ANONYMOUS CREDIT CARD TRANSACTIONS

摘要

Techniques for performing credit-card transactions without disclosing the subjec t matter of the transaction to the institution providing the credit card. The tech niques include the use of a communications exchange so that information and funds may b e transferred without the destination for the transfer knowing the source of the information or funds and the use of public key encryption so that each party to the transaction and the communications exchange can read only the information the party or the exchange needs for its role in the transaction. Also disclosed are techniques for authenticating a card holder by receiving personal information fr om the card holder, using the information to ask the card holder one or more questi ons, and using the answers to authenticate the card holder.