Selecting a Card with CardSpace

SOURCE: Directions on Microsoft

The CardSpace user interface enables users to select digital “cards” to submit credentials or data to online services. Here a user is selecting a card to submit to a Web site (www.identityblog.com). Each card represents a set of credentials. In this case, the user has created three cards: an Anonymous Card that contains no personal information, a Personal Card with the user’s home e-mail, and a Work Card with a full name, work e-mail address, and a physical mailing address. The user can select which card he wishes to present to the Web site and is informed if the card is missing any required information. In this case, the user is being told that his Anonymous Card doesn’t have enough information to be sent to this site. The user can either choose another card or edit the card to add the required information.

To prevent malicious software from hijacking a user’s CardSpace data, the CardSpace selection screen is isolated from the rest of Windows. The illustration shows how the Web browser, along with the rest of the Windows desktop, is grayed out.