Patent ID: 7100206

Claim:
A method for secured access to data in a network including an information center and a plurality of data area access systems in which permission to store said data and to define, at the information center, access rights of third parties to said data is limited to the owner of rights to said data, said method comprising the steps of: a) in each case storing the data only once in one of said data area access systems not accessible to the owner of the rights; then b) registering the presence of data of a certain type in each data area access system at said information center, followed by the owner of the rights to the stored data, defining access rights of third parties to said data at said information center; c) transmitting a list of the data present of a certain type, specifying the data area access system storing said data, from said information center to a requesting data area access system for which the access rights of said requesting data area access system correspond to the access rights defined at said information center for said data, and after a request of a requesting data area access system for data of said certain type wherein a data area access system storing data responds to a request for certain data of a certain type by a requesting data area access system by verifying the access rights through an inquiry to the information center as to whether the requesting data area access system has access rights to the certain data of a certain type; and then d) directly transmitting said data of said certain type by said data area access system storing said data to said requesting data area access system subject to said data area access system storing said data having received a confirmation from said information center.