Patent US 6,345,289

A method and system for client/server communications in which stored user information controls revealed and delivered information. A client system is Communicatively coupled to a server through an intermediate system, which acts as a persona module. User information about a user on the client system is stored on the client system. Information about advertising information is stored on the server. The intermediate system receives information about user information from the client system and information about advertising information from the server. The intermediate system acts as a user's agent to filter out irrelevant advertisement material. The intermediate system can also function to customize the advertisements received by the client system from the server, but not returning information about the user's interest or preferences to the server. A user's privacy may be further protected if the information returned to a server is at least partially untruthful.