[This is preliminary documentation and subject to change]

# About Passport Authentication

Microsoft Passport is an online user-authentication service. Passport lets a consumer create a single sign-in name and password for easy, secure access to all Passport-enabled Web sites and services. Passport-enabled sites (also called participating sites) rely on Passport to authenticate users rather than hosting and maintaining their own proprietary authentication systems. However, Passport does not authorize or deny a specific user's access to individual participating sites; Web sites that implement Passport maintain control over permissions.

Passport users can also store personal information in secure "profiles" on Passport's servers. When a Passport user registers at a participating site, this personal information can be shared with the site to speed registration. When the Passport user signs in at that site again, their Passport profile can enable access to personalized accounts or services at that site.

Passport's authentication features also make it a foundation service of Microsoft's emerging .NET platform. The ability to identify and authenticate a unique Internet user, in order to connect that user securely to his or her information and Web services anywhere, using any Web device, is fundamental to the .NET goal of secure, distributed computing between the Internet and client environments. Passport and .NET will help users unlock the Internet's full potential by letting them control their information and personalize their Web experience to an extent never before possible. And as a .NET foundation service, Passport will save businesses time and money by relieving developers of the need to build proprietary customer-authentication systems. Developers can concentrate instead on their sites' own value-added features.

Related Topics

- For more information about implementing Passport with IIS, see Configuring IIS for Passport Authentication.
- For more information about Passport Services, including how to sign into Passport, benefits for users and businesses, and instructions for implementing Passport on your Web sites, see the Microsoft Passport Business Services home page.

© 1997-2001 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.