Digital Identity Management ― Technological, Business and Social Implications

For almost every organization in the future, both public and private sector, identity management presents both significant opportunities and risks. Successfully managed, it will allow everyone to access products and services that are tailored to their needs and their behaviours. But successful management implies that organizations will have overcome the significant obstacles of security, individual human rights and social concern that could cause the whole process to become mired. Digital Identity Management, based on the work of the annual Digital Identity Forum in London, provides a wide perspective on the subject and explores the current technology available for identity management, its applications within business, and its significance in wider debates about identity, society and the law. This is an essential introduction for organizations seeking to use identity to get closer to customers; for those in government at all levels wrestling with online delivery of targeted services; as well as those concerned with the wider issues of identity, rights, the law, and the potential risks.

David G.W. Birch is a Director of Consult Hyperion, the IT management consultancy that specialises in electronic transactions, which he helped found after several years working as a consultant in Europe, the Far East and North America. A physicist by training, David has lectured on the impact of new communications technologies to MBA level. He is on the editorial boards of the European Business Review and Microsoft's Finance on Windows, and is a correspondent to the Journal of Internet Banking and Commerce. He has written for publications ranging from The Guardian to the Parliamentary IT Review and is a media commentator on electronic business, having appeared on BBC TV and radio, CNN and CNBC amongst others.