining the presence of the indication that the user wishes to withhold their telephone number, the communication request is modified by replacing the indication of the user's telephone number with an indication of a secondary telephone number associated with the user before being forwarded to the third party. Thus the third party receives a communication request appearing to originate from the secondary telephone number. If the third party sends a communication request to the secondary number, the communication request may then be modified so that the destination address associated with the request (i.e. the secondary telephone number) is replaced with the user's handset's telephone number such that the request may be delivered to the user's handset. The communication request from the third party may be modified by adding a prefix (or suffix) to the telephone number of the third party such that if the user uses his telephone's reply feature to call or text the third party back, the privacy prefix is automatically included in his return call/text, thereby preserving his anonymity. Calls or text messages sent using the privacy prefix, or returned via the secondary telephone number, may receive special handling, eg they may be automatically recorded for future reference. |
