US Patent 8196212 Personal information management device

A personal information management apparatus acquires associated information that is associated with target information for which transmission has been requested, and if the acquired associated information includes personal information, transmits the target information after modifying the associated portions of the target information. This structure enables improving protection of personal information by protecting not only personal information but also information that cannot be used independently to identify a person but can be easily correlated with other information and used to identify a specific individual with reference to the other information.