Over on our sister blog, Payments Views, Glenbrook's Russ Jones wraps up his commentary on the recent X.Commerce Innovators Conference with a post entitled, "Do You Want a Commerce Identity? I Do!"

Logging in to a website with my social identity tells the seller that I have an account. That’s all. But using my commerce identity via PayPal Access tells the seller that I’m a buyer. It tells them, minimally, that I’ve set up a PayPal account, attached a payment method to that account, and the account is in good standing.

The post explores the implications of PayPal Access and the little known X.Commerce Segmentation Service and Prospect Score.

PayPal has announced the availability of 'PayPal Access', a new trusted commerce identity system that allows buyers to shop across the web without having to remember multiple passwords.

Unlike identity solutions currently on the market, PayPal Access provides everything consumers and merchants need to create an account and complete a transaction – including user verification, shipping information, and payment details.

BusinessWeek, and various other media outlets, are reporting that the Obama administration will be creating a new office in the Department of Commerce to oversee the government's implementation of a national online identity ecosystem. A draft proposal entitled the National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace (NSTIC) was published last June.

Open Identity Exchange (OIX) and Kantara Initiative recently announced that they will begin collaborating on digital trust framework development to build and promote adoption of a robust online trust ecosystem. Digital trust frameworks enable trust in transactions such as logins, registrations, and online eCommerce by allowing digital identity credentials produced by one site to be accepted at other sites.

OIX executive members include AT&T, CA, Equifax, Google, PayPal, VeriSign, and Verizon. READ MORE »

Google, PayPal, Equifax, VeriSign, Verizon, CA, and Booz Allen Hamilton have announced the formation of the Open Identity Exchange (OIX), a non-profit organization they say is "dedicated to building trust in the exchange of online identity credentials across public and private sectors. With initial grants from the OpenID (OIDF) and Information Card Foundation (ICF), OIX has been approved as a trust framework provider by the United States Government to certify online identity management providers to U.S. federal standards for identity assurance." READ MORE »

TransUnion and ID Analytics have announced that TransUnion will include ID Analytics' collections, credit, and identity risk solutions in TransUnion's portfolio of service offerings. According to the two firms, "ID Analytics' scores provide TransUnion customers with unique, real-time insight into consumers' fraud risk and creditworthiness across the entire lifecycle including origination, portfolio management and collections. The two companies are jointly delivering a suite of solutions that reduce credit losses, improve collection efforts, and reduce costs associated with fraudulent transactions." READ MORE »

Ten industry leaders — Yahoo!, PayPal, Google, Equifax, AOL, VeriSign, Acxiom, Citi, Privo and Wave Systems — have announced "they will support the first pilot programs designed for the American public to engage in open government — government that is transparent, participatory, and collaborative. This open identity initiative is a key step in President Obama's memorandum to make it easy for individuals to register and participate in government websites — without having to create new usernames and passwords. Additionally, members of the public will be able to fully control how much or how little personal information they share with the government at all times."

These companies will act as digital identity providers using OpenID and Information Card technologies. The pilot programs are being conducted by the Center for Information Technology (CIT), National Institutes of Health (NIH), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and related agencies. The participating companies are being certified under non-discriminatory open trust frameworks developed under collaboration between the OpenID Foundation (OIDF) and the Information Card Foundation (ICF) per the federal government Trust Framework Provider Adoption Process. READ MORE »

Acxiom has announced the introduction of a digital identity card as a beta offering for retail merchants, corporations, financial institutions and other organizations that wish to offer a privately branded identity card to their customers.

According to Acxiom, "a digital identity card allows consumers to establish new online accounts and log in to existing accounts with a unique, encrypted identity that is stored on the consumer’s personal computer. This is the digital equivalent of a privately branded identity card that is typically carried in a person’s wallet." READ MORE »

Equifax has announced "a suite of products and industry initiatives to protect consumers' identity online and enhance security for personally identifiable information. Led by Ron Carpinella, vice president of identity management and identity marketing, Equifax's "Identity 2.0" program builds a pipeline of products that make online transactions easier and more secure for consumers and businesses. The Equifax I-Card(TM) and its enhanced authentication offering, eIDverifier(R), are two of the company's initiatives." READ MORE »

ID Analytics has announced the availability of the ID Network Attributes, a family of products that provide organizations with greater insight into the array of consumer identity information within the company's ID Network. According to the company, "these attributes reveal new and powerful insights into identity information not available from other sources such as public records or credit bureaus, while protecting the sensitivity of the data." READ MORE »

Equifax has announced the Equifax online identity card or I-Card, with a beta test of what it is calling "a first-of-its-kind digital identity management solution that is designed to make online transactions easier and more secure for both consumers and businesses." READ MORE »

ID Analytics has announced an enhanced version of ID Score that "leverages critical online identity elements to further reduce identity fraud within the online environment, while also significantly improving the customer experience." READ MORE »

Citi has announced the launch of a high-assurance digital identity solution — Citi Managed Identity Services - saying it "enables Citi clients to use digital identity and signature technologies to effectively and securely manage the exchange of electronic information in digital commerce and business critical transactions." READ MORE »

ID Analytics has announced the availability of ID Analytics for Authentication - calling it "a network based authentication solution that enables organizations to validate customer identities during online and call center interactions. ID Analytics for Authentication accurately separates legitimate and suspicious identities while reducing customer abandonment rates and lowering the cost of an authentication session by up to 50 percent." READ MORE »

The Information Card Foundation has officially launched its web site and posted its announcement press release. The founding companies say it's their goal "to advance a simpler, more secure and more open digital identity on the Internet, increasing user control over their personal information while enabling mutually beneficial digital relationships between people and businesses." READ MORE »

Robert Vamosi reports for Cnet News.com on the Information Card Foundation, a new group created by Equifax, Google, Microsoft, Novell, Oracle, PayPal, and others to "increase awareness of the use of electronic ID cards on the Internet, and encouraging interoperability in business around new standards." The Information Card Foundation website should be updated with more information on Tuesday. See also Dark Reading's article today. Laurie Flynn covers the story in Tuesday's New York Times.

Chris Skinner blogs about the results of a discussion earlier this week at the Financial Services Club in London on the question of whether current authentication and identification methods are good enough.

Acxiom has announced FactCheck-X Authenticate - calling it "a more secure means of online account authentication. Based on unique, biographically based question-and-answer sessions for account holders, businesses are more secure and customers can experience a better online authentication experience." READ MORE »

Stefan Brands has announced that his company's (Credentica) U-Prove technology has been acquired by Microsoft and that he and a couple of his colleagues have joined Microsoft's Identity and Access Group. More about the acquisition at Kim Cameron's IdentityBlog and Microsoft's Data Privacy Imperative blog.

Yahoo! has announced "its support for the OpenID 2.0 digital identity framework for all 248 million active registered Yahoo! users worldwide. OpenID, an open framework based on proven Internet technologies, enables users to consolidate their Internet identity, eliminating the need to create separate IDs and logins at all of the various websites, blogs, and profile pages they may visit in the course of their online session. In addition to the many leading Yahoo! services users already enjoy, anyone with a Yahoo! ID will be able to use the same ID for easy access to any sites that support OpenID 2.0."

Experian has announced that Experian and Microsoft have developed a proof of concept identity management service using Microsoft Windows CardSpace. The company said that "as ID fraud activity intensifies, this service streamlines identity authentication and provides a safer and simpler way to pay online."

Javelin Strategy & Research has announced its 2007 Banking Identity Safety Scorecard, "an annual ranking and study of the top 25 U.S. banks in areas of identity fraud prevention, detection and resolution. This year, financial institutions showed strength in resolution practices, but vulnerability in prevention and detection."

ID Analytics has announced ID Score-Revenue, calling it "a new solution to help companies expand their customer base by more accurately evaluating the risk of individuals that lack substantial credit histories."

TransUnion has announced that effective October 15, 2007, it will offer what it its calling "the credit reporting industry's first complete file freeze solution" - providing U.S. consumers in all 50 states and the District of Columbia with the ability to freeze their credit files, should they feel that step is warranted.

Bank of America has announced a new security feature for its online banking service called SafePass™ that the bank says "provides customers with an extra layer of protection against unauthorized transactions." According to the bank, "SafePass delivers a one-time-use six digit code as a text message to consumers' mobile devices that they can use to authorize their most sensitive online transactions. As an additional security measure, the code expires as soon as it is used or within 10 minutes after it is issued."

In a commentary titled "Identity: Innovation or Infrastructure", Glenbrook's Linda Elliott shares some of her thoughts going into this year's Digital Identity World conference.

Consumer Reports National Research Center has announced results of a national poll finding that "an overwhelming majority of Americans want lawmakers to restrict the use and availability of Social Security numbers by businesses and government agencies. According to the poll, 89 percent of Americans agree that state and federal lawmakers should pass laws restricting the use of Social Security numbers."

Actimize has announced that it has expanded its cross channel Remote Banking fraud prevention solution with new Mobile Banking capabilities.

Late last month, the US Government Accountability Office issued a study report titled "SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBERS - Use is Widespread and Protection Could Be Improved" (PDF).

Experian has announced a new fraud detection solution that the company says "integrates data authentication with consumer challenge questions to create the most comprehensive approach for detecting fraud and managing the associated risk. The new product, Knowledge IQSM, is the first system to merge two essential elements in the fight against fraud."