| US 7,552,327 B2 | ||
| Method and apparatus for conducting a confidential search | ||
| Michael A. Halcrow, Pflugerville, Tex. (US); Dustin C. Kirkland, Austin, Tex. (US); David B. Kumhyr, Austin, Tex. (US); and Kylene J. Smith, Austin, Tex. (US) | ||
| Assigned to International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, N.Y. (US) | ||
| Filed on Nov. 13, 2003, as Appl. No. 10/713,743. | ||
| Prior Publication US 2005/0120233 A1, Jun. 02, 2005 | ||
| Int. Cl. G06F 21/02 (2006.01); G06F 9/45 (2006.01); G06F 9/445 (2006.01) | ||
| U.S. Cl. 713—165 [713/193] | 17 Claims |
| 1. A method, comprising:
accessing one or more terms associated with one or more nodes of a network, wherein the one or more terms are contained in
one or more hypertext markup files stored in one or more workstations coupled to the network, wherein the network is the Internet;
encrypting the accessed one or more terms;
storing, in a storage unit, a data-collection program that builds and maintains a database of the encrypted terms;
receiving an encrypted search term from a user of a remote device;
accessing the storage unit of an Internet web server comprising a World Wide Web search engine module to retrieve one or more
of the encrypted accessed terms in response to receiving the encrypted search term from the user of the remote device;
comparing the received encrypted search term with at least a portion of the retrieved one or more encrypted accessed terms;
and
providing a result of the comparison to the user.
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