Information processing system, information processing method, and program

Abstract

This invention reduces communication costs and investigation costs in regulatory compliance investigations or the like for chemical products and materials, and also protects the confidentiality of features such as component information on an information provision side. A search condition receiving unit 52 of a searcher device 1 receives input of one or more search conditions from a searcher for regulatory compliance investigations or the like with respect to a chemical product or material. A search condition confidentiality unit 53 of the searcher device 1 conceals, as confidential, at least some of the one or more search conditions that were received. A confidential search condition transmission control unit 54 of the searcher device 1 executes a control to transmit, to a search system 2, the one or more search conditions in a state of being at least partially concealed as confidential. A confidential state-maintaining search unit 61 of the search system 2 uses the one or more search conditions in a state of being at least partially concealed as confidential to search for information of a prescribed retrieval target for a regulatory compliance investigation or the like, and outputs the information as search result information.

Description

Information processing system, information processing method and program

[0001] The present invention relates to an information processing system, an information processing method, and a program.

[0002] 2. Description of the Related Art A search system for investigating legal regulations on chemical products and materials has been known (see, for example, Patent Document 1).

[0003] Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2021-068008

[0004] However, conventional search technologies, including those described in Patent Document 1, are designed to leave plaintext ingredient information and other data on the search system, potentially resulting in the leakage of information identifying ingredients and their content. This has led to widespread business decisions by information providers not to release information, resulting in high communication and investigation costs during regulatory investigations. Furthermore, while there are cases where information providers are forced to disclose technology (e.g., ingredient information) to specific major customers, there is also a desire to keep this technology (e.g., ingredient information) confidential and protected. However, conventional search technologies, including those described in Patent Document 1, have not been able to meet such demands.

[0005] The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and aims to reduce communication costs and investigation costs in regulatory investigations of chemical products and materials, as well as to protect the confidentiality of the information provider's technology, such as ingredient information.

[0006] In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, an information processing system of one embodiment of the present invention is an information processing system including a searcher device that outputs one or more search conditions received from a searcher, and a search system that searches for information on a specified search target based on the one or more search conditions and outputs the information as search result information, wherein the searcher device comprises: a search condition receiving means that receives input of the one or more search conditions from the searcher; a search condition concealment means that conceals at least a portion of the received one or more search conditions; and a search condition transmission control means that executes control to transmit the one or more search conditions in a state in which at least a portion of the search conditions are concealed to the search system, and the search system comprises: a confidentiality state maintaining search means that searches for information on the specified search target using the one or more search conditions in a state in which at least a portion of the search conditions are concealed, and outputs the information as the search result information.

[0007] An information processing method and a program according to one aspect of the present invention are a method and a program corresponding to an information processing system according to one aspect of the present invention.

[0008] According to the present invention, it is possible to reduce communication costs and investigation costs in investigating legal regulations for chemical products and materials, and also to protect the confidentiality of the information provider's technology, such as ingredient information.

[0009] 1 is a diagram showing an overview of the present service that can be realized by an embodiment of the information processing system of the present invention. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an example of the configuration of an embodiment of the information processing system of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an example of the hardware configuration of a searcher terminal in the information processing system shown in FIG. 3. FIG. 3 is a functional block diagram showing an example of the functional configuration of the server of FIG. 3 in the information processing system of FIG. 2. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of search request information provided to a searcher by a search requester. FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of search condition information input by a searcher to whom the search request information of FIG. 5 is presented. FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of concealed search condition information obtained as a result of encrypting the component identification information and content of the search condition information. FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an example of search result condition information showing results searched by the search systems of FIGS. 1 and 2 using the concealed search condition information. FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of a screen of a search requester terminal in the information processing system of FIG. 2, which is an example of a screen on which search request information is input and requested in step S1 of the present service of FIG. 1. FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of a screen of a search requester terminal in the information processing system of FIG. 2, which is an example of a screen displaying search result information notified in step S4 of the present service of FIG. 1. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of a screen of a searcher terminal in the information processing system of FIG. 2, showing an example of the screen when a search is performed using one or more search conditions in which component identification information and content are concealed.

[0010] Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

[0011] First, an overview of a service (hereinafter referred to as "this service") that can be realized by an embodiment of the information processing system of the present invention (see FIG. 2, which will be described later) will be described with reference to Fig. 1. Fig. 1 is a diagram showing an overview of this service that can be realized by an embodiment of the information processing system of the present invention.

[0012] This service enables users to search for legal regulations on chemical products and materials while concealing information that identifies ingredients (hereinafter referred to as "ingredient-specific information"), etc.

[0013] Specifically, as shown in FIG. 1, in step S1, a search requester such as a chemical trading company or chemical manufacturer operates his / her own terminal 3 (hereinafter referred to as the "search requester terminal 3") to request a legal regulation investigation of the product or material to be purchased from a searcher terminal 1 (hereinafter referred to as the "searcher terminal 1") such as a material manufacturer, parts manufacturer, or chemical manufacturer.

[0014] In step S2, the searcher terminal 1 inputs search criteria based on a request from a search requester, encrypts information that can identify components, such as CAS and RN (hereinafter referred to as "component identification information") and their content, and notifies the secure computation-based legal regulation search system 2 (hereinafter abbreviated as "search system 2"). A specific example will be described later with reference to Figure 5 and subsequent drawings. To acquire (search) legal regulation information, it is necessary to identify a component using any of the "component identification information" and also refer to the "content." Therefore, the component identification information and content are essential search criteria. Here, if there are multiple candidates, the component information, etc., is selected by the searcher. However, the component identification information and content are extremely important to the searcher, i.e., material manufacturer, component manufacturer, or chemical manufacturer, and must not be leaked to the outside. Therefore, in this service, all component identification information and content transmitted from the searcher terminal 1 are kept confidential.

[0015] In step S3, the search system 2 searches for legal regulation information (plain text) from a predetermined database (for example, database 71 in FIG. 4 described later), while leaving the component identification information and content amount of the search conditions as encrypted text. Here, the components and content amount thresholds linked to legal regulations stored in the database of the search system 2 may be stored in plain text because they are both public information.

[0016] In step S4, the search system 2 notifies the search requester terminal 3 of the legal regulation information (plain text) of the product / material purchased by the search requester as the result of the legal regulation investigation.

[0017] As explained above, this service in Figure 1 enables regulatory research (search) while keeping confidential the ingredient-specific information and content amounts that information providers may not want to disclose for business reasons. As a result, it is possible to reduce communication and research costs in regulatory research, and also to protect the information provider's technology, such as ingredient information, by keeping it confidential.

[0018] Next, the configuration of an information processing system that realizes the provision of the above-described service, i.e., an embodiment of the information processing system of the present invention, will be described with reference to Fig. 2. Fig. 2 is a diagram showing an example of the configuration of an embodiment of the information processing system of the present invention.

[0019] 2 is configured to include a searcher terminal 1, a search system 2, and a search requester terminal 3. The searcher terminal 1, the search system 2, and the search requester terminal 3 are connected to each other via a network such as the Internet.

[0020] The searcher terminal 1 is an information processing device managed by a searcher such as a material manufacturer, parts manufacturer, or chemical manufacturer, and is configured as a smartphone, tablet, personal computer, etc. The search system 2 is a system that enables searching for legal regulations while concealing information that identifies ingredients (hereinafter referred to as "ingredient identifying information") in the investigation of legal regulations on chemical products and materials. The search requester terminal 3 is an information processing device managed by a search requester such as a chemical trading company or chemical manufacturer, and is configured as a smartphone, tablet, personal computer, etc.

[0021] FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing an example of the hardware configuration of the searcher terminal in the information processing system shown in FIG.

[0022] The searcher terminal 1 includes a CPU (Central Processing Unit) 11, a ROM (Read Only Memory) 12, a RAM (Random Access Memory) 13, a bus 14, an input / output interface 15, an input unit 16, an output unit 17, a memory unit 18, a communication unit 19, and a drive 20.

[0023] The CPU 11 executes various processes according to programs recorded in the ROM 12 or programs loaded from the storage unit 18 into the RAM 13. The RAM 13 also stores data and the like necessary for the CPU 11 to execute various processes.

[0024] The CPU 11, ROM 12, and RAM 13 are interconnected via a bus 14. An input / output interface 15 is also connected to this bus 14. An input unit 16, an output unit 17, a storage unit 18, a communication unit 19, and a drive 20 are connected to the input / output interface 15.

[0025] The input unit 16 is configured with, for example, a keyboard and is used to input various types of information. The output unit 17 is configured with, for example, a display such as an LCD, a speaker, and the like and outputs various types of information as images and sounds. The storage unit 18 is configured with, for example, a DRAM (Dynamic Random Access Memory) and is used to store various types of data. The communication unit 19 communicates with other devices (for example, the search system 2 and the search requester terminal 3 in FIG. 2 ) via a network N including the Internet.

[0026] Removable media 30, such as a magnetic disk, optical disk, magneto-optical disk, or semiconductor memory, is appropriately attached to the drive 20. Programs read from the removable media 30 by the drive 20 are installed in the storage unit 18 as needed. The removable media 30 can also store various data stored in the storage unit 18 in the same way as the storage unit 18.

[0027] Although not shown, the search system 2 and the search requester terminal 3 in Fig. 2 can also have a configuration basically similar to the hardware configuration shown in Fig. 3. Therefore, a description of the hardware configuration of the search system 2 and the search requester terminal 3 in Fig. 2 will be omitted.

[0028] By cooperation of the various hardware and software constituting the information processing system of Figure 2, including the searcher terminal 1, search system 2, and search requester terminal 3 of Figure 3, various processes for providing the present service of Figure 1 can be executed.

[0029] FIG. 4 is a functional block diagram showing an example of the functional configuration of the server of FIG. 3 in the information processing system of FIG.

[0030] 4 , a search request receiving unit 51, a search criterion receiving unit 52, a search criterion anonymization unit 53, and an anonymized search criterion transmission control unit 54 function in the searcher terminal 1. A search request unit 81 and a search result acquisition unit 82 function in the search system 2. A confidential state maintaining search unit 61 functions in the search system 2. A database 71 is provided in the search system 2.

[0031] The search request unit 81 of the search requester terminal 3 executes control to transmit search request information including information capable of identifying search conditions to the searcher terminal 51. The search request reception unit 51 of the searcher terminal 1 receives the search request information transmitted from the search requester terminal 3, thereby receiving a search request from the search requester. The search request information is presented to the searcher. For example, in the service example of FIG. 1 , the search request information is information indicating a request for a legal regulation investigation of products or materials purchased by the search requester.

[0032] The search condition receiving unit 52 of the searcher terminal 1 receives input of one or more search conditions from a searcher who has been presented with search request information. For example, in the present service shown in FIG. 1 , the specified search target is a legal regulation regarding a specified component content of a product or material purchased by the search requester. Therefore, the one or more search conditions include the components (component identification information) and content of the product purchased by the search requester. The search condition anonymization unit 53 anonymizes at least a portion of the received one or more search conditions. Specifically, in the present service shown in FIG. 1 , the search condition anonymization unit 53 anonymizes the components (component identification information) and content of the product purchased by the search requester by encrypting them. The anonymized search condition transmission control unit 54 controls the transmission of one or more search conditions, at least a portion of which is anonymized, to the search system 2.

[0033] The confidentiality maintaining search unit 61 of the search system 2 searches the database 71 for information on a specific search target using one or more search conditions, at least some of which are kept confidential, and outputs the information as the search result information. For example, in the present service shown in FIG. 1, information indicating legal restrictions on specific components in specific content amounts of products or materials purchased by the search requester is output as the search result information. Naturally, the specific components themselves and the specific content amounts themselves of the products or materials purchased are not included in the search result information.

[0034] Here, the search method of the confidential state maintaining search unit 61 is sufficient as long as it is a method that searches while keeping the search conditions confidential, and various methods can be adopted. For example, a search method that incorporates secret computation in a secret sharing scheme can be adopted. The secret sharing scheme is a method that renders data meaningless by dividing it into multiple pieces, and by using some of the divided information, it is possible to perform a search process without decrypting the encrypted search query.

[0035] The search result acquisition unit 82 of the search requester terminal 3 acquires the search result information output from the search system 2 .

[0036] An example of specific information exchanged in the present service shown in FIG. 1, which is realized by the information processing system shown in FIG. 2 having the functional configuration shown in FIG. 4, will be described below.

[0037] FIG. 5 is an example of search request information provided to a searcher by a search requester. In the example of FIG. 5, search request information (hereinafter referred to as "first pattern search request information") indicating a request for a regulatory investigation on a product "LC COOL PET" purchased by the search requester is shown on the first line. Search request information (hereinafter referred to as "second pattern search request information") indicating a request for a regulatory investigation on a product "P-Liquid SE-1100" purchased by the search requester is shown on the second line. Search request information (hereinafter referred to as "third pattern search request information") indicating a request for a regulatory investigation on a product "HM 96-D" purchased by the search requester is shown on the third line. Each of the first pattern search request information to the third pattern search request information is composed of the items "product name," "use," and "purchase amount," and the information in each item is in plain text.

[0038] In step S1 of Fig. 1, the search request unit 81 of the search requester terminal 3 of Fig. 4 executes control to transmit each of the first to third pattern search request information of Fig. 5 to the searcher terminal 51. The search request acceptance unit 51 of the searcher terminal 1 of Fig. 4 accepts a search request from the search requester by receiving each of the first to third pattern search request information of Fig. 5. Each of the first to third pattern search request information of Fig. 5 is presented to the searcher.

[0039] The search condition receiving unit 52 of the searcher terminal 1 of FIG. 4 receives input of the search condition information shown in FIG. 6 by a searcher who has been presented with the first to third pattern search request information of FIG. 5 . FIG. 6 shows an example of search condition information input by a searcher who has been presented with the search request information of FIG. 5 . Note that "input by the searcher" here is a broad concept that includes not only manual input by the searcher, but also input based on the search request information and autonomous determination by the searcher terminal 1 operated by the searcher. In the example of FIG. 6 , the search condition information for the first pattern search request information for the product "LC COOL PET" purchased by the search requester (hereinafter referred to as "first pattern search condition information") is shown on the first line. The search condition information for the search request information for the product "P-Liquid SE-1100" purchased by the search requester (hereinafter referred to as "second pattern search condition information") is shown on the second and third lines. The search condition information (hereinafter referred to as "third pattern search condition information") for the search request information regarding the product "HM-96-D" purchased by the search requester is shown on lines 4 to 6. Each of the first pattern search condition information to the third pattern search condition information is composed of the items "product name," "physical state," "ingredient name," "ingredient identifier," and "purchase amount," and the information in each item is in plain text. Here, the information shown in the items "ingredient name" and "ingredient identifier" is an example of ingredient-specific information.

[0040] The search condition concealment unit 53 of the searcher terminal 1 in FIG. 4 conceals the component identification information (information in the fields of "product name," "physical state," "component name," "component identifier," and "purchase amount") and the content amount (information in the field of "content amount") from the first to third pattern search condition information by encrypting them. As a result, information such as that shown in FIG. 7 (hereinafter referred to as "concealed search condition information") is generated. FIG. 7 is an example of concealed search condition information obtained by encrypting the component identification information and content amount from the search condition information in FIG. 6. In the example of FIG. 7, the first line shows concealed search condition information (hereinafter referred to as "first pattern concealed search condition information") obtained by encrypting the component identification information and content amount from the first pattern search condition information for the product "LC COOL PET" purchased by the search requester. Of the second pattern search condition information for the product "P-Liquid SE-1100" purchased by the search requester, the anonymized search condition information (hereinafter referred to as "second pattern anonymized search condition information") obtained by encrypting the ingredient identifying information and content is shown on lines 2 and 3. Of the third pattern search condition information for the product "HM 96-D" purchased by the search requester, the anonymized search condition information (hereinafter referred to as "third pattern anonymized search condition information") obtained by encrypting the ingredient identifying information and content is shown on lines 4 to 6. Each of the first pattern anonymized search condition information to the third pattern anonymized search condition information is composed of the items "product name," "physical state," "ingredient name," "ingredient identifier," and "purchase amount." Here, the items "ingredient name" and "ingredient identifier" and the item "content" that make up the ingredient identifying information are encrypted.

[0041] In step S2 of FIG. 1, the anonymized search criterion transmission control unit 54 executes control to transmit each of the first pattern anonymized search criterion information to the third pattern anonymized search criterion information of FIG.

[0042] In step S3 of Fig. 1, the confidential state maintaining search unit 61 of the search system 2 of Fig. 4 uses each of the first pattern anonymized search criterion information to the third pattern anonymized search criterion information of Fig. 7 (with the ingredient specifying information and content amount remaining as encrypted text) to search the database 71 for information on the "Applicable Regulations" item shown in Fig. 8. In step S4 of Fig. 1, the confidential state maintaining search unit 61 of the search system 2 of Fig. 4 executes control to transmit the search result information shown in Fig. 8 to the search requester terminal 3. The search result acquisition unit 82 of the search requester terminal 3 of Fig. 4 acquires the search result information shown in Fig. 8.

[0043] FIG. 8 is an example of search result condition information showing results searched by the search systems of FIGS. 1 and 2 using the anonymized search condition information of FIG. 7 . In the example of FIG. 8 , search result information showing results searched using first-pattern anonymized search condition information for the product "LC COOL PET" purchased by the search requester (hereinafter referred to as "first search result information") is shown on the first line. Search result information showing results searched using second-pattern anonymized search condition information for the product "P-Liquid SE-1100" purchased by the search requester (hereinafter referred to as "second search result information") is shown on the second line. Search result information showing results searched using third-pattern anonymized search condition information for the product "HM 96-D" purchased by the search requester (hereinafter referred to as "third search result information") is shown on the third line. Each of the first to third pattern search result information is composed of the items "product name," "use," "purchase amount," and "applicable regulations," and the information for each item is in plain text.

[0044] Next, an example of a specific screen used in the present service shown in FIG. 1, which is realized by the information processing system shown in FIG. 2 having the functional configuration shown in FIG. 4, will be described.

[0045] Fig. 9 is an example of a screen of a search requester terminal in the information processing system of Fig. 2, and is an example of a screen on which search request information is input and submitted in step S1 of the present service of Fig. 1. As is clear from the screen of Fig. 9, the search request information is in plain text only.

[0046] Fig. 10 is an example of a screen of the search requester terminal in the information processing system of Fig. 2, which displays the search result information notified in step S4 of the present service of Fig. 1. As is clear from the screen of Fig. 10, the search result information consists of only plain text.

[0047] Fig. 11 is an example of a screen of a searcher terminal in the information processing system of Fig. 2 , and is an example of a screen when a search is performed using one or more search criteria in which the ingredient-specific information and content are concealed. Note that, when the ingredient-specific information and content among the one or more search criteria are encrypted (concealed) on the screen of Fig. 11 , the searcher terminal 1 or the searcher belongs to a closed system without connecting to a network such as the Internet of Fig. 2 . That is, the searcher terminal 1 is connected to a network such as the Internet of Fig. 2 only when concealed search criteria information consisting of one or more search criteria in which the ingredient-specific information and content are encrypted (concealed) is transmitted to the system 2.

[0048] Although one embodiment of the present invention has been described above, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and modifications, improvements, etc. within the scope of achieving the object of the present invention are considered to be included in the present invention.

[0049] For example, machine learning technology using secure computation has already emerged and may be applied to the field of legal regulation information search, such as the present service shown in Figure 1. Furthermore, although the information processing system of the present invention is applied to the field of legal regulation information search, such as the present service shown in Figure 1 in the above-described embodiment, it is not particularly limited to this. For example, the information processing system of the present invention may be applied to developments in the field of materials development, such as materials informatics, without disclosing information identifying components (keeping it confidential).

[0050] Furthermore, the system configuration shown in FIG. 2 and the hardware configuration of each device such as the searcher terminal shown in FIG. 3 are merely examples for achieving the object of the present invention, and are not particularly limited.

[0051] Furthermore, the functional block diagram shown in Fig. 4 is merely an example and is not particularly limited. That is, it is sufficient if the information processing system in Fig. 2 is provided with a function that can execute the various processes described above (for example, the processes in steps S1 to S4 in Fig. 1) as a whole, and the functional blocks and databases used to realize these functions are not particularly limited to the example in Fig. 4.

[0052] Furthermore, the locations of the functional blocks and databases are not limited to those shown in Fig. 4 and may be arbitrary. For example, at least some of the functional blocks arranged on the searcher terminal 1 side may be provided in another information processing device (not shown).

[0053] The above-described series of processes can be executed by hardware or software, and each functional block can be configured by hardware alone, software alone, or a combination of both.

[0054] When a series of processes is executed by software, the programs constituting the software are installed onto a computer or the like from a network or a recording medium. The computer may be a computer incorporated into dedicated hardware. The computer may also be a computer capable of executing various functions by installing various programs, such as a server, a general-purpose smartphone, or a personal computer.

[0055] The recording medium containing such a program may be composed of not only a removable medium (not shown) that is distributed separately from the device main body in order to provide the program to the user, but also a recording medium that is provided to the user in a state that it is pre-installed in the device main body.

[0056] In this specification, the steps describing the program to be recorded on the recording medium include not only processes that are performed chronologically in accordance with the order, but also processes that are not necessarily performed chronologically but are performed in parallel or individually.

[0057] To sum up, the information processing system to which the present invention is applied is sufficient as long as it has the following configuration, and can take on a variety of different embodiments. That is, an information processing system (e.g., FIG. 2) to which the present invention is applied is an information processing system including: a searcher device (e.g., searcher terminal 1 in FIGS. 1 and 2) that outputs one or more search conditions received from a searcher; and a search system (e.g., search system 2 in FIGS. 1 and 2) that searches for predetermined search target information based on the one or more search conditions and outputs the information as search result information, wherein the searcher device comprises: search condition receiving means (e.g., search condition receiving unit 52 in FIG. 4) that receives input of the one or more search conditions (e.g., search result information in FIG. 6) by the searcher; search condition anonymizing means (e.g., search condition anonymizing unit 53 in FIG. 4) that anonymizes at least a portion of the received one or more search conditions (e.g., generates anonymized search condition information in FIG. 7); and search condition transmission control means (e.g., anonymized search condition transmission control unit 54 in FIG. 4) that executes control to transmit the one or more search conditions in a state in which at least a portion is anonymized to the search system, and the search system comprises: It is sufficient that the information processing system includes a confidentiality maintaining search means (e.g., the confidentiality maintaining search unit 61 in FIG. 4) that searches for information of the specified search target using the one or more search conditions, at least a portion of which is kept confidential, and outputs the information as the search result information (e.g., the search result information in FIG. 8).

[0058] Here, for example, the predetermined search target may be a legal regulation regarding a predetermined component of a chemical product or material at a predetermined content, the one or more search conditions may include the component (e.g., "component name" and "component identifier" in Figures 6 and 7) and content (e.g., "content" in Figures 6 and 7) regarding the chemical product or material, and the search condition concealment means may conceal at least one of the component and content of the search target (e.g., Figure 7).

[0059] This allows regulatory research (search) to be conducted while keeping the ingredient-specific information and content that information providers may not want to disclose for business reasons confidential. As a result, it is possible to reduce communication and research costs in regulatory research, and also to protect the technology of information providers, such as ingredient information, by keeping it confidential.

[0060] For example, the information processing system may further include a search requester device (e.g., search requester terminal 3 in Figures 1 and 2) managed by a search requester who requests a search for information related to the specified search target, wherein the search requester device comprises: search request means (e.g., search request unit 81 in Figure 4) that controls the transmission of search request information including information that can identify the one or more search conditions to the searcher device; and search result acquisition means (e.g., search result acquisition unit 82 in Figure 4) that acquires the search result information output from the search system, and the searcher device may further comprise search request acceptance means (e.g., search request acceptance unit 51 in Figure 4) that accepts a search request from the search requester by receiving the search request information transmitted from the search requester device.

[0061] Furthermore, for example, the confidential state maintaining search means may search for the search result information according to a search method that incorporates secure computation in a secret sharing scheme.

[0062] 1...Searcher terminal, 2...Search system, 3...Search requester terminal, 11...CPU, 12...ROM, 13...RAM, 14...Bus, 15...Input / output interface, 16...Input unit, 17...Output unit, 18...Memory unit, 19...Communication unit, 20...Drive, 30...Removable media, 51...Search request receiving unit, 52...Search condition receiving unit, 53...Search condition concealment unit, 54...Concealed search condition transmission control unit 54, 61...Concealed state maintenance search unit, 71...Database, 81...Search request unit 81, 82...Search result acquisition unit

Claims

1. An information processing system including a searcher device that outputs one or more search conditions received from a searcher, and a search system that searches for information on a specified search target based on the one or more search conditions and outputs the information as search result information, wherein the searcher device comprises: search condition receiving means that receives input of the one or more search conditions from the searcher; search condition concealment means that conceals at least a portion of the one or more received search conditions; and search condition transmission control means that executes control to transmit the one or more search conditions in a state in which at least a portion of them is concealed to the search system, and the search system comprises: confidentiality state maintaining search means that searches for information on the specified search target using the one or more search conditions in a state in which at least a portion of them is concealed, and outputs the information as the search result information.

2. The information processing system of claim 1, wherein the specified search target is a legal regulation regarding a specified component of a specified content in a chemical product or material, the one or more search conditions include the component and content of the chemical product or material, and the search condition concealment means conceals at least one of the component and content of the search target.

3. The information processing system according to claim 1, further comprising a search requester device managed by a search requester who requests a search for information on the specified search target, wherein the search requester device comprises: a search request means that executes control to send search request information including information that can identify the one or more search conditions to the searcher device; and a search result acquisition means that acquires the search result information output from the search system, and wherein the searcher device further comprises: a search request acceptance means that accepts a search request from the search requester by receiving the search request information sent from the search requester device.

4. The information processing system according to claim 1, wherein the confidential state maintaining search means searches for the search result information according to a search method that incorporates secret sharing secure computation.

5. An information processing method executed by an information processing system including a searcher device that outputs one or more search conditions received from a searcher, and a search system that searches for information on a specified search target based on the one or more search conditions and outputs the information as search result information, wherein the steps executed by the searcher device include: a search condition receiving step that receives input of the one or more search conditions from the searcher; a search condition concealing step that conceals at least a portion of the received one or more search conditions; and a search condition transmission control step that executes control to transmit the one or more search conditions, at least a portion of which has been concealed, to the search system, and the steps executed by the search system include: a confidentiality-maintaining search step that searches for information on the specified search target using the one or more search conditions, at least a portion of which has been concealed, and outputs the information as the search result information.

6. A program for causing a computer in an information processing system to execute control processing, the program comprising: a searcher device that outputs one or more search conditions received from a searcher; and a search system that searches for information on a specified search target based on the one or more search conditions and outputs the information as search result information, the program causing the computer controlling the searcher device to execute control processing including: a search condition receiving step that receives input of the one or more search conditions from the searcher; a search condition concealing step that conceals at least a portion of the received one or more search conditions; and a search condition transmission control step that controls the transmission of the one or more search conditions, at least a portion of which has been concealed, to the search system, and a confidentiality maintaining search step that searches for information on the specified search target using the one or more search conditions, at least a portion of which has been concealed, and outputs the information as the search result information.

Images