Message content protection and conditional disclosure
OwnerJohn W.L. Ogilvieinventor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Methods and systems are provided for controlling the disclosure of sensitive information. Disclosure is controlled in the sense that (a) the information is not disclosed until predefined conditions are met, such as the passage of a certain time without an authorized update request for secrecy, (b) copies of the information are protected by encryption and by widespread, unpredictable storage, so that at least one copy will be available when disclosure is required, (c) the information is kept secret until disclosure is required, and (d) when disclosure is required, the information is sent to predefined destinations such as email addresses or posted to web sites, in a predefined format.
Claims62
A method for controlling disclosure of sensitive information provided by an information provider, comprising the steps of:
- obtaining at least one disclosure condition;
- hiding copies of the sensitive information in a network at locations not disclosed to the information provider;
- checking at least once for occurrence of the disclosure condition;
- and
- if occurrence of the disclosure condition is detected then disclosing at least a portion of the sensitive information.
A computer system comprising a network, message storage means for storing in the network copies of a message, and message disclosure means for disclosing the message if a predefined condition is detected.
A signal embodied in a network for controlled message disclosure, the signal comprising a sensitive information component and a disclosure condition component.
A computer storage medium having a configuration that represents data and instructions which will cause at least a portion of a computer system to perform method steps for controlled message disclosure, the method steps comprising the steps of:
- obtaining at least one disclosure condition;
- storing copies of a message in a network;
- checking for occurrence of the disclosure condition;
- and
- if occurrence of the disclosure condition is detected then disclosing at least a portion of the message.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.