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Liberty Alliance Gains Momentum
kabanossen writes "News.com reports that AOL is joining the Liberty Alliance, which is a coalition of tech companies who are creating an alternative to Microsoft's Passport. Other members of the alliance are Sun, Nokia, Real Networks and General Motors "This provides a common language for authentication to ensure no one company controls the single authentication network" said a rep. " Mmmm...open standards. Hopefully.
Microsoft has Passport. This alliance offers another alternative. Both push our society towards a "know your neighbor", or perhaps "know your customer" model.
I remember a few years ago there being a pretty significant backlash against banks attempting the "Know your customer" model of business.
Let's not forget the "None of the above" option when contemplating these systems. Identification of a person is not always necessary or prudent, for a multitude of reasons.
Is this going to be "open standards" just like AOL's instant messenger is open standards? :)
Well, that would be sorta perfect for Ximian's mono! And if that "Liberty" thing is really open, what are the advantages of using Microsoft? People claimed that Mono was bad because it would force people into using passport - now if this Liberty thing works out, and somebody makes it work with Mono...
:)
Great idea!
sorry, but I don't want AOL to have my credit card info, just as I don't want Microsoft to have it.
when will these companies learn that we don't want a huge easily hackable database with all of our info in it? I'm quite happy memorizing my credit card number and providing it only when I feel it's necessary. With these passport like services, it's way too easy for a company to get you to sign in to get free service, and then simply start billing you after 'n' days, since they already have your credit card info, etc, in their database... At least now they have to send you a bill, or at the very least you have to provide a credit card number for a free trial...
I personally don't care if it's Microsoft, or some other tech company... I don't feel overally confident that a huge database with all of our info in it on the web is not going to get hacked...
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Programming is like sex... Make one mistake and support it the rest of your life.
This idea still provides a single point of failure for targetting hacking and DDoS attacks. Regardless of who controls it, one single authentication network is a horrible idea. It is doubtful that Passport will gain any serious momentum, since there have already been numerous attacks on the service. I have yet to see any services which support Passport outside of MSN, and I will never sign up for a Passport or a "Liberty Alliance" account or any other single point of failure.
Perhaps the Liberty Alliance group is taking their public relations cues from politics - it sounds 'shameful' to turn down something called 'The Patriot Act' regardless of what its details are. Maybe they are aiming for the same kind of thing in defeating passport.
[Note: I was unable to determine if this post is a trollish type thing. I guess the moderators will tell me.]
It's too AOL is so myopic about standards. On the one hand you have Mozilla and perhaps this and then on the other you have AIM.
34 companies isn't exactly a monopoly. Compare to a Microsoft-owned one company scenario.
What's dangerous, however, is that this 34 company oligopoly is the one that is likely to be the main influence in the SSS-CA and any regulation that results if that bill ever passes. They will have no qualms crushing your freedom to support their revenue models... "Liberty Alliance". Some joke.
I do not have a signature
the most ***important*** sentence in the article
"The sober truth is that although consumers are bothered by multiple user IDs and passwords, most consumers don't see much relative value in having one credential to navigate the Web," Avivah Litan, vice president and research director for Gartner, said in a statement.
before "single sign on" becomes useful, let's consider just some of things that don't exist now, that are needed to make it useful/valuable/necessary...to Joe/Jane Average
1. micropayments - we've been talking about them for years..still no standards, still no positive participation from the major central banking systems..PayPal has had to fight to get as far as it has
2. user authentication - biometrics are coming along nicely, but they have no useful installed base to speak off, and the first gen laptops with biometric user control has no way to "authenticate" the user
3. encryption - no agreement on standards, with the US Gov fighting ANY kind of suggestion to implement standard encryption of email, and pushing for "back doors" in every type of system they can
4. trust - who do you want to have access to ALL your confidential info - Armey, Bush, Case, Daschle, Ellison, Gates, Gephardt, Levin, McNealy, Murdoch, Rather, Redstone?????? All of these individuals (and their respective orgs) have been repeatedly shown to be driven by, UH, "goal achieveing orientation" and NOT by "philosophical/ethical/moral orientation"
5. Systems Security - even if you perceive that you trust the above folk to know that you peruse "Teletubbie FreakySex Sites" or "Death, The Beginning of your New Love Life" newsgroups,
ALL of these orgs have systems with major security flaws...so even with the "best of intentions"...chances are the whole world will find out what you did with that purple teletubbie doll...(and if you keep the video in "My Pictures" we can probably all watch it, too).
i just attended MS Professional Developers Conference in Los Angeles, where PassPort "single sign on" was a BIG push by the MS marketeers...most of the attendees couldn't have cared less
it's much more likely that after all the members of the "Billionaire Boyz Klub" are done with wrangling over "single sign on" as a way to insure "vendor lock in", that the G will step in, and shove their vision of this down ***EVERYBODIES" throats..."for our own good", of course
Ten quid, she's so easy to blind. And not a word is spoken...
It sounds like the Liberty Alliance is trying to create a set of common standards and not, as many people are freaking over, a second centralized database.
.NET is a good thing I think.
If they can come up with a decentralized yet intercompatible way of authentication then they might be on to something positive! Anything that can be done to prevent a Microsoft having a total strangle hold with
There was a microsoft wallet around the time of IE4, but I think most people were wary of it. .net will be MS sneaking the technology under your nose without explicitly calling it 'wallet'.
After all, Passport is a happier name invoking thoughts of holidays and happiness, whereas Wallet focuses on finance and work.
What's the problem with AOLserver? They bought it because they used it, and then released the code under the MPL and GPL. How evil is that?
And don't even think about pointing me in this [aolserver.com] direction.
Yeah, make sure you don't show this clown any evidence to contradict his opinion. He can't handle it. I wouldn't think of it.