Patent ID: 7197534

Claim:
A method for inspecting any of the properties of a computer, said computer's configuration, contents of said computer's storage devices, said computer's peripherals, and said computer's environment, comprising the steps of: providing at least one inspector library at said computer, said at least one inspector library comprising at least one inspector and associated methods; sending one or more advisories from an advice provider to said computer, wherein said advisories are sent regardless of relevance to said computer; performing an inspection with said inspector at said computer, the inspection comprising any of mathematico-logical calculations, executing computational algorithms, returning results of system calls, accessing contents of storage devices, and querying devices or remote computers to inspect any of said properties of said computer, said computer's configuration, contents of said computer's storage devices, said computer's peripherals, and said computer's environment; and locally determining relevance at said computer of said received advisories, said relevance based on said results of said performed inspection; wherein said computer maintains anonymity, privacy, and security by not revealing to said advice provider any of interest in any of said received advisories from said advice provider by any of said computer and a user of said computer, information regarding a reception of any particular advisory by any of said computer and said user, and relevance of any of said received advisories to any of said computer and said user.