"I'm also a bit disappointed here with Hacker News. Folks here could easily imagine an internet that is easier and safer with a better way for users to manage t

"I'm also a bit disappointed here with Hacker News. Folks here could easily imagine an internet that is easier and safer with a better way for users to manage their identities" I'm disappointed with you. Why do your values for a "safer and better" internet have to be imposed on me? Where is your objective data showing this will be a "safer and better" internet? Is internet use in Australia "safer and better" because they choose to govern and censor it? To me this sounds like the marketing-speak of the war on drugs and terror. Furthermore, why do I need a federal program to do this? There are already identity management solutions and standards widely available, namely Shibboleth http://shibboleth.internet2.edu/ http://shibboleth.internet2.edu/, which is deployed across California State Universities and universities across the U.S. There is no reason it could not be leveraged for federated identity. >"While I'm also deeply opposed to any government-run program, that's not what's happening here." Pardon? Just because it is a private-public partnership does not exclude the government from ownership, but don't trust me, go read the source yourself: http://www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/ns_tic.pdf http://www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/ns_tic.pdf That is the draft from when it was proposed for DHS. You can see in the document itself the references to "accountability" of these private partners to the government in their "Identity Ecosystem".