Patent ID: 8046592

Claim:
A method of securing the privacy of sensitive information in a data-handling system, comprising: using the data-handling system to search through data including program files, data files, and transient structures in unprotected storage for instances of sensitive information as identified by reference to at least one sensitive-information identifier held by the system, the or each identifier comprising a template indicative of a generic form possessed by multiple items of sensitive information, identifying one or more items of sensitive information, and being so formed or protected as to not reveal any such item; and following an instance of sensitive information being found by the search, replacing the instance with a reference to an instance of the item of sensitive information concerned that is held in protected storage of the data-handling system, wherein in searching for instances of sensitive information, candidate instances are identified by reference to the template, and each candidate instance is checked against at least one said identifier to determine whether the candidate instance is an actual instance of sensitive information.