Journaling system with segregated data access

Abstract

A journaling system provides access to subsets of user information in a segregated fashion. This permits its users to define access settings for their user information thereby limiting which other users may access the user information. In one or more embodiments, the journaling system may include a server or other computing device and one or more storage devices used to store the user information, associated access settings, or both. The access settings may define particular criteria which must be met before a subset of user information may be accessed, and may identify particular users that may access the subset of user information.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A journaling system for controlling the association of information provided by different providers with different subsets of a collection of user information, comprising:
 one or more communications devices configured to receive one or more user-designated access settings, each user-designated access setting associated with a subset of the collection, each user-designated access setting designating one or more providers who may access the subset, wherein user-designated access settings associated with different subsets may designate different providers who may access said different subsets and provide content for association with said subset;   one or more processors configured to control access to the subsets to those providers defined by said user-designated access settings by comparing information identifying a provider requesting access to one or more subsets to the one or more user-designated access settings, wherein access to one or more of the one or more subsets is granted only if said provider is designated by the one or more user-designated access settings; and   one or more storage devices configured to receive first user information from a first provider granted access to a first subset and associate said first user information with said first subset, and receive second user information from a second provider granted access to a second subset and associate said second user information with said second subset.   
     
     
         2 . The journaling system of  claim 1 , wherein said collection comprises a website and said subsets comprise pages of said website. 
     
     
         3 . The journaling system of  claim 1 , wherein the user is a corporation and the providers comprise subsidiaries of the corporation. 
     
     
         4 . The journaling system of  claim 1 , wherein the one or more communications devices are configured to receive the one or more user-designated access settings from a user terminal.