Patent ID: 8869301
Filing Date: 2014-10-21
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
1. A method of assigning privacy levels to data elements, comprising: automatically assigning, via a device of a user, a predetermined privacy level to a data element when at least one of the following occurs: the data element arrives at the user device, the data element is created by the user device, and the data element is modified by the user device, and wherein the predetermined privacy level is selected by the user device from the group consisting of private, semi-private, and public privacy levels, each of the privacy levels corresponding to a respective different degree of privacy, wherein data elements assigned the privacy level of private include user medical information, user financial information, user legal information, user location information, and user psychological information, wherein data elements assigned the privacy level of semi-private include information about the user's family and friends, information about where the user shops, and information about service providers the user uses, and wherein data elements assigned the privacy level of public include information about the user that is observable to others and information that is readily available to the public or openly sharable; storing the data element with the assigned privacy level comprising attaching metadata to the data element; at predetermined time intervals, automatically determining, via the user device, if the assigned privacy level for the data element is proper, comprising analyzing the data element via the user device to determine what type of data the data element is, determining what degree of privacy the data element should have, and determining what privacy level a user wishes to treat the data element; automatically assigning, via the user device, a different one of the privacy levels to the data element in response to determining that a currently assigned privacy level for the data element is not proper.