Patent ID: 8364711

Claim:
A method of providing user information comprising: receiving, at an information management system, user information from a first network device; creating, in the information management system, a first user account, the first user account storing first user authentication criteria; creating, in the information management system, a first user information record associated to the first user account, wherein a first segment of the user information record is at least one of searched and requested without access controls, and wherein a second segment of the user information record is at least one of searched and requested subject to at least one access control, where one type of access control includes an approval criterion; storing, in the first user information record, the received user information wherein a first subset of the received user information is stored in the first segment of the user information record, and wherein a second subset of the received user information is stored in the second segment of the user information record; generating a unique serial number for the first user information record, the unique serial number not used exclusively to reference the location of a single data element; storing the serial number in the first user information record; conveying the serial number to a recipient; receiving, at the information management system, a request for user information from an application; processing the request for user information; and, transmitting a reply to the application in response to the request for user information.