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A federated identity in information technology is the means of linking a person's electronic identity and attributes, stored across multiple distinct identity management systems.
Related to federated identity is single sign-on (SSO), in which a user's single authentication ticket, or token, is trusted across multiple IT systems or even organizations. SSO is a subset of federated identity management, as it relates only to authentication and is understood on the level of technical interoperability.
Technologies
Technologies used for federated logon include SAML (Security Assertion Markup Language), OAuth and OpenID as well as proprietary standards.
Examples
Digital identity platforms that allow users to log onto third-party websites, applications, mobile devices and gaming systems with their existing identity, i.e. enable social login, include:
- Microsoft account - Formerly Windows Live ID
- Facebook; the federation functionality is called Facebook Connect
- Yahoo! - not only can users use their Yahoo! ID to log onto other sites, but users can log onto Yahoo! with their Google or Facebook IDs.
- PayPal
- Foursquare
- MySpace
- AOL
- Mozilla Persona
In many cases there is also the possibility to exchange profile information about the user with the third party site, for example name, address, email, and photo.