Information card
Personal digital identity for online use
An information card (or i-card) is a personal digital identity that people can use online, and the key component of an identity metasystem. Visually, each i-card has a card-shaped picture and a card name associated with it that enable people to organize their digital identities and to easily select one they want to use for any given interaction. The information card metaphor has been implemented by identity selectors like Windows CardSpace, DigitalMe or Higgins Identity Selector.
An identity metasystem is an interoperable architecture for digital identity that enables people to have and employ a collection of digital identities based on multiple underlying technologies, implementations, and providers. Using this approach, customers can continue to use their existing identity infrastructure investments, choose the identity technology that works best for them, and more easily migrate from old technologies to new technologies without sacrificing interoperability with others. The identity metasystem is based upon the principles in "The Laws of Identity".
Overview
There are three participants in digital identity interactions using information cards:
Identity providers issue digital identities for you. For example, businesses might issue identities to their customers, governments might vouch for the identities of their citizens, credit card issuers might provide identities enabling payment, online services could provide verified data such as age, and individuals might use self-issued identities to log onto websites.
Relying parties (RPs) accept identities for you. Online services that you use can accept digital identities that you choose and use the information provided by them on your behalf, with your consent.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Information card” as personal digital identity for online use. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as personal digital identity for online use. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 27, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1873988. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Information card” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.