Trustmarks in the Identity Ecosystem: Definitions, Use, and Governance
Commissioned by the UK Identity Assurance Programme and the Open Identity Exchange, 2014
28 Pages Posted: 17 Oct 2017 Last revised: 23 Oct 2017
Date Written: September 1, 2014
Abstract
As the identity ecosystem evolves and grows, discussions of trustmarks are becoming more frequent. Trustmarks, privacy seals, certification marks and their like are a common feature of the online landscape, most often seen within an eCommerce context. Policy initiatives such as the US National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace (NSTIC) and the Digital Agenda for Europe specifically seek to advance and embed trustmarks for the good of the digital citizenry. The identity ecosystem is not the eCommerce domain, however, and wholesale appropriation of its trustmark concepts is not appropriate. This paper attempts to draw together a broad range of ideas and contexts for trustmark usage so as to distill a set of terms, concepts and considerations that are most useful to the identity management community.
Keywords: identity management, trust marks, web seals, certification, NSTIC, IDM, online trust, trust framework
JEL Classification: L14, L15, L86
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation