Study on Mobile Identity Management APPROACHES FOR MOBILE IDENTITY MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS

Approaches for Mobile Identity Management Systems

This chapter describes approaches for realising the requirements for mobile identity management systems. A complete survey of security systems for identity management will be given in FIDIS study on a “structured overview on prototypes and concepts of identity management systems” (D 3.1) and in the “database on ID laws and identity management systems in the EU” (D 8.3).  

Anonymity services are the foundation of identity management, since it enables to user to be anonymous towards his communication partners. Two anonymity mechanisms for mobile users are presented: location addressing and mCrowds. Location addressing empowers a mobile user to be anonymous, if his device does not have enough resources for using cryptographic algorithms or if no anonymity infrastructure is available. mCrowds establish an anonymity infrastructure without central servers for mobile users in order to minimise the dissemination of personal information on the mobile Internet. A comparison of anonymity mechanisms for ad hoc networks shows the advantages and disadvantages of anonymous communication protocols in ad hoc networks.

As an example for a mobile identity manager, the research prototype iManager is described by its architecture. An example illustrates the use of partial identities in order to protect the user’s privacy. In order to link a digital identity with a person, a smart card system called AXS ID-Card is later described.