| 摘要 |
A method of, and apparatus for, doing business transactions on a network, such as the Internet, is described. Purchases are carried out in a secure way such that there is a minimum possibility that the customer's financial or billing information can be stolen. An input device, such as a set top box, television browser, is provided at a customer's location. The input device has a unique identification code. This code is stored on a first server connected to a network, such as the Internet, prior to conducting any transactions. Customer specific financial and/or billing information is also stored on the first server. The customer is then connected to the desired location on the network through a second server to conduct a transaction. The identification code of the input device is also provided to the second server connected to the network. The second server has secure access to the customer specific information located on the first server, for billing the customer. Where the input device is a set top box browser, a smart card port may be provided. As a marketing device, the smart card can be provided by a vendor. The smart card is encoded with the URL location of the vendor's website. A user inserts the smart card into the input device, such as a television set top box browser, to automatically connect to the vendor's website. By using a smart card, information can be downloaded from the vendor's website to the customer's smart card.
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