Removing personal information when a save option is and is not available

• US 7,712,029 B2
• Filed: 01/05/2001
• Issued: 05/04/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 01/05/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Ferreira, Jorge M., Virmani, Mandira
• Primary Examiner(s): Paula; Cesar B
• Application Number:
  US09/755,418
• Publication Number:
  US 20020091741A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,406 Days
• Field of Search: 715530-531, 715/500, 715/200, 715/273, 715/203, 715255-256, 715741-743, 709/203, 713/182, 713/193, 713164-167
• US Class Current: 715/256
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/166 Editing, e.g. inserting or deleting
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/295 Named entity recognition

Abstract

The present invention is directed to a method of removing a user'"'"'s personal information from a document via activation of a “privacy option.” The privacy option, when activated, removes personal information from a document and, in some case, replaces the user information with generic information. The present invention is also directed to a computing system with an application module, which contains a privacy option for removing one or more pieces of personal information from a document created by a software application usable on the computing system. The present invention is further directed to a computer readable medium having stored thereon computer-executable instructions for performing the steps of modifying one or more pieces of personal information associated with a document via a privacy option.

Claims

1. A method for removing personal information from a first document created by a document-generating application that stores the personal information and makes the personal information visible at a comment block of the document, the method comprising:

activating a privacy option comprising computer-implemented instructions provided by the document-generating application;

removing from all portions of the first document except for a body of the first document at least one piece of the personal information without deleting the first document, the at least one piece of the personal information being requested by the document-generating application during installation of the document-generating application;

replacing the at least one piece of personal information created by the document-generating application with generic information visible at each comment block of the first document, wherein the generic information was not previously visible at each comment block of the first document;

receiving at least one additional piece of personal information into the first document after activation of the privacy option of the first document, wherein the at least one additional piece of personal information entered into the first document is one of the following;

when a save option is not available for the first document, removed from the first document as soon as the at least one additional piece of personal information is added to the first document, and

when the save option is available for the first document, removed from the document as soon as the first document is saved; and

saving the first document, when the save option is available for the first document, with the generic information replacing the at least one piece of removed personal information and the at least one additional piece of personal information, wherein saving the first document comprises, in response to activating the privacy option, replacing the at least one piece of removed personal information and the at least one additional piece of personal information with the generic information in both a memory representation of the first document and a file representation of the first document.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein removing from all portions of the first document except for the body of the first document the at least one piece of the personal information without deleting the first document comprises removing the at least one piece of personal information comprising at least one of the following:

an author'"'"'s name, a user'"'"'s name, a company name, a manager'"'"'s name, a last saved by name, an e-mail address, and a combination thereof.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein replacing the at least one piece of personal information created by the document-generating application with the generic information visible at each comment block of the first document comprising replacing the at least one piece of personal information with the generic information comprising at least one of the following:

a string of letters, numbers, symbols, and spaces.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein saving the first document further comprising removing the at least one piece of personal information from display in the comment block appearing within the first document when the first document is saved.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating, by the document-generating program, the comment block containing a comment added to the first document by a user of the program and also containing personal information about the user adding the comment.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein activating the privacy option removes the at least one piece of personal information from the document and from the comment block of the document without removing the comment block and the comment added to the document and displayed within the document.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein replacing the at least one piece of removed personal information with the generic information in both the memory representation of the first document and the file representation of the first document comprises maintaining content corresponding to the at least one piece of personal information in a text portion in both the memory representation of the first document and the file representation of the first document.

8. A computing system containing at least one application module usable on the computing system, wherein the at least one application module comprises application code for performing the method of claim 1.

9. A method for removing personal information from a document created by a document-generating program that makes the personal information visible at a comment block of the document, the method comprising:

receiving input of at least one piece of personal information into at least one data storage field of the document-generating program in response to a request for personal information from the document-generating program during installation of the document-generating program;

receiving input to activate a computer-implemented privacy option provided by the document-generating program for the document;

removing, in response to receiving input to activate the computer-implemented privation option, the at least one piece of personal information from all portions of the document except for a body of the document, and from the comment block within the document, without deleting the document;

replacing, by the document generating program, the at least one piece of removed personal information with generic information visible in the comment block within the document, wherein the generic information was not previously visible at each comment block of the document;

receiving at least one additional piece of personal information into the document after activation of the privacy option of the document, wherein the at least one additional piece of personal information entered into first document is removed from the document as soon as the at least one additional piece of personal information is added to the document is when a save option is not available for the document;

receiving input, by the document-generating program, to save the document when the save option is available for the document; and

in response to receiving input, by the document-generating program, to save the document;

removing the at least one piece of personal information and the at least one additional piece of personal information from the document and the comment visible within block of the document, and

replacing the at least one piece of personal information and the at least one additional piece of personal information with generic information in the document and the comment box visible within block of the document in both a memory representation of the document and a file representation of the document.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein removing from all portions of the first document except for the body of the first document the at least one piece of the personal information without deleting the first document comprises removing the at least one piece of personal information comprising at least one of the following an author'"'"'s name, a user'"'"'s name, a company name, a manager'"'"'s name, a last saved by name, an e-mail address, and a combination thereof.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein replacing, by the document generating program the at least one piece of removed personal information with the generic information visible in the comment block within the document comprises replacing the at least one piece of removed personal information with at least one of the following:

a string of letters, numbers, symbols, and spaces.

12. The method of claim 9, further comprising removing the at least one additional piece of personal information entered into the document, wherein removing the at least one additional piece of personal information comprises:

removing the at least one additional piece of personal information as soon as an “

OK”

prompt provided by the document-generating program is replied to by a user,

removing the at least one additional piece of personal information as soon as the document is closed,

replacing the at least one additional piece of personal information with the generic information as soon as the at least one additional piece of personal information are added to the document,

replacing the at least one additional piece of personal information as soon as the “

OK”

prompt provided by the document-generating program is replied to by the user, and

replacing the at least one additional piece of personal information as soon as the document is closed.

13. A computing system containing at least one application module usable on the computing system, wherein the at least one application module comprises application code for performing the method of claim 9.

14. A computer readable medium having stored thereon computer-executable instructions for performing the method of claim 9.

15. A computer readable medium having a set of instructions which when executed performs a method for removing personal information from a comment block within a document, the method executed by the set of instructions comprising:

activating a computer-implemented privacy option provided by the instructions;

removing, in response to activating the computer-implemented privacy option, at least one piece of personal information from all portions of the document except for a body of the document without deleting the document, the at least one piece of the personal information being requested by a document-generating application during installation of the document-generating application;

replacing the at least one piece of personal information with generic information visible in the comment block of the document, wherein the generic information was not previously visible at each comment block of the first document;

receiving at least one additional piece of personal information into the document after activation of the privacy option of the document, wherein the at least one additional piece of personal information entered into the document is one of the following;

when a save option is not available for the document, removed from the document as soon as the at least one additional piece of personal information is added to the document, and

when the save option is available for the document, removed from the document as soon as the document is saved; and

saving the document, when the save option is available for the document, with the generic information replacing the at least one piece of removed personal information, wherein saving the document comprises, in response to activating the privacy option, replacing the at least one piece of removed personal information and the at least one additional piece of personal information with the generic information in both a memory representation of the document and a file representation of the document.

16. The computer readable medium of claim 15, wherein replacing the at least one piece of removed personal information with the generic information in both the memory representation of the document and the file representation of the document comprises maintaining content corresponding to the at least one piece of personal information in a text portion in both the memory representation of the document and the file representation of the document.

17. A method for removing personal information from a document created by a document-generating application that stores the personal information and makes the personal information visible at a comment block of the document, the method comprising:

activating a privacy option comprising computer-implemented instructions provided by the document-generating application;

receiving at least one piece of personal information into the document after activation of the privacy option of the document, wherein the at least one piece of personal information entered into first document is removed from the document as soon as the at least one piece of personal information is added to the document is when a save option is not available for the document;

upon subsequent addition of the at least one piece of personal information, automatically removing, when the save option is not available for the document, from all portions of the document except for a body of the document the at least one piece of the personal information without deleting the document, the at least one piece of the personal information being requested by the document-generating application during installation of the document-generating application, the at least one piece of personal information comprising at least one of the following;

an author'"'"'s name, a user'"'"'s name, a company name, a manager'"'"'s name, a last saved by name, and an e-mail address, wherein automatically removing the at least one piece of personal information from the document comprises replacing the at least one piece of personal information created by the document-generating application with generic information visible at each comment block of the document, wherein the generic information comprises at least one of the following;

a string of letters, numbers, symbols, and spaces, and wherein the generic information was not previously visible at each comment block of the document; and

saving the document, when the save option is available for the document, with the generic information replacing the at least one piece of personal information, wherein saving the document comprises;

in response to activating the privacy option and saving the document, replacing the at least one piece of removed personal information with the generic information in both a memory representation of the document and a file representation of the document, wherein replacing the removed personal information with the generic information in both the memory representation of the document and the file representation of the document comprises maintaining content corresponding to the at least one piece of personal information in a text portion in both the memory representation of the document and the file representation of the document, and

removing the at least one piece of personal information from display in the comment block appearing within the first document when the document is saved.