Patent ID: 7941857

Claim:
A system for checking nodes or information stored at nodes of a data network, said system comprising: a set of nodes connected to each other by a data transmission path, at least one node comprising a storage medium and a processor device operatively coupled to said storage medium and configured to perform a method comprising: storing an automatically searchable mark in said storage medium of said at least one node and associated with one or both of: the at least one node and information stored therein; the automatically searchable mark corresponding to a privacy policy for controlling storage of, transfer of, or access to the marked information or controlling access to the marked node; said automatically searchable mark further defining one or more of: a permissible storage place where the marked information is permissibly stored, a permissible data transmission path for accessing the marked information or the marked node, or a permissible data transmission path for transferring the marked information; said automatically searchable mark enabling a prior determination where in said data network a data may reside; a searching engine including a further processor device operatively coupled to said data network and configured to perform a method comprising: traversing said data network to detect and analyze the automatically searchable mark stored at said marked node in said data network, said further processor device detecting a place on which the marked information is stored and detecting one or more possible data transmission paths within said data network for accessing the marked information or the marked node or a possible data transmission path or data transmission paths for transferring the marked information in said data network, and comparing the detected storage place of the marked information with the permissible storage place that is defined by the automatically searchable mark of the marked information and checking whether the privacy policy is maintained, and further comparing the detected possible data transmission paths for transferring the marked information or for accessing the marked information or the marked node with the permissible data transmission paths that are defined by the automatically searchable mark of the marked information or by the automatically searchable mark of the marked node, and determining whether the privacy policy is maintained, and upon determining a privacy policy violation, generating an alarm.