Abstract: A universal charity card system having a universal charity card which identifies a customer-benefactor and a charity by coded information. A merchant computer system which reads the universal charity card's coded information and computes charitable contribution as a percent of sales to the customer-benefactor and stores in a merchant database data on the customer-benefactor identification, the charity identification, merchant identification and charitable contribution. A central computer system which pre-stores merchant's bank electronic fund transfer identification, charity's bank electronic fund transfer identification, and links to the merchant computer system for the purpose of downloading the merchant database, whereby, it downloads the merchant database and initiates a debit electronic fund transfer to the merchant's bank for an amount equal to the charitable contribution and a credit electronic fund transfer to charity's bank for an amount equal to the charitable contribution.

Abstract: An information system (12) for storing personal information of a customer (20) is provided herein. The customer (20) preferably communicates with the information system (12) using the Internet. Further, the customer (20) preferably uses an anonymous identifier (320) to gain access to the information system (12). The customer (20) can create the anonymous identifier (320) to assure anonymity and to facilitate anonymous and secure transactions over the Internet. Some or all of the personal information of the customer (20) is preferably electronically shredded and defaced before storage in the information system (12). This feature allows the customer (20) to maintain private data (25) in the information system (12) anonymously and shields the private data (25) from even the operators of the information system (12).