This is a system that uses the internet to connect people and collect data without risking the exposure and misuse of personal information.

This is accomplished by storing all personal information in a "personal vault" which is a computing device that is locked down with a hardware key.

Though data that could be considered "personal" can exist all over the web, what this system does is keep it depersonalized by connecting it to a meaningless number. Only the person holding both the hardware key and the computing device it matches with can aggregate this data in a way that identifies it with them personally.

An individual would also be able to challenge any data attached to his or her identity that seemed to be in error or malicious.

This has only been tested as a proof-of-concept application in C sharp.

This system would require changes in how businesses deal with their customers electronically, but the focus is on how government agencies handle such information.

So, though there is a software component to this idea, there are also business practice and public policy components to it.

Central to this concept is the philosophic finding (reflected in certain human groups like the family) that people do better when they only have one or two other people (in any given group situation) that can tell them what to do. When a central government can issue orders directly to a private individual, that individual's sense of his or her own power is crushed and his or her ability to operate effectively is reduced, if not destroyed.

A side benefit of this system is that an individual is capable of aggregating a more-or-less complete diary of all his or her online activity for reference and review. No one else would have access to that complete personal record without the individual personally sharing it with them.