Abstract: A method is provided of protecting or controlling access to data associated with a user, the user data being accessible to a plurality of applications operating on one or more devices, each of the plurality of applications being adapted to authenticate the user for access to the user data using a different respective authentication mechanism. The method includes: providing each of the plurality of applications with access to a central protection server arranged to maintain for each of the plurality of applications a status reflecting whether the application is allowed continued access to the user data, separate to any authentication status associated with the different authentication mechanisms; and arranging for each of the applications to query the server at predetermined times to determine whether to allow the application continued access to the user data and to prevent access to the user data if it is determined in the negative.

Abstract: A method is provided for use with a search engine, the search engine being adapted to determine a set of search results relevant to one or more search terms input to it. The method comprises: receiving (S1) a search term that has been entered by a user into an interface to the search engine, the received search term acting as a coded identifier of an item; transforming (S2) the received search term into a set of related search terms that are considered to be relevant to the item identified by the received search term; and forwarding (S3) the set of related search terms to the search engine to perform the search.