14 DAY TRIAL // OpenID, the single sign-on login system that is seeing increased support from several large companies and organizations, has scored another great victory, at least when it comes to public recognition, by having the US government support both OpenID and InfoCards on a number of official sites in a pilot program. Ten private companies have been chosen to participate in this first step and the announcement will come later today, at the Gov 2.0 Summit.
“In essence, this initiative will help transform government websites from basic 'brochureware' into interactive resources, saving individuals time and increasing their direct involvement in governmental decision making,” a statement announcing the program reads.
“OpenID and Information Card technologies make such interactive access simple and safe. For example, in the coming months the NIH [National Institute of Health ] intends to use OpenID and Information Cards to support a number of services including customized library searches, access to training resources, registration for conferences, and use of medical research wikis, all with strong privacy protections.”
The main advantage and drive behind the move is allowing individuals to use services set up on governmental sites without the need to create new accounts just for those services. By using their credentials from a trusted account on Yahoo, PayPal, Google, Equifax, AOL, VeriSign, Acxiom, Citi, Privo and Wave Systems to log into the governmental sites, users will have one less hassle to worry about. The pilot program will be available on sites from the Center for Information Technology (CIT), the National Institute of Health (NIH), the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and related agencies.
Privacy is, of course, one of the main concerns, which is why the program will start with a limited set of partners that have been heavily scrutinized by the government. The different sites that will implement the technologies won't be able to share any kind of information about users, even though they will be employing the same accounts to authenticate. However, once the privacy issues are ironed out, the program could be set for a wider release, making it even easier for US citizens to handle their dealing with the government.