ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 19 -- United States Patent no. 12,333,048, issued on June 17, was assigned to FMR LLC (Boston).
"Active data disposal" was invented by John Brady (Louisburg, N.C.), Susanne O'Neill (Loveland, Ohio), Matthew Gomez (Fort Worth, Texas) and Andrew J. McLellan (Cumberland, R.I.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A computerized method is provided for automated deletion of data. Methods can include identification of personally identifiable information (PII) or other data that may be subject to regulation. Methods can include creating an encrypted record of deletion for future verification. In some embodiments, the record may include PII and the record may be encrypted via a one-way...