Managing the progressive legible obfuscation and de-obfuscation of public and quasi-public broadcast messages

A system for obfuscating elements in a message, comprising:

• a processor;
• an accounts module operable to generate credentials for users and register the users with associated credentials;
• an obfuscating module operable to execute on the processor and further operable to generate an obfuscated form of the message by replacing one or more sensitive information elements in the message with a representation that preserves a general aspect of said one or more sensitive information elements and a user interface element for enabling a receiver of the message to request access to details of said one or more sensitive information elements;
• and
• a de-obfuscating module operable to receive a request from one or more receivers for details of said one or more sensitive information elements via the user interface element, the de-obfuscating module further operable to authenticate said one or more receivers, and further operable to present details of said one or more sensitive information elements to said one or more receivers if said one or more receivers are authenticated;
• wherein the user interface element comprises a graphical icon coupled to the representation, and
• wherein the representation that preserves the general aspect of said one or more sensitive information element being meaningfully related to said one or more sensitive information element in a less detailed form,
• at least one of the sensitive information elements represented by a plurality of terms that are in progressively generalized form related to meaning of the sensitive information element, the user interface element associated with a particular sensitive information element.

A computer readable storage medium, excluding a signal per se, storing a program of instructions executable by a machine to perform a method for obfuscating elements in a message, comprising:

• detecting one or more sensitive information elements in a message to be broadcast into public or quasi-public computer network environment;
• replacing, by a processor, said one or more sensitive information elements in the message with a representation that preserves a general aspect of said one or more sensitive information elements and a user interface element for enabling a receiver of the message to request access to details of said one or more sensitive information elements;
• and
• transmitting the replaced message for broadcasting into the public or quasi-public computer network environment.
• the representation that preserves the general aspect of said one or more sensitive information element being meaningfully related to the message in a less detailed form,
• at least one of the sensitive information elements represented by a plurality of terms that are in progressively generalized form related to meaning of the sensitive information element, the user interface element associated with a particular sensitive information element.