Patent ID: 7958545

Claim:
A non-transitory computer readable medium storing computer executable code for managing multiple user identities for a user of an electronic commerce (e-commerce) site defined using the plurality of security domains, wherein the computer executable code, when executed on a computing device, causes the computing device to: in response to a user's request to invoke an operation of the e-commerce site: identify a type of user identity being used by the user, wherein types of user identities comprise a guest identity, a generic identity, and a registered identity, wherein the generic identity is a single user identity shared throughout a security domain, wherein the guest identity is an unique temporary user identity assigned to a user for the life of the user's session within the security domain, and wherein the registered identity is an unique identity that is reusable across sessions within the security domain; determine if the type of user identity is appropriate to invoke the operation; responsive to the type of user identity being an inappropriate type of user identity to invoke the operation, switch the user to the appropriate type of user identity to invoke the operation; responsive to the type of user identity being appropriate to invoke the operation, determine a security domain of the plurality of security domains to which the operation relates; select a session from a plurality of sessions persisted for the user based on the determined security domain; and reuse the selected session for the user automatically in accordance with the determined security domain, the selected session being associated with a user identity and a role, the user identity and the role together indicating privileges for invoking operations of the e-commerce site in the determined security domain.