Posted 8:53 AM

Selling Identity Data

In an odd little article "Glenbrook advisory Report : Rethinking Authentication", Glenbrook's Carol Cove Benson postulates that organizations with large amounts of identity data (banks, schools, ISPs, etc.) have a business opportunity: "it may be a straight revenue proposition, in which case relying parties pay credential issuers. Compensation to a credential issuer may be transactional in nature, or it may take the form of a bounty or commission if the relying party realizes a sale with the credential holder."

But this sounds a lot like the widely castigated and hopelessly flawed proposition Microsoft tried to implement with its "Hailstorm" initiative. As I said at the time Microsoft abandoned the project (which had been renamed ".NET MyServices", "Microsoft compounded its problems by insisting on a subscription model of payment for users and vendors making use of MyServices."

This model didn't work for Microsoft, and its not going to work for anyone else, either. A tip o'the hat to Eric Norlin from SourceID for pointing out this study.