A pluggable data filtering system allows users to access secure and non-secure data, using completely flexible filtering terms. The system provides functionality that identifies data that is both responsive to the user's search, and for which the user has been granted access rights, and automatically provides those data to the user, as filtered in accordance with the user's access rights. One particular embodiment of the pluggable data filtering system uses an interface implementation that assigns globally unique identifiers to filterable entities and filterable container entities that may be secure or non-secure, and uses detailed data access rights assigned to various user roles.