Patent ID: 7428750

Claim:
A method of managing a plurality of identities associated with a single user comprising: assigning an identity broker at a server and at a client to act on behalf of the single user; receiving, at the server, user identity information from the single user from the client, the user identity information representing a plurality of user identities for authenticating the single user with one or more target services, said user identity information being different from the plurality of user identities, each of the user identities being different and being associated with the one or more target services; sending, from the server, one or more requests to the target services to obtain additional user identity information, the additional user identity information comprising credential information for each of the user identities, each of the requests comprising a portion of the received user identity information; receiving the additional user identity information from the target services in response to authentication of the single user by the target services via the sent requests; synchronizing the received identity information and the received additional user identity information between the server and the client; registering the received user identity information and the received additional user identity information for management of the plurality of user identities such that the single user is authenticated with the one or more target services based on the user identity information; providing a linking relationship among the user identity information and the additional user identity information of the plurality of user identities at the server such that each user identity information of the single user corresponds to the additional user identity information of the single user, wherein the linking relationship enables the server to manage the plurality of user identities in groups; and wherein the assigned identity brokers on the server and the client manage the identity of the single user as a function of the received identity information and the received additional user identity information without a party other than the single user to know about the received additional user identity information.