Patent ID: 7689824

Claim:
A data management system comprising: an authentication server; and at least one multifunction peripheral apparatus, said authentication server including an affiliation information storage element for storing affiliation information specifying at least one group that each user belongs to, a server-side authentication element for transferring and receiving data to and from said at least one multifunction peripheral apparatus to perform user authentication, and a group identification element for identifying one or more groups that a user authenticated by said server-side authentication element belongs to based on said affiliation information to send information about said one or more groups to said at least one multifunction peripheral apparatus, said at least one multifunction peripheral apparatus including a data file storage element for storing data files each in association with the right of access of groups to each data file, an apparatus-side authentication element for transferring and receiving data to and from said authentication server to perform user authentication, a receiving element for receiving from said authentication server said information about said one or more groups that said authenticated user belongs to, and an access permission element for granting to said authenticated user access to a data file to which any of said one or more groups that said authenticated user belongs to has been granted access, wherein said access permission element grants to an authenticated user belonging to a plurality of groups access to a data file to which any of said plurality of groups has been granted access.