Patent ID: 8024339

Claim:
A non-transitory computer readable storage medium, comprising executable instructions, which, when executed by at least one data processor, causes the at least one data processor to perform operations comprising: receive a query associated with a report; receive information about the identity of the query requestor; send the query to at least one data source; receive retrieved data from the at least one data source; evaluate the retrieved data prior to displaying any retrieved data in the report, wherein the executable instructions to evaluate include executable instructions to: apply confidentiality criteria to the retrieved data based on a set of rules to produce masked confidential data, the masked confidential data having attached metadata that is used to evaluate whether calculations within a report are based on a minimal number of values that meet a threshold for preventing identity inference; modify the masked confidential data based on inference rules to produce revised masked confidential data, the modifying comprising: suppressing data records associated with the masked confidential data to prevent inferences about confidential data in a limited record set that can be used to characterize at least a portion of the masked confidential data; and display the revised masked confidential data in the report in response to the query; wherein: the set of rules include rules to process individual records to produce a returned record set and rules to process the returned record set; and the rules to process individual records include legitimate relationship rules enforcing time restrictions on legitimate relationship based access, wherein the legitimate relationship being a pre-defined relationship between a first entity and a second entity allowing the first entity to access at least a portion of data associated with the second entity.