Portable personal identity information

A computer-implemented method for receiving ported personal identity information of a principal at a receiving client from an originating client, the method comprising:

• receiving, at the receiving client, bound personal identity information from the originating client, wherein the bound personal identity information comprises a) one or more claims generated by an identity provider, b) metadata associated with the one or more claims, and c) backing data associated with the one or more claims, and wherein the one or more claims, metadata, and backing data are tied together, wherein the bound personal identity information received at the receiving client comprises a copy of the bound personal identity information located on the originating client;
• unbinding, by a processor, the received bound personal identity information, wherein the unbinding extracts at least one claim from the bound personal identity information;
• and
• requesting identification of the principal by a relying party, via the receiving client, by providing the extracted bound personal identity information to the relying party.

A computer-readable storage medium having encoded thereon computer-executable instructions that when executed perform a computer process for porting personal identification information of a principal from a first client to a second client, the computer process comprising:

• receiving selection of the first client;
• requesting identification of the principal by a relying party by providing personal identity information located on the first client to the relying party, wherein the personal identity information comprises a) one or more claims, wherein the one or more claims are generated by an identity provider, b) metadata associated with the one or more claims, and c) backing data associated with the one or more claims;
• receiving selection of the second client;
• binding the personal identity information located on the first client, wherein the binding ties together the one or more claims, metadata, and backing data;
• sending the bound personal identity information to the second client, wherein the sending the bound personal identity information comprises transmitting a copy of the bound personal identity information to the second client;
• and
• deleting the bound personal identity information on the first client after sending the bound personal identity information to the second client.