Patent ID: 7761715

Claim:
A method of processing semiotic data, comprising: receiving semiotic data including at least one data set P; selecting a function h, and for at least one of each said data set P to be collected, computing h(P); destroying said data set P; storing h(P) in a database, and obtaining a sample of P′ such that a comparison can be made; at least one of obtaining and computing h(P′); and to determine whether P′ is close to a predetermined subject, comparing h(P′) to available h(P)s to determine whether P′ substantially matches, but does not exactly match, one of said data set P, wherein said data set P cannot be extracted from h(P), wherein said semiotic data comprises biometric data, wherein said function h comprises a secure hash function, wherein the data set P is not determined perfectly by its reading, wherein each reading gives a number Pi, wherein i is no less than 0, wherein P0 is for an initial reading, and a secret version of said initial reading is stored after further processing thereof, wherein reading P0 is different from Pi for i>0, and the secret version of P0 is different from the secret version of Pi, such that no identification is possible by a direct comparison of the encrypted data, said method further comprising: extracting sub-collections Sj from the collection of data in data set P; encrypting a predetermined number of such sub-collections such that at least one of the sub-collections is reproduced exactly with a predetermined probability, comparing encrypted versions of the sub-collections Sj with those data stored in said database, wherein if one or more of the sub-collection Sj matches with said data, then verification is deemed to have occurred, each time a Pi, with i>0, is read, computing all possible predetermined size variations of Pi which correspond to an acceptable predetermined imprecision of the reading; and encrypting all such modified data, and comparing said encrypted modified data to data stored in said database, wherein for a plurality of users of the same biometric information, said biometric information is encrypted differently for each user, and wherein at least one of said data set P and P′ comprises a personal data set.