Understanding Identity
Identities, or the set of claims made about an individual or account holder that are made about one party to another party (such as a service provider, application, or system), are a key part of authentication, authorization, and trust. The user accounts we use to log in require the ability to uniquely identify individuals and other subjects such as services to allow for permissions, rights, group memberships, and attributes to be associated with them.
The attributes associated with an identity include information about a subject and often include their name, address, title, contact information, and other details about the individual. These attributes may be used as part of authentication processes, may be used to populate directory information, or could be collected to help meet other organizational needs or business purposes.