Google and PayPal to Support New Government Login System
The aim of this new organization is exchange of online identity credentials across public and private sectors; in other words, it can certify online identity providers to U.S. federal standards.
What are these federal standards? Do they want to know the name of my first pet? The name of my elementary school? Knowing this stuff doesn’t prove anything, because so many websites ask these same questions.
I couldn’t find any specific information on their website, vagueness disguised in boring “big picture” talk, but this is one way they plan to convince people they should sign up for a hard-to-crack identity: membership discounts!
For example, if an association had chapters, an OITF could enable members to register with their local chapter and to signup for credentials with them as identity service providers. Members could then use these redentials to login to websites relating to the association so as to prove they were members in good standing and entitled to access special features (e.g.,discounts).
It’s funny Paypal is involved in this, because isn’t the founder of Paypal an extreme libertarian? If you don’t know what a libertarian is, they are people who don’t want a social security number, they want to go back to buying stuff with gold coins. In fact, this is why Paypal was created, to break free from the U.S. banking system and government control.
Then there’s Google, who would like a copy of my DNA for their X-files! This could get interesting.