JP2001331733A - System for limiting personal information disclosure in electronic commerce - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a system for limiting personal information disclosure which limits demerits due to leakage of personal information transmitted by a purchaser as much as possible in an electronic commerce of mail order business or the like using a computer network like the Internet. SOLUTION: A server computer 10 which implements a virtual shop, a cataloguer computer 20 used by a cataloguer, a purchaser computer 30 like a personal computer used by purchasers as many unspecified users, and a distributor computer 40 used by a distributor are organically connected through the Internet. Personal information of a purchase requester or the like which is transmitted from the server 10 to the cataloger and the distributor is not transmitted to the cataloguer. Since only minimum information required for application for catalog sales to distribution is distributed, the situation that post matters, mails, or C.O.D. parcels are sent by use of personal information after purchase of commodities is prevented as much as possible.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention can limit as much as possible the disadvantages caused by leakage of personal information transmitted by a purchaser in electronic commerce such as mail-order sales using a computer network such as the Internet. It relates to a personal information disclosure restriction system.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, in addition to conventional mail-order sales systems such as catalog shopping, etc., with the development of computer networks such as the Internet, mail-order sales using the Internet are becoming widespread (virtual stores, virtual malls, Electronic shopping etc.).
In such online shopping, which is an e-commerce transaction using the Internet, usually, a purchaser who wants to purchase a product accesses product information posted on a Web page of the Internet online and obtains a desired product from the product information. Products to be selected. The purchaser who has selected the product information transmits the order information to the virtual store via the Internet. The virtual store stores this order information in an order management database to arrange, ship, deliver,
Carry out settlement. Of these, the delivery of goods ordered by the purchaser to the purchaser is generally carried out by a delivery system in which a courier company or the like directly delivers to an address or the like designated by the purchaser at the time of ordering.

[0003]

In the electronic commerce described above, the seller does not need to set up a store or employ many employees. The lower costs for stores and employees are also reflected in product prices, and buyers can purchase products cheaper. Moreover, there is a great advantage that the user can select and purchase a product while staying at home without worrying about business hours and comparing with other virtual stores without actually going to the store.

[0004] However, when a purchaser purchases a product by mail order using a computer network such as the Internet, the manager of the virtual store is different from the distributor or delivery company of the product. Therefore, in order to ensure the final home delivery, it is necessary to disclose the purchaser's address, name, telephone number, and other personal information to each of the dealers who are opening a virtual store. For this reason, various types of personal information may be leaked during transmission over the network, and personal information may be distributed among a plurality of traders, and in particular, personal information may be distributed to dealers.
There is a problem that information must be said to be in an environment where information can easily be leaked.In this case, personal information is diverted after purchasing the product, and mail, mail, cash on delivery parcels that are unnecessary for the purchaser are sent There was a problem that it was done.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems, and is intended to solve the problem that personal information transmitted by a purchaser is leaked in electronic commerce such as mail-order sales using a computer network such as the Internet. An object of the present invention is to provide a personal information disclosure restriction system capable of restricting disadvantages as much as possible.

[0006]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a server for operating an e-commerce service, and a merchandise seller who wants to sell merchandise through a Web page realized by the server. A merchant computer to be used, a purchaser computer used by a purchaser of the product, and a distributor computer used by a logistics company delivering goods sold by the product seller to a place desired by the purchaser. The server, the seller computer, the purchaser computer, and the distributor computer are connected via a computer communication network, and the server executes the e-commerce from the purchaser computer via the computer communication network, The target computer information of electronic commerce is stored in the purchaser computer. And prompting the input of the personal information of the purchaser who conducts the electronic commerce, while transferring only the transaction target information input from the purchaser computer to the seller computer via the computer communication network, the transaction target information and A personal information disclosure restriction system in electronic commerce, wherein personal information is transferred to the distributor computer via the computer communication network.

[0007]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Hereinafter, a preferred embodiment of a personal information disclosure restriction system in electronic commerce according to the present invention will be described in detail.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an embodiment in which the personal information disclosure restriction system of the present invention is applied to catalog mail-order sales as electronic commerce, and schematically shows a network configuration in which the Internet is used as an example of a computer communication network. As shown. As shown in FIG. 1, a server computer 10 managed and operated by an operator who is a provider of an electronic shopping service according to the present system having a WWW (World Wide Web) server function, a mail server function and the like via the Internet. A catalog distributor computer 20 used by a catalog seller who has previously made a predetermined contract with the operator, a purchaser computer 30 such as a personal computer used by a purchaser who is an unspecified number of users, A distributor computer 40 used by a distributor who has made a predetermined contract in advance is organically connected.

[0009] The server 10 and external computers (catalog trader computer 20, purchaser computer 3)
0, distributor computer 40: hereinafter, when these are collectively referred to simply as “external computer”),
A computer having a computer main body including a U, a ROM, a RAM, a hard disk device, and the like, a display device such as a monitor connected to the computer main body, and an input device such as a keyboard and a mouse connected to the computer main body. .

The personal information disclosure restriction system of the present invention and the virtual shop where the present system is executed are realized by a server computer 10. The server computer 10 is provided with various databases and has a URL (Uniform Resource Locat).
It functions as a general WWW server that sends appropriate data such as Web page screen data to an external computer accessed by specifying (or). The personal information disclosure restriction system also performs an operation of activating a predetermined program according to a specified URL. The database is updated as needed while acquiring and processing various data obtained through data communication with an external computer.

[0011] The virtual store operates the above-mentioned mail-order sales site through an electronic catalog mail-order sales site (a Web site that is a group of Web pages published on the Internet) operated by a catalog computer, which is a merchandise seller, through the server computer 10. The browsing buyer can select and purchase a product.
The HTML document constituting the page and various object data (image data, audio data, etc.) inserted by a hyperlink (link) in the document are stored in a database linked to a WWW server. The server 10 also includes a customer database 11 and an order database 12 provided separately from the server 10 and connected to the Internet.

It should be noted that HTTP (Hy
A program for displaying a Web page unilaterally sent from the Internet connection service device without using the per-Text Transfer Protocol) is incorporated as a function extension software (plug-in) of a WWW browser (for example, Internet Explorer: a trademark of Microsoft Corporation). It is assumed that

The server 10 processes catalog information provided from the catalog trader computer 20 via the Internet or offline as distribution information in order to realize the virtual shop server function, and sends it to the purchaser computer 30 via the Internet. At the time of distribution, the order information stored in the purchaser computer 30 is received.

In the catalog trader computer 20, information such as product information handled by the catalog seller, the business contents of the seller itself, and information on the sale of a specific product are off-line. The catalog is stored in a temporary storage file or the catalog itself, which is a paper medium created by the catalog supplier, is brought to the system operator who is the provider of the electronic shopping service by this system, and the operator converts the paper information into a catalog format. The information is converted into electronic information and stored in a temporary storage file of the server 10 or another external computer. Then, the transmission information stored in these temporary storage files is transmitted to the server 10 via the Internet and is filed in a catalog sales database (not shown). Specifically, in information described in a page description language such as HTML, the description part such as a photo image file name is converted into an "edit code" for each catalog seller, and the product name, price, and specification And the like can be freely changed, and the distribution information can be provided in a uniform expression so that it is easy to see.

FIGS. 2 to 7 show schematic flowcharts of processing for actually performing electronic shopping in the virtual shop system as described above. First, when a user who is a purchaser intends to perform shopping, the browser of a purchaser computer obtains a Web page of a virtual store by designating a URL. Buyer is We
The user browses various Web pages in the virtual store while following a link to another page set on page b.
Then, the user confirms the product such as the price and specification of the product desired to be purchased, and selects the product and the quantity (S11).

[0016] The Web page of the virtual store includes a form including a column for entering necessary items for receiving an order. This form contains your personal information,
Various entry fields for specifying the destination (address, name) of the product to be ordered and the billing method (bank transfer, cash on delivery, credit card, etc.) are included. The purchaser computer 30 fills in the required items on this form, and instructs the server computer 10 to return the form by, for example, clicking a "send button" on the form screen with a mouse. If the purchaser wants to deliver the product to himself, he or she clicks the "Add to Shopping Cart" button (S12), and if he wants to deliver the product to another company, he clicks the "gift" button (S13).

When the "Add to Shopping Cart" button is clicked, and when the purchaser has already registered personal information, the "Next" button is clicked (S14, S1).
5) If the personal information has not been registered yet, the purchaser registers the purchaser's own personal information in the form on the Web page using the purchaser computer 30 (S14,
S16). Here, a characteristic of the personal information disclosure restriction system according to the present invention is that, as personal information, only an address, a name, a telephone number, an email address,
In addition, it is to register 1 to 2 personal information. The registered information is stored in the customer database 11 of the server 10 managed by the system operator (S17),
The server 10 assigns a unique customer number to the purchaser computer 30 and distributes it. However, if the purchaser has already registered the information, the information to that effect is displayed on the Web page. The purchaser clicks the “Next” button (S18).

On the other hand, when the "gift" button is clicked (S13), it is when the purchaser has already registered personal information, and when the destination information has also been registered (S19, S20). ), Extracting destination information and purchaser's personal information from the customer database 11 defined based on the customer number given in advance under the consent of the purchaser, and
A screen is displayed on the web page as, for example, a pull-down menu (S21). Here, if the customer information file is stored in the purchaser computer 30, it is extracted from the file. If the file is not stored in the purchaser computer 30, it is sent directly from the customer file based on the login ID. The destination information is extracted. Then, the purchaser selects a destination from the pull-down menu (S2
2) Click the "Next" button (S23).

When the "gift" button is clicked (S
13) When personal information has not been registered yet (S1)
9) In the case of the purchaser, the purchaser
The purchaser's personal information is registered in the form on the page (S24), and the registered information is stored in the customer database 11 of the server 10 managed by the system operator (S25). Further, the personal information of the destination as the gift recipient is registered (S26), and the registered personal information of the destination is registered in the customer database 11 (S27). Here, as described above, only the address, name, telephone number, and e-mail address are registered as the personal information of the purchaser and the destination, or one or two other personal information are registered. It is to be. Also, as in the case described above, when the purchaser consents, the server 10 assigns a unique customer number to the purchaser computer 30 and distributes it. However, if the purchaser has already registered the information, the information to that effect is displayed on the Web page. The purchaser clicks the “Next” button (S28).

It should be noted that the personal information has already been registered (S1
9) If destination information is not registered (S20)
Proceeds to S26, and the following operation is performed.

Next, the purchaser stores the product attributes such as the quantity, color, and size of the selected product in the purchaser computer 3.
Input is performed using the input / output device 0 (S29). Note that the purchaser may be prompted to input information related to physical distribution (for example, delivery day designation, time designation, etc.). Thereafter, the user selects whether to continue shopping or to end the shopping. If the “continue shopping” button is clicked (S30), the process returns to S11 (S31), and if the purchase is completed, the “payment” button is clicked (S32). ).
When the purchaser clicks the "pay" button, the server computer 10 receives the response and purchases the product price, delivery fee, and customs duties (when the product is imported, such as when the catalog seller is a foreigner). Is displayed on the user computer 30 (S33). For the delivery fee, see S29
Based on the information stored in the product master (not shown) from the product code of the product input in step (1), information matching the weight is extracted from the delivery fee master. Therefore, even when a plurality of products are purchased from a plurality of catalog sellers, a fee can be calculated based on the total weight. As for the customs duty, the information stored in the product master is extracted from the product code of the product input in S29.

Further, the purchaser selects a payment means for purchasing the product (S35). In the present embodiment, as a settlement means, a credit card can be selected (S36), a bank transfer can be selected (S37), postal transfer or CVS transfer (S38) can be selected.

When the purchaser selects a credit card by operating the purchaser computer 30, (S3
6) The server 10 prompts the purchaser computer 30 to input a credit card number and its expiration date. When the purchaser inputs these information with the computer 30 (S39), the server 10 performs a credit inquiry on the input information by a known means (S4).
0), if the credit inquiry is OK, "next" to the buyer
The user is prompted to click a button (S42), and if a credit inquiry cannot be made, an error screen is output (S4).
3) Returning to S35, prompting to select another settlement means.

When the purchaser selects bank transfer (S3
7) In the present embodiment, the server 10 extracts the account number from the bank account file (S44), displays the extracted account number on the screen (S45), and prompts the user to click a “Next” button (S44). S46). If the buyer selects postal transfer or CVS transfer (S3
8) The server 10 prompts the user to click a “Next” button (S47).

When the settlement procedure is completed, the server 10
The purchaser's personal information, destination information, merchandise information, payment information, and the like input from the purchaser computer 30 in the above-described procedure are displayed on the purchaser computer 30 on a screen (S4).
8). After confirming the display screen, the purchaser clicks the “order” button (S49). If the purchaser wants to correct some or all of the information after checking the display screen, it is needless to say that the purchaser computer 30 can make corrections.

When the purchaser clicks the "order" button, the server 10 registers the input order information in the order database 12, and adds an order number to the order database 12 (S5).
0). In the present embodiment, one order number is assigned to one order. However, when a purchaser purchases a plurality of products in one order, a branch number of the order number is set for each product. It is to be attached. The order information including the order number is automatically transferred by FTP to each catalog distributor and each distributor at a timing set in advance for each vendor (the FTP host address of the vendor is the vendor's FTP address). Extracted from the master).

The server 10 determines whether the catalog sales company and the distribution company are domestic companies or overseas companies based on the pre-registered product file and company file (S5).
1, S52), the order information is transferred to a domestic or overseas catalog seller and a domestic or overseas logistics company via the Internet (S53, S54, S).
55, S56, S57, S58). When it is determined that the catalog seller is a domestic dealer, the server 10 stocks the merchandise based on the order information (S59), and when it is determined that the distributor is a domestic dealer. Outputs an invoice at the pickup shop based on the transferred order information (S60). When the distributor completes the confirmation and collection of the goods (S61), the goods are shipped (S6).
2) The product is delivered to the purchaser (S63).

In the present embodiment, as an overseas logistics company, for example, a local distribution center located in Los Angeles in the United States is set up (a plurality of locations may be located in one country, or one or more locations may be located in a plurality of countries). Location may correspond). The local distribution centers carry out the task of delivering goods arriving at the local distribution center from other logistics companies in each country to the purchaser or destination in Japan.

If it is determined that the catalog seller is an overseas dealer (S53, S5)
5) Overseas, for example, a logistics company in the United States (a logistics company that delivers goods to a local distribution center in the United States)
And prompts for product assortment and shipment (S64). If it is determined that the distributor is an overseas distributor, that is, if it is determined to be the above-mentioned local distribution center (S56, S58), the transfer is performed. An invoice is output based on the received order information (S65). When the local distribution center completes confirmation of the product, storage of the mixed product, and attachment of the invoice to the product (S66), the product is shipped (S67), and the product is delivered to the purchaser (S68).

The order information (transaction target information and personal information) transferred from the server 10 to the domestic catalog seller, the overseas catalog seller, the domestic distributor, and the overseas distributor (local distribution center) via the Internet is as follows: For example: To the domestic catalog seller, only the order number, the product code, the product name, and the quantity are transferred because the distributor needs to collate the products and collect the products when collecting the goods. For overseas catalog sellers, it is necessary to arrange a delivery company to the local distribution center and stock the products,
In addition to the order number, product code, product name and quantity, only the address of the delivery destination (local distribution center) is transferred. For domestic logistics companies, it is necessary to check the goods at the time of pickup and deliver them to the purchaser, so the order number, product code, product name, quantity, weight, product handling method (upside down display Etc.), only the information of the collection destination company, the personal information of the purchase requester, and the personal information of the destination are transferred. The product is checked against the local distribution center upon arrival, and the order number, product code, product name,
Only the quantity, weight, product handling method (display of uselessness, etc.), information of the delivery company, personal information of the purchaser, and personal information of the destination are transferred.

In the above embodiment, the order number, the product code, the product name, and the quantity are always transferred as the order information. For example, only one of the product code and the product name can be used. Alternatively, in addition to such information, the form (shape, color, size, etc.) of the product can be transferred as order information.

As described above, the information transmitted from the server 10 that operates the present system to the catalog distributor and the distributor is the minimum necessary for performing each business. In particular, the purchaser's personal information and the destination's personal information are not transmitted to the catalog seller. For this reason, personal information may be leaked during network transmission.Especially, even when distributing various types of information among multiple vendors, only the minimum information necessary from the application for catalog sales to the distribution is obtained. For distribution, personal information is diverted after purchase, and mail, mail,
It is possible to prevent the delivery of the COD package as much as possible.

[0033]

As described above, according to the present invention, when electronic commerce is executed from a purchaser computer via a computer communication network, transaction target information of the electronic commerce and information of the purchaser who conducts the electronic commerce are transmitted to the purchaser computer. Prompts the input of personal information, transfers only the transaction target information input from the purchaser computer to the seller computer via the computer communication network, and transfers the transaction target information and personal information to the distributor computer via the computer communication network. Because of the transfer, in electronic commerce such as mail-order sales using a computer network such as the Internet, it is possible to limit as much as possible the disadvantages caused by leakage of personal information transmitted by the purchaser.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing a network configuration of an embodiment in which the personal information disclosure restriction system of the present invention is applied to catalog mail order sales as e-commerce, in which the Internet is used as an example of a computer communication network. .

FIG. 2 is a schematic flowchart of a process when performing electronic shopping.

FIG. 3 is the same flowchart.

FIG. 4 is the same flowchart.

FIG. 5 is the same flowchart.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart of the same.

FIG. 7 is the same flowchart.

[Explanation of symbols]

Reference Signs List 10 server computer 11 customer database 12 order database 20 cataloger computer (seller computer) 30 purchaser computer 40 distributor computer

 ────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of front page (72) Inventor Kazuo Okabe 2-1-1, Nishi-Shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo Catalog City Japan Co., Ltd. F-term (reference) 5B049 AA05 BB11 CC05 CC10 DD01 FF01 GG02

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A server for operating an electronic commerce service, a seller computer used by a merchandise seller who wants to sell merchandise through a Web page realized by the server, and a purchaser used by a purchaser of the merchandise Computer, and a logistics company computer used by a logistics company delivering goods sold by the merchandise seller to a place desired by the purchaser, wherein the server, the merchant computer, the purchaser computer, and the logistics company computer are The server is connected via a computer communication network, and the server, when executing the e-commerce from the purchaser computer via the computer communication network, transmits the e-commerce transaction target information and the e-commerce to the purchaser computer. To enter the buyer's personal information And transferring only the transaction target information input from the purchaser computer to the seller computer via the computer communication network, and transferring the transaction target information and personal information to the distributor computer via the computer communication network. A personal information disclosure restriction system in e-commerce, wherein the system is transferred to a personal computer.