Patent ID: 7533420

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for restricting access to sensitive data of a network based spreadsheet document, comprising: receiving a spreadsheet document request on a server, wherein the spreadsheet document request includes a client identifier that identifies a client making the spreadsheet document request and a resource identifier that identifies a location of the requested spreadsheet document; upon receiving the request on the server, accessing a content database in communication with the server to determine access rights based on the client identifier and the resource identifier of the spreadsheet document request; when the determined access rights are unrestricted, sending an unrestricted spreadsheet document from the server to the requesting client; when the determined access rights are completely restricted, sending a message from the server to the requesting client that indicates that access is not permitted; when the determined access rights are limited, accessing a configuration account of the server to determine whether a spreadsheet document governor is accessible to the server; when the determined access rights are limited and a spreadsheet document governor is not accessible to the server, sending a message from the server to the requesting client that indicates that access is not permitted; and when the determined access rights are limited and a spreadsheet document governor is accessible to the server, sending a request from the server to the spreadsheet document governor to generate a restricted spreadsheet document on behalf of the client, based on the request from the server, sending a request from the spreadsheet document governor to the content database requesting an unrestricted spreadsheet document, based on the request from the spreadsheet document governor, obtaining the unrestricted spreadsheet document on the spreadsheet document governor, after receiving the unrestricted spreadsheet document, processing the unrestricted spreadsheet document on the spreadsheet document governor to generate a limited access spreadsheet document, wherein processing includes providing a restriction to access of sensitive data based on the determined access rights of the content database, after processing, sending the limited access spreadsheet document from the spreadsheet document governor to the server, and after receiving the limited access spreadsheet document on the server, sending the limited access spreadsheet document to the client making the request, wherein the client is restricted from accessing the sensitive data of the requested spreadsheet document.