Identity crisis: user perspectives on multiplicity and control in federated identitymanagement

Federated identity management systems synthesise complex and fragmented user information into a single entity.Literature from the provider’s perspective notes this integration extends many benefits to the end user and theprivileges provided by digital identity authentication schemes have been well documented from this perspective. Lessexplored are the perceptions of federation from the user’s perspective. This study reports an empirical user study thatexamines the relationship between identity and technology using contextual interviews, focus groups and culturalprobes. It emerges that while current federated systems satisfy user needs by allowing the construction of multipledigital data sets that are moored to a central identifier, they fail to provide the user with control over the capabilityto act in the ‘hatch’, ‘match’ and ‘dispatch’ phases of the digital identity lifecycle. Ultimately, this reduces the user’strust in providers and results in reluctance to disclose personal details.