Patent ID: 7818809

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for protecting confidential data, the method executed by a computer and comprising: using the computer to monitor data a user attempts to enter into a website; identifying within the monitored data a data string; categorizing the data string with a type of confidential data represented by the data string and a description that describes the user's pattern of previous usage of the data string with other websites; locating a website characteristic profile for the website, the web site characteristic profile describing the user's pattern of previous usage of the website; comparing the website characteristic profile with the data string's categorization to determine whether the user's pattern of previous usage of the data string matches the user's pattern of previous usage of the website; responsive to the comparison indicating that the user's pattern of previous usage of the data string matches the user's pattern of previous usage of the website, communicating the data string to the website; and responsive to the comparison indicating that the user's pattern of previous usage of the data string does not match the user's pattern of previous usage of the website, blocking communication of the data string to the website.