Patent ID: 8868491

Claim:
A method for operating a synchronization server installed and running on a local processing system, the method comprising: storing, on a local processing system, one or more local associated data sets each having associated therewith a local global equivalency identification datum (GID), wherein each local GID uniquely identifies a source of each corresponding data set; store in memory one or more global equivalency sets each derived from one or more GIDs; receiving from a client processing system a remote associated data set having associated therewith a remote GID, wherein the remote GID uniquely identifies a source of the remote associated data set; identifying the remote associated data set as one of new or old by determining if the remote GID is equivalent to a local GID of one of the one or more local associated data sets, wherein identifying the remote associated data set as one of new or old comprises determining that the remote associated data set is old by identifying that one of the global equivalency sets stored in memory is derivative of the remote GID of the remote associated data set; upon identifying the remote associated data set as new, identifying the remote data set as one of truly new or independently created by checking at least one identity key of the remote associated data set against at least one identity key of at least one local associated data set; and upon identifying the remote associated data set as independently created, associating the remote and local associated data sets as corresponding to each other at the local processing system.