Who manages the manager? Identity management and user ownership in the age of data

This paper presents a discussion of identity management, clarifying implications, central concepts and illustrating those by means of examples. It emphasizes the significance of access to user data from the perspective of businesses and issues of privacy and control from the perspective of the user. Today, most identity management systems focus on serving the business perspective: the more information the better. The concept of user ownership defines the significance of having access to information about users. But also the user can benefit, depending on how a system is configured. This paper thus serves not only as clarification and overview, but also as a means to determine mutual benefits and how these might be achieved.