METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR CONTROLLING THE PRESENTATION OF CONFIDENTIAL CONTENT

• US 20090070881A1
• Filed: 09/06/2007
• Published: 03/12/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 09/06/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: PayPal, Inc. (PayPal Holdings, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Johnson, Conrad James, McKinstry, Helen, Statham, Perry Lee, Yellepeddy, Krishna Kishore, Tipton, Sandra Lee
• Granted Patent: US 8,091,138 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 726/26
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6245 Protecting personal data, e.g. for financial or medical purposes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0226 Incentive systems for frequent usage, e.g. frequent flyer miles programs or point systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0254 based on statistics

Abstract

A computer implemented method and apparatus for controlling the presentation of information. In response to receiving a request to present the information, a process confirms that conditions for presentation of the information are satisfied using a set of presentation policies, wherein the conditions are specified in the set of presentation policies, and wherein the conditions comprise a status of a user and a setting of the user. The process then determines whether confidential content is present in the information. Responsive to the confidential content being present, the process redacts the confidential content before presenting the information to a user, and then updates a presentation history with metadata describing the presentation of the information comprising the confidential content.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method for controlling presentation of information, the computer implemented method comprising:

responsive to receiving a request to present the information, confirming that conditions for presentation of the information are satisfied using a set of presentation policies, wherein the conditions are specified in the set of presentation policies, and wherein the conditions comprise a status of a user and a setting of the user;

determining whether confidential content is present in the information;

responsive to the confidential content being present, redacting the confidential content before presenting the information to a user; and

updating a presentation history with metadata describing the presentation of the information comprising the confidential content.

2. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the status of the user comprises at least one of an authority of the user and an availability of the user.

3. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein redacting the confidential content comprises at least one of obscuring the confidential content, removing the confidential content, and replacing the confidential content with non-confidential content.

4. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the determining step further comprises at least one of detecting a confidential designation of the information and comparing a content of the information with the presentation history.

5. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the conditions further comprise at least one of a date, a time, and a type of device.

6. A computer program product comprising:

a computer usable medium including computer usable program code for controlling a presentation of information, the computer program product comprising;

computer usable program code for confirming that conditions for presentation of the information are satisfied using a set of presentation policies, wherein the conditions are specified in the set of presentation policies, and wherein the conditions comprise a status of a user and a setting of the user;

computer usable program code for determining whether confidential content is present in the information;

computer usable program code for redacting the confidential content before presenting the information to a user in response to the confidential content being present; and

computer usable program code for updating a presentation history with metadata describing the presentation of the information comprising the confidential content.

7. The computer program product of claim 6, wherein the status of the user comprises at least one of an authority of the user and an availability of the user.

8. The computer program product of claim 6, wherein redacting the confidential content comprises at least one of obscuring the confidential content, removing the confidential content, and replacing the confidential content with non-confidential content.

9. The computer program product of claim 6, wherein the determining step further comprises at least one of detecting a confidential designation of the information and comparing a content of the information with the presentation history.

10. The computer program product of claim 6, wherein the conditions further comprise at least one of a date, a time, and a type of device.

11. An apparatus comprising:

a bus system;

a communications system connected to the bus system;

a memory connected to the bus system, wherein the memory includes computer usable program code; and

a processing unit connected to the bus system, wherein the processing unit executes the computer usable program code to confirm, in response to receiving a request to present the information, that conditions for presentation of the information are satisfied using a set of presentation policies, wherein the conditions are specified in the set of presentation policies, and wherein the conditions comprise a status of a user and a setting of the user;

determines whether confidential content is present in the information;

redacts the confidential content before presenting the information to a user in response to the confidential content being present; and

updates a presentation history with metadata describing the presentation of the information comprising the confidential content.