Patent ID: 8473518

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving a request for access to a sub-portion of content represented as an account stored within a multi-tenant database system to be processed as a query on the multi-tenant database system, the request having requester identification data; identifying a group having access to the sub-portion of content represented as the account based on an associational data registry which associates groups with accounts and further identifying a sub-group having a user of a higher permission level dictated by a contractual relationship of the user with other users within the group of a lower permission level; determining that access should be granted to the sub-portion of the content represented as the account based on a comparison of the requester identification data of the user that provided the request with the user associated with the sub-group identified as having access to the sub-portion of the content represented as the account due to the user's higher permission level dictated by the contractual relationship of the user with the other users within the group; and granting the access requested in response to determining that access should be granted.