Patent ID: 7600130

Claim:
A method for providing data access control over information networks comprising: coupling a control device to a digital processing system by coupling a Universal Serial Bus (“USB”) protocol connector to a USB receptacle of the digital processing system; obtaining user identification by executing a user authentication process, the user authentication process including activating a fingerprint detector to detect user's fingerprint, obtaining user's fingerprint from the fingerprint detector, retrieving a fingerprint file from a first memory unit of the control device, and authenticating user's fingerprint in response to the fingerprint file; retrieving initialization information from the first memory unit of the control device in response to a request from an information provider received over the information network when user's identity is authenticated, the initialization information including a security code associated with the information provider and a public key associated with the information provider; providing the initialization information to the information provider via the information network through the digital processing system, providing the initialization information to the information provider including sending the security code to the information provider via the information network and encrypting the public key before sending the public key to the information provider via the information network; establishing a communication between the control device and the information provider over the information network when an acknowledgement of user identity is received; obtaining information from the information provider over the information network; and storing the information in a second memory unit of the control device.