User-centric identity governance across domain boundaries

Identity management is a set of viable technologies for supporting electronic interactions requiring identity information in the digital world. Although numerous elemental technologies have been developed in support of emerging standards and specifications, there has been little research on identity governance across domain boundaries from the user's viewpoint. It is thus still difficult for users to understand how their own identity information is being maintained, used, and propagated. An identity management framework is described for tracing the history of how a user's identity information is handled after it is transferred across domains of control. With this framework, organizations that manage identity information can improve accountability for their data practices and thereby increase their trustworthiness. The framework also enables users to control and optimize the propagation of their identity information in a user-centric manner.