Patent ID: 8051472

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving into an identity provider, from a first access provider, a first message for a first service provider, the first access provider providing access to a communication network to a device of a user, the first service provider providing one or more services to the user of the communication network, and the first message associated with a first identifier corresponding to a user of the first access provider, the first identifier identifying the user allowing the user to access and communicate with the first access provider; and in response to receiving the first message from the first access provider: obtaining by the identity provider a second identifier on behalf of the user; disassociating by the identity provider the first identifier from the first message; associating by the identity provider the first message with the second identifier; and sending from the identity provider the first message associated with the second identifier to the first service provider, the second identifier providing for communication with the first service provider while masking identity information for the user and the device of the user contained within the first identifier; retrieving by the identity provider personalization information associated with the second identifier, wherein the personalization information comprises one or more of user preferences, user device characteristics, user device capabilities, user device settings, and user device addresses; sending from the identity provider a first subset of the personalization information to the first service provider; receiving into the identity provider, from a second access provider, a second message for the first service provider, the second message associated with a third identifier of the user of the second access provider; and in response to the second message from the second access provider: determining by the identity provider the third identifier is mapped to the first identifier; disassociating by the identity provider the third identifier from the second message; associating by the identity provider the second message with the second identifier; sending from the identity provider the second message associated with the second identifier to the first service provider; and sending from the identity provider the first subset of the personalization information to the first service provider.