Identifier or Attribute Provider

Full Title or Meme

Provides service to users to authenticate the user's identifiers or attributes for Relying Parties.

Context

This term is used in place of Identity Provider (IdP) on this wiki to be clear about the function of the service provided.

Problems

It costs a great deal of money for the operation and maintenance of any provider. Besides that, there is the vary real risk of being sued by any number of individuals or governments capable of enforcing huge costs. At the same time the users have become accustomed to get any service provided at no cost on the internet. This means that any successful provider will have a business model that provides a significant cash flow, or sovereign immunity from prosecution.

Social IdPs

A number of very successful businesses provide "Identity Providers" (IdPs) as a part of their effort to reach a large number of consumers of goods or services. The most well known in the West are Microsoft, Google and Facebook. The services and federated sign in capability that they provide is very attractive and reduces the cognitive load on the user for supporting many sites, each with their own user name and password. But there is a potentially large cost to users who rely on these social IdPs, the risk of losing an identity that is important in their daily lives.

All of the large social IdPs are now subject to intensive social and governmental pressures to limit socially obnoxious behaviors like "hate speech" or incitement to violence.