Computer system 10 carries out program instructions for a computer-implemented method of conditionally deactivating access to a private data repository uniquely associated with an individual that uses novel access control techniques to manage records. Accordingly, a program embodying the invention may additionally include conventional aspects of various access control and data repository tools, and these details will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon reference to this disclosure.

Referring now to FIG. 2, there is seen a pictorial diagram of a credential management system 50 with enhanced record retention constructed in accordance with one implementation of the invention. Credential management system 50 includes a plurality of individual (personal) GDPR wallets 52, local (site) GDPR directories 54, and a global (sponsor) GDPR directory 56. Each of GDPR wallet 52, GDPR directory 54 and GDPR directory 56 can be stored on a computer server accessible by various means. The computer server may have the same or similar construction as that seen in FIG. 1 for computer system 10. In some embodiments, one or more aspects of the present invention may be carried out using cloud computing. It is to be understood however that implementation of the teachings recited herein are not limited to a cloud computing environment. Rather, embodiments of the present invention are capable of being implemented in conjunction with any other type of computing environment now known or later developed. The cloud computing environment can communicate with any type of computerized device over any type of network and/or network addressable connection (e.g., via the Internet using a web browser).

A given GDPR wallet 52 contains multiple records of the individual who owns the wallet. The nature of the records may vary according to the application but they are all personal to the individual and considered private data under different privacy laws such as GDPR. Generally, the records may be of three types: patient (health), credit reporting, and professional credentials. While the invention is not limited to any particular one of these types, or combinations thereof (or others as they become relevant), it is convenient to describe the invention with reference to an individual who is a healthcare professional such as a doctor or provider, and for that exemplary implementation the records in their GDPR wallet are professional credentials or competencies such as licenses, diplomas, training, certifications, etc.

Credential management system 50 provides enhanced access control for other individuals or organizations (consumers) to GDPR wallet 52. When creating an account with the system, the wallet owner can consent to release of the wallet contents to interested third parties according to various terms and conditions. These may optionally include a payment of some sort to the wallet owner, for each connection made, with the consumers covering the cost of the payment; the idea is that anyone who wants a person's private data (usually for commercial purposes) should in turn be willing to pay for that data. Additionally, the consumer of the data agrees to abide by privacy terms such as remaining GDPR compliant. The owner of the wallet can be notified whenever a consumer requests access to their wallet, and this connection (along with the connection date) can be visible to the wallet owner in a user interface as described further below in conjunction with FIG. 8.

A consumer making a connection request of a wallet owner may require that their personal information remain usable for some minimum period of time or until some specified date. This requirement may be necessary for various reasons, such as other legal requirements that apply to the consumer. As mentioned above, the Food & Drug Administration typically requires that certain data supporting clinical trials and the like be retained by the organization in charge of the trial for 25 years. This requirement may be presented to the wallet owner as a notification or warning, with an additional acknowledgement or consent of the owner being made before the connection is consummated.

GDPR wallet 52 thereby becomes a primary professional data source for GDPR directory 54. GDPR directory 54 is utilized by an organization that is involved in an enterprise or undertaking that requires participation by many entities. Further to the exemplary implementation, GDPR directory may be a local site that is carrying out a study as part of a healthcare (medical, pharmaceutical, genetic, etc.) trial. The site may for example be a hospital, clinic, nongovernmental organization (NGO), research association, technology company, or other employer. GDPR directory 54 is constructed by aggregating GDPR wallets from multiple individuals and/or organizations. These individuals may include employees of the company, contract workers, or others who are not monetarily engaged with the site but are still doing related work for the study. Further to the exemplary implementation, the site is a hospital and one of the individuals working on the study is the owner of GDPR wallet 52, i.e., a healthcare professional. Thus, the site operator can examine its GDPR directory 54 to access GDPR wallet 52 and see the various credentials of the professional, and accordingly ensure compliance with any other relevant regulatory requirements, e.g., making sure the professional has a particular competency required for the study.

As described further below in conjunction with FIG. 7, multiple GDPR directories 54 may be thus constructed for different companies/departments/studies involved in the trial. A high-level GDPR directory 56 for the sponsor of the trial can then be further constructed by aggregating all of the site GDPR directories 54 in the common undertaking. The sponsor may for example be a pharmaceutical company, medical device manufacturer, biotech company, contract research organization (CRO), institutional review boards (IRB), government agency, university, etc. In this manner, GDPR wallet 52 is becomes a real-time primary data source that can be accessed by any qualified entity whether at their site or with the sponsor.

The contents of a GDPR wallet can be accessed by either its owner or other party having access rights via a GDPR directory with any convenient user interface, such as a web browser or special-purpose application with appropriate security measures such as login or authentication information. The web browser may be running on a desktop computer having a construction like computer system 10 of FIG. 1 but this implementation should not be construed as limiting since the browser could be running on a variety of alternative computing devices such as a laptop computer, notebook, tablet, smartphone, dumb terminal, console, etc. FIG. 3 shows a screenshot 60 of an account overview page for the owner of GDPR wallet 52 in accordance with one implementation of the invention. Screenshot 60 (as well as other screenshots referred to below) is taken from the display device of the computer system running the browser, i.e., an I/O device 24 (FIG. 1). The browser appears as a window 62 of the display device, and has various conventional features such as menu commands, window control buttons, a search field, navigation buttons, and one or more tabs that present content, that are all familiar to those skilled in the art.

The account overview page might be the default page presented to the wallet owner upon signing in to credential management system 50, and presents various options as hyperlinks in the user interface to gain access to the services offered by the system. In this embodiment, there are six hyperlinks for “My Activities” (a catalog of activities of the owner), “My GDPRWallet” (the GDPR wallet 52), “My Connections” (a list of all entities with whom the owner has connected and is sharing wallet records, i.e., sites and sponsors), “My Profile” (account and membership details), “Administrative Tools” (management of others), and “Virtual Help” (instructional videos on how to use credential management system 50). The owner activates a given hyperlink using a graphical pointer 64 (e.g., mouse) or other input device such as a touchscreen.

Further to this implementation, clicking on the “My GDPRWallet” hyperlink of the account overview page brings the owner to a GDPR wallet management window 72 seen in the screenshot 70 of FIG. 4. GDPR wallet management window 72 shows the owner's name (in this case “John Smith” who works at General Hospital), along with a list 74 of all of the records in the wallet as well as a search field 76 allowing the owner to search for a specific record (more advanced options can be provided for searching such as searching particular fields of the records). Each record is shown with basic information including a title, a description, a record date, a verification, any related document (e.g., a PDF or JPEG file), a reminder service, an indication of whether the record has been shared, and a remove field. In this sample wallet four records are shown, for the owner's bachelor's degree, a continuing education credit, a medical doctor diploma, and a specialty certification (“Rankin Scale mRS”). New records are uploaded using the “Upload” button 78 which initiates a dialog box (not shown) allowing the user the enter the various data for the record; for further details see U.S. Pat. No. 10,713,742, which is hereby incorporated. A given record may also be verified by one or more third parties as described in that patent to ensure authenticity of the records. If a record has not been verified the indication under that column will be “not verified”.

Once a record has been uploaded, it can be shared, i.e., approved for release to consumers, by clicking a “Share” button 80. Prior to sharing a record, it may be removed by clicking a remove object 82, in this case a trash can icon. Removing the record completely erases it from the wallet list 74. Once the record is shared, even with just one other person or organization, “Share” button 80 will disappear and be replaced by a check mark indicating that the record has been shared, and the remove object 82 will disappear from the user interface, i.e., once shared a record cannot thereafter be removed, subject only to deletion of all records (possibly after some minimum retention period) pursuant to the owner's demand to be “forgotten”. The GDPR wallet records can be accessed by multiple systems. For instance, in addition to the owner viewing and managing the records in the GDPR wallet management window 72, a site operator or sponsor can view the records through its corresponding GDPR directory, as explained further below in conjunction with FIG. 6.

Clicking on any of the records in the list (e.g., on a title) brings up a record detail page showing more information regarding the record. Further to this implementation, clicking on the “Rankin Scale mRS” record displays that information as seen in the sample GDPR wallet record 86 of FIG. 5. The wallet record is different from any document uploaded to supplement the record. A given wallet record can contain various information including but not limited to the name of the record owner, a identification (ID) number of the owner used by the credential management system to uniquely distinguish the owner, an ID of the record itself, a title (that appears on record list 74), a short description (that also appears on record list 74), a longer description, a content date associated with the subject of the record itself (i.e., a date of completion of the work involved in the record or other date of certification), an upload date that the record was added into the GDPR wallet, a shared date that the record was first shared by the owner (which may be different from the upload date), and a verified date of any verification by a third party. This specific sample record 86 shows that the individual has completed certification for a patient interview process (Rankin Scale) that is valid for use in clinical research, and can be viewed by a site operator or sponsor (through the GDPR directory interface of FIG. 6) to ensure that the individual is thus qualified for the particular study at hand.

The credential management system can further apply a timestamp 88 to each record, to facilitate the protective deactivation feature of the present invention as explained further below in conjunction with FIG. 8. In some implementations the timestamp is the upload date, in another implementation it is the shared date. In a further alternative implementation, a single record can have different timestamps associated with different consumers based on the date a connection between the individual and the respective consumer was made.

FIG. 6 illustrates a screenshot 90 of a site (local) GDPR directory window 92 in accordance with the exemplary implementation for a company “Generic Research Institute, Inc.” which is employing or otherwise utilizing the skills of various individuals and/or organizations as part of its site work, including Dr. Smith from General Hospital. GDPR directory window 92 is accessed through an account of the site operator, not the individual's, and has various features such as a list 94 of all of the site participants for the study as well as a search field 96 allowing the site administrator to search for a specific participant. Each participant in list 94 is shown with basic information including their name, the institution they are associated with, their role for the study, when the connection between the site and the participant was made through the credential management system, and the country they reside in. In this sample directory three participants are shown, for Jane Doe, Peter Shell, and John Smith (the owner of GDPR wallet 72). There could be hundreds or even thousands of participants in the directory. A “Send Email” button 98 can be pressed to conveniently spawn an email communication program or module.

Clicking on a participant's name in list 94 will bring up the GDPR wallet associated with that person. For example, clicking on “John Smith” will bring up an interface that is essentially same as the GDPR wallet features of FIG. 4. Presuming the connection is still valid, i.e., it has not been deactivated as described further below, all of the GDPR wallet records will be accessible. The site administrator can then proceed to click on one of the wallet records to see the details as in FIG. 5. In this manner the administrator can document and verify any credential requirements for the participants.