Method, system and program product for locating personal information over a network

• US 20030217060A1
• Filed: 05/20/2002
• Published: 11/20/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 05/20/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Stockton, Marcia L.
• Granted Patent: US 7,130,843 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/10
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99932 Access augmentation or optimizing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99934 Query formulation, input preparation, or translation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99935 Query augmenting and refining, e.g. inexact access

Abstract

A method, system and program product for locating personal information over a network are provided. Specifically, under the present invention, personal information is entered using an interface. Then, a search string(s) based on the entered information is formed by processing the personal information according to a definable algorithm(s). Once the search string(s) is formed, a search based on the string(s) is conducted over a network to identify any network destinations storing the personal information. The identified network destinations can then be notified to remove/delete the personal information.

Claims

1. A method for locating personal information over a network, comprising:

inputting personal information using an interface;

forming a search string based on the personal information; and

conducting a search over a network based on the search string to identify network destinations storing the personal information.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising scheduling the search using the interface.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the forming step comprises forming a search string by processing the personal information according to at least one definable algorithm.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising reporting the network destinations to a user.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising sending notifications to the network destinations, wherein the network destinations include at least one of a search engine and a website.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the network is the Internet.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising accessing an application prior to the inputting step, wherein the search is conducted by the application.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the application is downloaded from a server to a client.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the application is accessed from a recordable medium.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein the application is loaded on a server and is accessed from a client.

11. A method for locating personal information over a network, comprising:

inputting personal information using an interface;

scheduling a search for the personal information using the interface;

forming at least one search string by processing the personal information according to at least one definable algorithm; and

conducting the search over a network based on the at least one search string to identify network destinations storing the personal information.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising reporting the network destinations to a user.

13. The method of claim 11, further comprising sending notifications to the network destinations.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein the network is the Internet.

15. The method of claim 11, further comprising accessing an application prior to the inputting step, wherein the search is conducted by the application.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the application is downloaded from a server to a client.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the application is accessed from a recordable medium.

18. The method of claim 15, wherein the application is loaded on a server and is accessed from a client.

19. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

providing a configurable list of target network destinations and corresponding algorithms;

forming at least one target search string for each of the target destinations based on the corresponding algorithms; and

conducting a search of each of the target destinations using the corresponding at least one target search string.

20. A system for locating personal information over a network, comprising:

a string system for forming a search string based on personal information entered using an interface; and

a search system for conducting a search over a network based on the search string to identify network destinations storing the personal information.

21. The system of claim 20, further comprising:

a reporting system for reporting the network destinations to a user; and

a notification system for sending notifications to the network destinations.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein the notifications are selected from the group consisting of electronic notifications and non-electronic notifications.

23. The system of claim 20, wherein the search is scheduled via the interface.

24. The system of claim 20, wherein the string system forms the search string by processing the personal information according to at least one definable algorithm.

25. The system of claim 20, further comprising a database for storing the entered personal information, wherein the database resides on network-attached storage.

26. The system of claim 20, wherein the network is the Internet.

27. A program product stored on a recordable medium for locating personal information over a network, which when executed comprises:

program code for forming a search string based on personal information entered using an interface; and

program code for conducting a search over a network based on the search string to identify network destinations storing the personal information.

28. The program product of claim 27, further comprising:

program code for reporting the network destinations to a user; and

program code for sending notifications to the network destinations.

29. The program product of claim 28, wherein the notifications are selected from the group consisting of electronic notifications and non-electronic notifications.

30. The program product of claim 27, wherein the search is scheduled via the interface.

31. The program product of claim 27, wherein the search string is formed by processing the personal information according to a definable algorithm.

32. The program product of claim 27, wherein the network is the Internet.