Patent ID: 8799981

Claim:
A system for enforcing at least one privacy policy in relation to user data, the system comprising: a user system; a broker system; and a service provider system, wherein the user system comprises: one or more processors and one or more associated memory devices; an encryption key generation means for generating an encryption key in dependence on a master key and in dependence on privacy policy data representing the at least one privacy policy, the encryption key generation means being software implemented by the one or more processors and the one or more associated memory, dedicated circuitry, or a combination thereof; an encryption means for carrying out symmetric encryption of the user data with the encryption key to form encrypted user data, the encryption means being software implemented by the one or more processors and the one or more associated memory, dedicated circuitry, or a combination thereof; a combiner means for combining the encrypted user data and the privacy policy data to form a digital container for secure transmission of the user data, the combiner means being software implemented by the one or more processors and the one or more associated memory, dedicated circuitry, or a combination thereof; and a network interface for transmitting the digital container to the service provider system over a computer network; and wherein the broker system is operable to: receive a request from the service provider system over the computer network to access the user data, the request including said privacy policy data; verify that the request complies with said at least one privacy policy; and if so, regenerate the encryption key in dependence on the master key and at least one privacy policy supplied by the service provider system to the broker system over the computer network, and transmit the regenerated encryption key to the service provider system; whereby the service provider system is able to decrypt the user data using a symmetric decryption algorithm and the regenerated encryption key.