Patent ID: 8713677

Claim:
A method comprising: at a user's computing device at which the user enters a user input data stream, the computing device having one or more processors: identifying, from the user input data stream, a first set of one or more characters, wherein the first set of one or more characters represents a portion of first private information; identifying, from the user input data stream, a second set of one or more characters, wherein the second set of one or more characters represents a portion of second private information and the second set of one or more characters is subsequent to the first set of one or more characters in the user input data stream; determining whether a respective remote server is on a whitelist; and in accordance with a determination that the respective remote server is not on a whitelist and that the first set of characters and second set of characters are identified in accordance with a predefined sequential relationship, taking a protective action at the user's computing device, prior to transmitting at least a subset of the characters of the first or second private information from the user's computing device to the respective remote server, remotely located from the user's computing device, to protect the first or second private information, wherein taking the protective action includes stopping transmission of the subset of the characters from the user input data stream to the remote server.