Benefits of Privacy-Enhancing Identity Management

Privacy-enhancing identity management systems allow users to act securely in the information society while keeping sovereignty over their personal spheres. This paper elaborates the benefits that privacy-enhancing identity management can provide for both end users and services sides. These benefits include increased privacy protection for end users and enhanced trust relations between users and services sides. The PRIME system developed within the EU project PRIME (Privacy and Identity Management for Europe) and a PRIME-enable e-shopping application scenario are used to illustrate these benefits. Besides, also potential business drivers for services sides to deploy privacy-enhancing identity management systems are discussed.