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Liberty Alliance Gains Momentum

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the moving-along dept.

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.

3 of 186 comments (clear)

  1. R.I.P. Anonymity? by AgTiger · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

  2. ummm no... by Quasar1999 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.
  3. Did I read it wrong? by MantridDronemaker · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

    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 .NET is a good thing I think.