Patent ID: 7596804

Claim:
An apparatus for a baseline authentication agency for determining a user's login status as the user accesses a site within a network, said apparatus comprising: a database storing information about partner web sites that have been selected by a user for defining login parameters of the user associated with one or more of the partner web sites; a baseline authentication agency server for providing core global network authentication services configured: to receive a request from a user's browser, the request comprising: a site identification identifying a site; and a cookie related to the user and including: a reference to the baseline authentication agency; and an identifier distinguishing the baseline authentication agency which is associated with the user from a set of baseline authentication agencies; to determine whether the cookie is valid; to determine whether the user has authorized seamless login for the site using the information from the database; and to generate a login ticket for the site and send the login ticket to the user's browser if the cookie is valid and the user has authorized seamless login for the site; wherein the cookie is stored on a global network domain used for cookie sharing and the site is one of a collection of partner sites with access to cookies shared on the global network domain.