Multiple party benefit from an online authentication service

摘要

An account authentication service where a trusted party verifies an accountholder's identity for the benefit of a requestor during an online transaction.The account authentication involves requesting a password from the accountholder, verifying the password, and notifying the requestor whether the accountholder's authenticity has been verified. An alternative embodiment ofthe account authentication service includes a value-adding component whereinformation about a customer is shared with a value-adding party. The customerinformation is rich in detail about the customer since it is collected by eachof the parties in the account authentication process. The value-adding partycan then use this information in various manners. All of the parties involvedcan benefit from sharing the customer information. The value-adding party canbe, for example, a merchant, a shipper, a security organization, or a governmentalorganization. A transaction identifier identifies a specific transactionbetween a customer, a merchant, and the customer information.