Types of Information Cards

There are two types of Information Cards supported by CardSpace: Managed cards and Personal cards (also called self-issued cards).

Managed cards are cards that an Identity Provider has given to the user, who has imported it into Identity Selector. Identity Providers declare the claims they support in their cards using URIs. Separate Identity Providers can collaborate on the URIs they use to declare their claims, or make up ones specifically for themselves.

Personal Cards are cards that the user is also acting as the Identity Provider, and the user provides all the values for the claims. CardSpace provides the facility for the user to create, edit, export, and import Personal Cards. The data for these cards is encrypted and stored on the user's computer. The claims that a Personal Card can support are fixed, so that Relying Parties can accept a common, consistent Information Card.