Patent ID: 8635691

Claim:
A method of scanning a client for sensitive personal data, wherein the client comprises a processor, data storage, and data stored in the data storage, the method comprising: a server receiving, from the client, a request to scan the data stored in the data storage of the client for sensitive personal data, wherein the sensitive personal data comprises one or both of personal financial data and personal identification data; in response to receiving the request, the server providing the client with a scanner, wherein the scanner causes the client to carry out functions including: scanning at least a portion of the data stored in data storage to identify sensitive personal data by searching for any sequence of characters having a recognizable pattern indicating that the sequence of characters comprises one or both of personal financial data and personal identification data; collecting data based on at least a portion of the identified sensitive personal data; and reporting the collected data from the client to the server; the server receiving the collected data from the client; and the server using the collected data to (1) validate the identified sensitive personal data by comparing at least a portion of the collected data to data indicating false positives for sensitive personal data and (2) generate feedback about the identified sensitive personal data.