Patent ID: 8484746

Claim:
A data processing system comprising at least a processor and a memory, said memory storing, in an access control database, an access control list providing access control based on a hierarchy of users within an organization and said system further comprising: a segmentation module receiving an electronic mail (email) message addressed from a sender to a recipient within said organization, said electronic mail (email) message comprising message segments directed to different persons, said different persons being associated in said electronic mail (email) message with tags, each of said tags only indicating one of a position and a level of a person within said organization, said electronic mail (email) message further indicating that said sender has invoked access control on contents of said electronic mail (email) message, and said segmentation module further automatically parsing said contents of said electronic mail (email) message to delineate said message segments directed to said different persons, when said sender has invoked said access control on said contents of said electronic mail (email) message, by identifying any of said tags at a beginning of each of said message segments; an access controller in communication with said segmentation module, said access controller automatically using said access control list in said access control database to verify, based on said tags, access rights of said recipient with respect to each of said message segments; and, a mail server further transmitting said electronic mail (email) message to said recipient such that, when said recipient accesses said electronic mail (email) message, said recipient is able to view all of said message segments for which said recipient has said access rights and none of said message segments for which said recipient does not have said access rights.