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Using Managed Informaton Cards for Credit Claims  


One potential use of managed Information Cards may be to help prevent identity theft by enabling consumers to ensure that their credit information is provided to merchants and credit grantors only in response to a legitimate request for a new credit accout.  If a consumer is applying for such an account online, the merchant or credit grantor (now a relying party) could provide, on its website, a button which would invoke the consumer's "identity selector." This selector would display those managed Information Cards that can provide verified credit claims about the consumer.  If the consumer has such a card, the selection of this Information Card by the consumer, followed by authentication of the consumer to the credit bureau, would result in a secure token transmitted to the credit grantor / relying party, containing the consumer's credit information.

One advantage of this use of Information Cards is that it would streamline and make more efficient the current methods available to consumers for preventing identity theft; namely fraud alerts and security freezes.  The use of Information Cards in this way gives consumers a potentially better way to prevent their credit information from being made available to credit grantors when an identity thief is attempting to open a new account in the consumer's name.