Patent ID: 8886727

Claim:
A method of controlling distribution of content in a message sent by a message sender, comprising: receiving over a network from a mail client a first message created by a first message sender, the first message including: a text string manually marked by the first message sender as confidential content, upon which a distribution limit should be placed, and a distribution limit manually set by the first message sender identifying one or more authorized recipients; receiving over the network from a mail client a second message subsequent to the first message, wherein the second message is distinct from the first message and created by a second message sender who is distinct from the first message sender, and the second message includes a recipient identified by the second message sender; and executing instructions stored in memory, wherein execution of the instructions by a processor: adds the text string manually marked by the first message sender and the distribution limit manually set by the first message sender to a database stored in memory, examines the second message for the stored text string manually marked by the first message sender, wherein examining the second message includes extracting a suspicious text string from the second message and comparing the suspicious text string to the stored text string manually marked by the first message sender, examines the second message for the one or more authorized recipients identified in the stored distribution limit manually set by the first message sender when the suspicious text string matches the stored text string manually marked by the first message sender, wherein examining the second message includes extracting the recipient identified by the second message sender and comparing the recipient to the one or more authorized recipients identified in the stored distribution limit manually set by the first message sender, and transmits the second message over the network to the recipient identified by the second message sender when the recipient identified by the second message sender matches the one or more authorized recipients identified in the stored distribution limit manually set by the first message sender.