Accessing personal information

Abstract

Dependents of benefit plan participants can be given access to personal information of a plan participant. The dependents, who are not existing users or members of the plan, can be allowed access to some or all of the personal information associated with the plan participant.

1 . A method of authorizing access to personal data, comprising: 
 obtaining, by a first person, via a software application, access to personal information attributed to the first person;    providing, to the software application, the identity of a second person, the identity of the second person being previously unknown to the software application; and    providing, to the software application, a relationship between the first person and the second person.    
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising providing, via the software application, parameters defining the second person's access privileges to the personal information attributed to the first person.  
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2  wherein the parameters defining the second person's access are based, at least in part, on the relationship between the first person and the second person.  
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the software application facilitates the operation of one or more employee benefit programs.  
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 4  wherein the employee benefit programs are one or more of a human resources program, a defined contribution program, a defined benefits program, a workplace savings program, a medical savings program, and a payroll program.  
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the access to the personal information is obtained via an electronic communications network.  
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 6  wherein the electronic communications network comprises one or more of a local area network, a wide area network, an intranet, or the Internet.  
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising requiring the first person to provide user authentication information prior to obtaining access to the personal information.  
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 8  wherein the user authentication information comprises one or more of a user name, password, social security number, employee number, client number, and biometric information.  
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the personal information is stored in one or more database modules.  
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the personal information comprises financial information.  
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the personal information comprises beneficiary information.  
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the personal information comprises healthcare information.  
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the second person is a dependent of the first person.  
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 14  wherein the second person is one of a wife, husband, child, or parent of the first person.  
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the second person is an agent of the first person.  
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 16  wherein the second person is one or more of an attorney, guardian, beneficiary, executor, accountant, and financial planner of the first person.  
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the identity of the second person is provided via an electronic communications network.  
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the identity of the second person is provided via a telephone.  
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the identity of the second person is provided via a customer service representative.  
     
     
         21 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the parameters defining the second person's access privileges to the personal information comprise limiting the second person's access to a subset of the personal information.  
     
     
         22 . The method of  claim 21  wherein the subset of the data is based on date restrictions applied to the personal information.  
     
     
         23 . The method of  claim 21  wherein the subset of the data is based on data type restrictions applied to the personal information.  
     
     
         24 . The method of  claim 23  wherein the data type restrictions are based at least in part on the relationship between the first person and the second person.  
     
     
         25 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising providing operative restrictions defining the functions within the software application available to the second person.  
     
     
         26 . The method of  claim 25  wherein the operative restrictions are based at least in part on the relationship between the first user and the second user.  
     
     
         27 . The method of  claim 21  further comprising providing parameters defining the second person's access privileges to the personal information wherein the parameters describes modifications to the second person's access privileges to the personal information.  
     
     
         28 . The method of  claim 27  wherein the modifications to the second person's access privileges comprises revoking the second person's access privileges.  
     
     
         29 . A method of allowing access to personal information, comprising: 
 allowing, via software application, a first person to access personal information attributed to the first person;    receiving, from the first person, via the software application, the identity of a second person, the identity of the second person being previously unknown to the software application; and    receiving, from the first person, via the software application, parameters defining the relationship between the first person and the second person.    
     
     
         30 . The method of  claim 29  further comprising receiving, via the software application, parameters defining the second person's access privileges to the personal information attributed to the first person.  
     
     
         31 . The method of  claim 30  wherein the parameters defining the second person's access are based, at least in part, on the relationship between the first person and the second person.  
     
     
         32 . The method of  claim 29  wherein the software application facilitates the management of one or more employee benefit programs.  
     
     
         33 . The method of  claim 29  wherein the access to the personal information is obtained via an electronic communications network.  
     
     
         34 . The method of  claim 29  further comprising receiving user authentication information from the first person prior to providing access to the personal information.  
     
     
         35 . The method of  claim 34  wherein the user authentication information comprises one or more of a user name, password, social security number, employee number, client number, and biometric information.  
     
     
         36 . The method of  claim 29  wherein the personal information comprises financial information.  
     
     
         37 . The method of  claim 29  wherein the personal information comprises beneficiary information.  
     
     
         38 . The method of  claim 29  wherein the personal information comprises healthcare information.  
     
     
         39 . The method of  claim 29  wherein the second person is a dependent of the first person.  
     
     
         40 . The method of  claim 29  wherein the second person is an agent of the first person.  
     
     
         41 . The method of  claim 29  wherein the identity of the second person is received via an electronic communications network.  
     
     
         42 . The method of  claim 29  wherein the parameters defining the second person's access privileges to the personal information comprise limiting the second person's access to a subset of the personal information.  
     
     
         43 . The method of  claim 42  wherein the subset of the data is based on date restrictions applied to the personal information.  
     
     
         44 . The method of  claim 42  wherein the subset of the data is based on data type restrictions applied to the personal information.  
     
     
         45 . The method of  claim 44  wherein the data type restrictions are based at least in part on the relationship between the first person and the second person.  
     
     
         46 . The method of  claim 29  further comprising providing operative restrictions defining the functions within the software application available to the second person.  
     
     
         47 . The method of  claim 46  wherein the operative restrictions are based at least in part on the relationship between the first user and the second user.  
     
     
         48 . The method of  claim 42  further comprising receiving parameters defining the second person's access privileges to the personal information wherein the parameters describes modifications to the second person's access privileges to the personal information.  
     
     
         49 . The method of  claim 48  wherein the modifications to the second person's access privileges comprises revoking the second person's access privileges.  
     
     
         50 . A computerized system for allowing access to personal information, the system comprising: 
 one or more data storage modules for storing personal information attributed to a first person that is a user of a software application;    a communication module in electronic communication with the data storage modules for receiving electronic communications from the first person, the communications comprising instructions to grant a second person access to the subset of the personal information attributed to the first person, wherein the identity of the second person is previously unknown to the software application.    a security module in electronic communication with the data storage modules and the communication module for determining a subset of the personal information attributed to the first person that can be accessed by the second person.    
     
     
         51 . The system of claim  50 -wherein the personal information further comprises a relationship between the first person and the second person.  
     
     
         52 . The system of  claim 51  wherein the subset of the personal information attributed to the first person that can be accessed by the second person is based, at least in part, on the relationship between the first person and the second person.  
     
     
         53 . The system of  claim 50  further comprising one or more data publishing modules for publishing data stored in the data storage modules.  
     
     
         54 . The system of  claim 53  wherein the data publishing modules publish the data stored in the data storage modules using web services.  
     
     
         55 . The system of  claim 53  wherein the data publishing modules publish the data stored in the data storage modules in XML format.  
     
     
         56 . The system of  claim 50  wherein the software application facilitates the administration of one or more employee benefit programs.  
     
     
         57 . The system of  claim 56  wherein the one or more employee benefit programs is one or more of a human resources program, a defined contribution program, a defined benefits program, a workplace savings program, a medical savings program, and a payroll program.  
     
     
         58 . The system of  claim 50  further comprising a content module in electronic communication with the communication module and the data storage modules for providing content for the software applications.  
     
     
         59 . The system of  claim 58  wherein the content is stored as static HTML files.  
     
     
         60 . The system of  claim 58  wherein the content module assembles HTML files from one or more of text and data stored in the data storage modules.  
     
     
         61 . The system of  claim 50  further comprising an authentication module for receiving authentication information from the first person.  
     
     
         62 . The system of  claim 61  wherein the authentication information is one or more of a user name, password, social security number, employee number, client number, and biometric information.  
     
     
         63 . A computerized system for allowing access to personal data, the system comprising: 
 means for providing access to a set of data to a first person, the set of data comprising personal information attributed to the first person;    means for receiving from the first person, the identity of a second person, wherein the identity of the second person had not been previously provided to the software application; and    means for receiving, from the first person, a relationship between the first person and the second person.    
     
     
         64 . The system of  claim 63  further comprising means for providing, via the software application, parameters defining a subset of the set of data to which the second person may have access.  
     
     
         65 . The system of  claim 64  wherein the parameters defining the second person's access are based, at least in part, on the relationship between the first person and the second person.  
     
     
         66 . The system of  claim 63  further comprising receiving parameters defining the second person's access privileges to the personal information wherein the parameters describes modifications to the second person's access privileges to the personal information.  
     
     
         67 . The system of  claim 66  wherein the modifications to the second person's access privileges comprises revoking the second person's access privileges.