History
Identity management (IdM) is a term related to how humans are authenticated (identified) and their actions authorized across computer networks. It covers issues such as how users are given an identity, the protection of that identity, and the technologies supporting that protection (e.g., network protocols, digital certificates, passwords, etc.).
Digital identity: Personal identifying information (PII) selectively exposed over a network. See OECD and NIST guidelines on protecting PII and the risk of identity theft.
Thus the term management is appended to "identity" to indicate that there is technological and best practice framework around a somewhat intractable philosophical concept. Digital identity can be interpreted as the codification of identity names and attributes of a physical instance in a way that facilitates processing. In each organization there is normally a role or department that is responsible for managing the schema of digital identities of their staff and their own objects, which are represented by object identities or object identifiers (OID).
The SAML protocol is a prominent means used to exchange identity information between two identity domains. Other examples are listed on the Website of this project.
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—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)