Patent ID: 8615795

Claim:
A proxy server in a network, comprising: an interceptor module configured to intercept a request from a network device to access network data, the request comprising an identifier associated with the network device connected to the network; the proxy server configured to send a spoofed certificate to the network device, the spoofed certificate being used to establish a SSL connection between the proxy server and the network device, open a SSL connection with a source of the network data, form a message requesting access to the network data, wherein the message has another identifier associated with the proxy server in place of the identifier associated with the network device, receive a real certificate from the source of the network data, establish a SSL connection with the source of the network data, and wherein the proxy server further comprises a parsing module configured to remove or replace identifying information from packets passing through the proxy server from and/or to the source of the network data, remove or replace referrer or other identifying headers from the request, remove or replace cookies from the request or response headers, remove or replace identifying information from web form submissions, and remove or replace sensitive information including e-mail addresses or credit card numbers with either false information or alternative information specific to the source of the network data.