Abstract: Privacy of information is protected by a method of securing access to information associated with a value item, the method including comparing a security signature and a stored profile, and permitting access to the information associated with the value item if the security signature matches the stored profile. The value item may be a machine readable document or other item of high value. The associated information may be stored in an electronic storage medium attached to the value item, or may be stored in an external database, or both. Permitting access to the associated information may include generating an access code unique to the associated information and to the value item.