Patent ID: 8473741

Claim:
A computer-implemented method of comparing a first private value associated with a first party with a second private value associated with a second party, comprising: accessing the first private value from a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium; encoding the first private value to provide an encoded first private value; generating a first intermediate value based on the encoded first private value; sending the first intermediate value to a computing system associated with the second party over a network; receiving, at a computing system associated with the first party, from the computing system associated with the second party, a second intermediate value that is based on an encoded second private value, the encoded second private value being provided by encoding the second private value; generating a first comparison value based on the second intermediate value; receiving over the network a second comparison value that is based on the first intermediate value; comparing the first comparison value and the second comparison value to generate a result; and displaying the result on a display of a computing device, the result indicating that the first private value is greater than the second private value when the first comparison value is less than the second comparison value, and the result indicating that the first private value is less than or equal to the second private value when the first comparison value is greater than the second comparison value.