[LINK] Microsoft tests identity technology in schools

[Stephen Wilson]

If you're going to attack this initiative, then you're going to have to 
get more focussed.  Microsoft's Information Cards are expressly all 
about supporting multiple identities, and do not involve a single global 
ID.  They have actually learned from the Passport mistakes.  In 
particular, Microsoft now is not an 'identity provider'.

I'm guessing in the schools pilot described, that an Info Card would be 
provided by the school concerned, corresponding to a set of local 
privileges.  Info Cards are not automatically portable through to other 
domains like university or the workforce; the expectation in the 
architecture is that you will get a fresh Info Card embodying specific 
claims/assertions when you join a new domain. 

In particular, if one Info Card was to hold your TFN, the architecture 
prevents other Info Cards from seeing it. 

So, Info Cards embody many properties that privacy advocates have long 
called for.  They're not perfect; for mine, they're deeply rooted in an 
'on-all-the-time' mentality, and could usefully be more de-centralised.  
But there's a lot of goodness there.

Cheers,

Stephen Wilson
Lockstep
www.lockstep.com.au




Tom Koltai wrote:
> An interesing twist on Global unique user ID.
> Get the students at schoool and keep their id for life... Wish I'd
> thought of it. ... 
>
> Anyone want to be that the ID's will be portable through university and
> out into the workforce ? 
> Read - linked to your ATO TFN.
>
> This one might not have popped up on the EFF screens yet. Mainly because
> it LOOKS so innocuous.
> Its not.
> ----------------------------
> http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-10223686-83.html
>
> SAN FRANCISCO--Microsoft is testing some of its new identity-based
> security technology in Washington state schools, where students and
> teachers will be able to securely access grades and class schedules, a
> Microsoft executive said in a keynote address Tuesday at the RSA 2009
> security conference here.