Approach for implementing locked printing with remote unlock on printing devices

A printing device comprising:

• a print process configured to process print data and cause the printing device to print a printed version of an electronic document reflected in the print data;
• a Web application configured to:
• generate one or more Web pages and cause the one or more Web pages to be transmitted over a communications network to a Web browser executing on a client device, wherein processing of the one or more Web pages by the Web browser at the client device causes a graphical user interface to be generated that allows a user to enter authorization data which, when successfully verified, allows the user to access print data stored on the printing device, and
• receive, over the communications network from the Web browser executing on the client device, the authorization data entered by the user via the one or more Web pages;
• and
• a locked print process executing on the printing device and configured to:
• examine print data received by the printing device to determine whether locked printing has been indicated for the print data,
• if locked printing has been indicated for the print data, then cause the print data to be transmitted from the printing device over a second communications network to a repository for storage instead of being printed,
• provide remote unlocking of the print data stored in the repository by verifying the authorization data received by the Web application over the network from the Web browser executing on the client device and if the authorization data is successfully verified, retrieving the print data over the second communications network from the repository and allowing the user access the print data.