Abstract text

A computer implemented method provides a way of storing custom access control rules with information to which they apply. The rules can be associated with individual pieces of information, to provide a finer grained level of access without the need for prior knowledge of all potential entities that may access the information. The stored data and access control rules may be associated with a virtual representation of an entity, which may be one of many virtual representations of different entities managed within a globally accessible and federated information store. The access control rules can be based on querying information associated with the virtual representation of a requesting party, or information accessible by navigating relationships associated with that virtual representation, thereby providing great flexibility.