September 8, 2008 --

Core News Facts:

• Information Card Foundation (ICF) adds seven international members to its growing list of founding members.
• ICF announced in June 2008 its mission to advance the information card metaphor as a key component of an open interoperable identity layer spanning both the enterprise and the Internet.
• Far more user control over personal information is a primary goal for ICF members.
• User benefits include:
• All of an individual's user names and passwords can be replaced with one or more Information Cards.
• Web users no longer must organize multiple "User Names and Passwords" for bank accounts, credit card accounts, retirement accounts, mortgages, and their favorite community sites or shopping sites.
• Web users decide who they share data with and which types of information they choose to share.
• Users have more control to minimize distribution of their personal data.
• Users enjoy higher levels of security.
• Business benefits include:
• Businesses will enjoy lower fraud rates and fewer "type-B" errors - denying credit to credit worthy customers.
• Frictionless commerce - instant login for repeat and new customers.
• Simple, secure, standards-based online transactions are enabled for all global businesses that choose to issue and/or accept information cards.
• Higher affinity with customers.
• Information Cards (infocards "i-cards" or just 'cards'):
• Take a familiar offline consumer behavior - using a card to prove identity and provide information - and bring it to the online world.
• Are card-shaped pictures, that allow a user to assert information about themselves (login, password, age, credit worthiness, address), and in some instances verify personal information by a trusted 3rd party (credit bureau, bank).
• Are protected by sophisticated security measures engineered to be far more safe, convenient and user-controlled than today's online transactions.
• Allow Web users to manage the information in their "i-cards," have multiple cards with different levels of detail for different purposes (social, business, casual, formal) and easily select the card they want to use for any given online interaction. Are compatible with existing identity systems, therefore they complement the work already done to improve digital security.
• The Information Card Foundation uses technology interopable with the OpenID to advance the principles of a user-centric web and data portability.
• As part of its affiliations with other organizations, The Information Card Foundation has been approved as a working group of Idendity Commons, a community driven organization promoting the creation of an open identity layer for the Internet while encouraging the development of healthy, interoperable communities.

Quote attributable to Charles Andres, Executive Director, Information Card Foundation
"Urgency to create better methods to secure personal information is here. And it is only growing stronger with every information breach. Protecting customer information is an enormous liability for corporations. If businesses use Information Cards to provide highly personal online experiences for customers without storing personal information, everyone wins."

Tags
Information Cards
Digital Relationships
Data Portability
Digital Identity
Identity Management
Web 2.0 Identity
i-card
Information Security

ICF Member and Media Contact
John Fitzsimmons
781-223-5833
johnfitzsimmons @ parityinc.net