In an access rights managing system, an application that can set access rights is limited, and if an information apparatus that the user uses does not install any specific application, the system cannot set desired access rights in a digital document. To solve this problem, data is received externally, and first identification information associated with access rights control is extracted from a predetermined position of the received data. Second identification information corresponding to the first identification information is obtained, and is appended to the received data. The received data is then stored in a memory.