Patent ID: 8166557

Claim:
A method for providing privacy-policy information to a user to facilitate compliance with privacy laws, the method comprising: using a client computer to perform: receiving, by a client-based application executing on the client computer, a request from the user to access digital content via the client-based application, wherein at a time the request is received, the digital content is stored on the client computer and the user is not yet allowed to access the digital content; sending, by the client-based application, a notification to a server, wherein the notification comprises information about the request; receiving, by the client-based application, a response from the server, wherein the response comprises privacy-policy instructions, wherein the privacy-policy instructions specify conditions for accessing the digital content stored on the client computer, and wherein the privacy-policy instructions indicate whether a privacy warning dialog should be displayed to the user; determining, by the client-based application, whether to display the privacy warning dialog dependent on the privacy-policy instructions; in response to determining that the privacy warning dialog should be displayed, displaying, by the client-based application, the privacy warning dialog; and allowing, by the client-based application, the user to access the digital content stored on the client computer via the client-based application, wherein said allowing is dependent on whether the conditions for accessing the digital content are satisfied.