Patent ID: 7685151

Claim:
A computer implemented method of associating historical events with a user, the computer implemented method comprising: receiving a request from a user to store an employment historical event associated with the user; determining whether the employment historical event is to be marked as public; responsive to determining that the employment historical event is to be marked as public, storing the employment historical event as a public historical object in an employee record repository associated with the user in a storage device; responsive to determining that the employment historical event is not to be marked as public, determining whether the employment historical event is to be marked as semi-private; responsive to determining that the employment historical event is to be marked as semi-private, storing the employment historical event as a semi-private historical object that is encrypted with a semi-private encryption key in the employee record repository associated with the user in the storage device; responsive to determining that the employment historical event is not to be marked as semi-private, storing the employment historical event as a private historical object that is encrypted with a private encryption key in the employee record repository associated with the user in the storage device; receiving a request from a requestor to access employment historical events stored as historical objects in the record repository associated with the user; retrieving all historical objects stored in the record repository associated with the user; determining whether any of the historical objects retrieved from the record repository associated with the user are marked as semi-private or private; responsive to determining that none of the historical objects retrieved from the record repository associated with the user are marked as semi-private or private, displaying public historical objects associated with the user as employment historical events for the user on a display device for use by the requestor; and responsive to determining that one or more of the historical objects retrieved from the record repository associated with the user are marked as semi-private or private, prompting the requestor for semi-private and private decryption keys corresponding to the retrieved historical objects marked as semi-private or private, decrypting only those historical objects within all the historical objects retrieved from the record repository associated with the user marked as semi-private or private that correspond to the semi-private and private decryption keys provided by the requestor; and displaying the public historical objects and only those semi-private and private historical objects that are decrypted by the semi-private and private decryption keys provided by the requestor as the employment historical events for the user on the display device for use by the requestor.