This thesis addresses the problem of providing trusted individuals with confidential information about other individuals, in particular, granting access to databases of personal records using the World-Wide Web. It proposes an access rights management system for distributed databases which aims to create and implement organisation structures based on the wishes of the owners and of demands of the users of the databases. The dissertation describes how current software components could be used to implement this system; it re-examines the theory of collective choice to develop mechanisms for generating hierarchies of authorities; it analyses organisational processes for stability and develops a means of measuring the similarity of their hierarchies.