WO2011070442A2

WO2011070442A2 - Method and system for anonymous user identification in a website

Info

Publication number: WO2011070442A2
Application number: PCT/IB2010/003406
Authority: WO
Inventors: Pauli Koskelainen; Timo Helenius
Original assignee: APE PAYMENT Oy
Current assignee: APE PAYMENT Oy
Priority date: 2009-12-10
Filing date: 2010-12-10
Publication date: 2011-06-16
Anticipated expiration: 2012-06-10
Also published as: WO2011070442A3

Abstract

A system and method for the user identification in a website, wherein a user accesses a website over a communication network through a web browser, has been disclosed in the invention. The method for the user identification comprising: sending an request to identify the user on the website; receiving an identification request by the web browser, wherein the identification request is sent by the website to the web browser; transmitting the identification request to an identification system, wherein the identification request is transmitted to the identification system by the web browser; processing the identification request by the identification system; sending an identification response to the web browser by the identification system; and transmitting the identification response to the website.

Description

METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR ANONYMOUS USER IDENTIFICATION IN A

WEBSITE

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

[0001 ] The invention relates in general to online the identification systems and in particular, to a method and system for identifying the users anonymously in a website.

BACKGROUND

[0002] In the world of communication and increased use of the Internet for various purposes such as seeking information, buying and selling goods, entertainment, etc., logging into websites provides a basic method of identification of the user to a website. Conventionally, in an online identification and authorization system the user is required to provide his the user id, password, and personal details to gain access to the particular content of a website or for other ecommerce usages. There are several methods by which a user accomplishes this method in the existing system

[0003] For instance, in the existing payment systems, email services, online shopping portals, etc., the user is required to create an account on the particular website by providing his personal details like name, date of birth, sex, address, country, etc. Further, the user may be required to set a password for authorizing access to the site in future. Thus, for multiple payment systems and online shopping portals the user is required to remember multiple passwords, which can be very cumbersome.

[0004] Further, there are numerous sites which require an email address and a password for accessing the contents of the website. The website may resort to such a strategy for authorization due to various reasons. The reasons may range from tracking a user's activity to keeping track of number of the users.

[0005] There are also numerous gaming sites which again require the user to create a login and provide a password for gaining access. The identity of the real the user may be of least importance for the gaming website, and the user may not even remember numerous identification names (IDs) created on different gaming sites.

[0006] Also, many advertising sites provide a revenue sharing model based on the number of clicks to a particular site. This too requires tracking number of non-duplicating persons accessing a website. This may again require the user to enter his email and password in the website to identify him so that the same the user may not duplicate his identity.

[0007] However, all these methods suffer from the time consuming process of creating an account on each site and remembering the password even if the identity of the user is of little importance to the website.

[0008] Thus, there is a need to overcome such tedious and taxing processes of identifying a user on these websites that require the user to create and memorize a site-specific ID and passwords.

[0009] Another drawback of existing systems is that the user has to disclose his/her personal information to gain access to the website. However, the website may use the personal information for unsolicited use, for example, for sending promotional emails to the user's account, etc. Therefore, there is need for a system where a user can access a website without disclosing his/her personal details.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[001 0] The present method provides a method and system for identifying the users in a website without any human intervention. The approach, which may be used for various purposes including identifying a user without the need to provide a login and/or a password, is disclosed herewith.

[001 1 ] According to the present invention, an identification system interacts with an

Internet website server and a personal the computer system for identifying a user visiting the website without any human intervention. In an embodiment of the invention, a user's action of clicking on the login button on the login page of the website automatically logs in the user. In yet another embodiment of the invention, a login could also be carried out automatically without the user clicking the login button. Here, the user visiting the webpage of website is automatically identified and is logged in. The user is not required to provide any details like name, the user ID or a password to access the website. At the same time, the user is provided access with the same the user ID that was assigned to him at the time of first login. According to an embodiment of the invention, the user identification is linked with an identifying cookie stored on the web browser of the personal the computer system. The identifying cookie is stored on the web browser by the identification system. In another embodiment of the invention, the identifying cookie can be used on different the computer systems to identify and gain access to the website.

[001 2] In another embodiment of the invention, the user chooses a login of his choice on his first login, and on his later visits to the website, the user is automatically logged on to the website with the same chosen login. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[001 3] FIG. 1 is a diagram which depicts one embodiment of the system of the present invention.

[001 4] FIG. 2 is a simplified diagram depicting the interaction of a user, a website server and an identification server in communication with each other over the Internet, according to an embodiment of the invention.

[001 5] FIG. 3 is a diagrammatic representation of one embodiment of the steps of a method of the user identification over the Internet.

[001 6] FIG. 4 is a diagrammatic representation of alternative method steps in which the user identification over the Internet is accomplished, according to yet another embodiment of the invention.

[001 7] FIGS. 5 A and 5B represent a flowchart depicting the method steps of practicing the invention according to an embodiment of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[001 8] In the following description, specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the invention. However, it will be apparent to a person ordinarily skilled in the art that the invention may be practiced without these specific details. Various aspects and features of example embodiments of the invention are described in detail hereinafter.

[001 9] The present invention discloses a method and a system for identifying a user over the Internet without any human intervention. [0020] Reference will now be made in detail to embodiments of the present invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein like reference numerals refer to like elements throughout. The embodiments are described below in order to explain the present invention by referring to the figures.

[0021 ] FIG. 1 is a diagram depicting one embodiment of the system 100 of the present invention. The system 100 comprises a plurality of the users 102 who access the website through their computer systems 104. A computer system 104 is any device that can be used to access a website over the Internet. Examples of the computer system include but are not limited to laptops, personal desktop computers, mobile phones, PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants) and Internet kiosks. According to an embodiment of the invention, the computer system 104 used by the user 102 is a laptop. The users 102 communicate with different websites 106 that are hosted on the web servers 108 over a communication network 202. Each the user 102 logs in to a plurality of websites 106 through an identification system 110. A website is a collection of related webpages, images, videos or other digital assets that are addressed with a common domain name or IP address in an Internet Protocol-based network. A website is hosted on at least one the web server, accessible via a network such as the Internet or a private local area network. A webpage is a text file that contains not only text, but also a set of HTML tags that describe how the text should be formatted when a browser displays it on the screen. The tags are simple instructions that tell the Web browser how the page should look when it is displayed. The tags tell the browser to do things like change the font size or color, or arrange things in columns. The Web browser interprets these tags to decide how to format the text onto the screen. Webpages are accessed and transported with the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), which may optionally employ encryption (HTTP Secure, HTTPS) to provide security and privacy for the user of the webpage content. The user's application, often a web browser, renders the page content according to its HTML markup instructions onto a display terminal. HTML stands for Hyper Text Markup Language. A "markup language" is a computer language that describes how a page should be formatted. A Web browser, like Netscape® Navigator® or Microsoft® Internet Explorer® for example, is a computer program (also known as a "software application," or simply an "application") that is enabled to go to a web server on the Internet and request a page, so that the browser can pull the webpage through the network and into the user's machine. Also, a Web browser can interpret the set of HTML tags within the webpage in order to display the webpage on the user's screen as the page is intended to be displayed.

[0022] FIG. 2 is a simplified diagram depicting the interaction of the user 102, website

106, website server 108, and the identification system 110 over a communication network 202, according to an embodiment of the invention.

[0023] In one embodiment, communication network 202 is a local area network (LAN).

In another embodiment, communication network 202 is a wide area network (WAN). In one such embodiment, communication network 202 is the Internet. In another embodiment, communication network 202 can be any network through which data packets can be transferred between elements of the system in communication with the communication network 202. In some embodiments, communication network 202 may be a combination of different networks that provide communication between the user 102, the website server 108 and the identification system 110.

[0024] According to the embodiment, an externally-embedded software code is embedded on website 106. The externally-embedded software code enables the website 106 to communicate with a web browser running on the computer system 104 and with the identification system 110. The externally-embedded software code is a set of instructions understandable by a computer system 104 that enables the web server 108 to send and receive communication messages from the web browser of the computer system 104, to encode and decode communication messages, and to communicate with the web server 108. It would be apparent to a person skilled in the art that the externally-embedded software code may be any of the server-side scripts such as JAVASCRIPT, ASP, COLDFUSION MARKUP LANGUAGE, ANSI C, JAVASERVER PAGES, PHP, PERL, SMX, PYTHON, LASSO, RUBY or any other server-side script.

[0025] According to an embodiment, the user 102 visits a website 106 by entering the web address of the website 106 into a web browser. The action of visiting the website 106 automatically logs in the user 102 providing him access to content on the web server 108. For example, a visitor would be automatically identified on a news content site as soon as he visits the homepage of the news site. Web server 108 is automatically triggered to identify the user 102 without any further intervention by the user. According to another embodiment, the user 102 may have to press a 'submit' button to enable the user 102 to identify himself. A 'Submit' button is a standard button on a webpage that, when clicked, will trigger execution of a web script on the web server 108 in order to identify the user 102. For example, on a gaming site a visitor is required to identify himself by selecting a "submit" or "login" button on a GUI.

[0026] Further, once the web server 108 is triggered to identify the user 102, the website

106 requests authentication of the user 102 from the web browser on the computer system 104. The identification request from website server 108 in turn activates the web browser. The web browser sends the identification request to the identification system 110. The details and format of the identification request are discussed herein in conjunction with FIG. 3. The identification system 110 processes the identification request and sends back an identification response to the web browser of the computer system 104. The details of processing the identification request are discussed in detail in conjunction with FIG. 5. The identification response received by the web browser is then transmitted to website server 108, thereby identifying the user 102.

[0027] According to yet another embodiment of the invention, website server 108, upon being triggered by the user 102 to gain access to the website 106, asks the identification system 110 for the identity of the user 102. The details and format of the identification request are discussed herein in conjunction with FIG. 4. The identification system 110 processes the identification request and sends back an identification response to the website server 108 directly, thereby identifying the user 102. The details of processing the identification request are discussed in detail in conjunction with FIG. 5.

[0028] FIG. 3 is a diagrammatic representation of the order of the steps in which the method of the user identification over the Internet is accomplished, according to an embodiment of the invention. Referring to FIG. 3, in step 1, the user 102 keys in the website address of a website 106 on a web browser 302 and opens a webpage on a website 106. The website server 108 renders the webpage of website 106 on the web browser 302 of the computer system 104. Here, the web browser 302 may be a computer program, a software application or even mobile based software that is enabled to go to a web server 108 on the Internet 202 and request a webpage, so that the web browser 302 can pull the webpage through the network and into the user's computer system 104. Also, a web browser 302 is enabled to interpret the set of HTML tags within the webpage in order to display the webpage on the user's screen as the page is intended to be displayed. [0029] According to an embodiment of the invention, the action of the user 102 visiting the website 106 triggers execution of a software script on the web server 108. An externally- embedded software code as discussed in conjunction with FIG. 2, saved on the web server 108, is automatically sent to the computer system 104. This externally-embedded software code, which is essentially a set of instructions in a server side script, is embedded in the website 106 by the identification system 110. The externally-embedded software code initiates the process of user 102 identification by sending an identifying request to the web browser 302, wherein the identification request is further passed on to the identification system 110. According to an embodiment of the invention, the identification system 110 enables users 102 to log in to a website 106. According to the embodiment, a part of externally-embedded software code may be sent over to the web browser 302 along with the webpage in step 2 of FIG. 3. The website server 108 sends the externally-embedded software code along with HTML text for rendering the webpage on the web browser 302. It will be apparent to a person skilled in the art that the arrangement between website server 108 and the identification system 110 to facilitate identification of the user 102 may be either commercial arrangement or a non-commercial arrangement.

[0030] In step 3 of FIG. 3, the web browser 302 further transmits the identification request to the identification system 110. The identification request may also transmit along with the identification request an identification dataset stored on the computer system 104. Web browser 302 may send the request to the identification system 110 in a JavaScript® or any other server script as discussed in conjunction with FIG. 1. Prior to step 3 of FIG. 3, the externally- embedded software code transmitted from the website 106 is executed on the web browser 302 and checks for the presence of an identification dataset. The identification dataset is a data packet that may contain information about the user 102, the website 106, the computer system 104 or any other related information in a data bundle which can be stored on the computer system 104. The identification dataset can be used by the identification system 110 to extract any information that may be necessary to identify the user 102.

[0031 ] Various web technologies that may be used to construct the identification dataset may be, but are not limited to, the following tools: (1) web browser cookies, which are pieces of text that are stored on a web browser, (2) Local SharedObject, which acts like a browser cookie but which is accessed with an Adobe® Flash Player® browser plugin installed on the computer system 104, (3) Java Applet, which can access remote data files and send them freely, with a user's permission, to access the remote files using a Java® plugin installed on the web browser of the computer system 104, (4) Personal client certificate, which may be imported to a browser, Microsoft® Silverlight® , which can use a sandbox for local files, similar to ADOBE FLASH), (5) Microsoft® ActiveX®, which provides full access to a computer system 104 after granting permission, (6) Local proxy software (like Norton® Internet Security®, or any other browser plugins made specifically for the identification of the browsing device 302 of the user 102.

[0032] In an exemplary embodiment, the identification dataset contained in the payment request is a browser cookie. The browser cookie, hereinafter referred to as identification cookie, will be used to describe the embodiment in detail. The identification cookie is a piece of text that is stored on the web browser 302 of the computer system 104. The identification cookie may include the digital signature of the website data, the user profile data, the machine address of the computer system 104 or any other details. Further, in one embodiment, the identification cookie is stored as a permanent cookie. It would be apparent to a person skilled in the art that any other data apart from that mentioned above also can be included in the identification cookie without affecting the novelty of the invention.

[0033] Further, after receiving an identification request, the identification system 110 processes the identification request. The details of the processing are discussed in conjunction with FIG. 5.

[0034] After processing the identification request the identification system 110 returns an identification response to the web browser 106 in step 4 of FIG. 3. The identification response may be a JavaScript® code that contains identification data that identifies the user 102. However, any other the web server script may be used to send the identification response. The details of the web script have been discussed earlier in conjunction with FIG. 1.

[0035] In step 5 of FIG. 3, the web browser 302 posts the identification data received in step 4 of FIG. 3 to the web server 108, wherein a post, or "POST", message is a standard type HTTP request message, used to send data to the web server 108 to be processed in some way, for example, by a CGI script. In step 5 of FIG. 3, by sending the identification response to the web server 108 the web browser 302 identifies the user 102 to the website 106.

[0036] This system 100 is particularly useful when a user 102 has many online accounts and has difficulty recalling each unique username and password associated with each online account established for accessing unique merchant websites 106. Because the transaction occurs automatically, the system 100 further provides the user 102 with an option for reviewing account transactions when a user 102 accesses a website 106 to make a purchase. Reviewing account transactions enables a user 102 to request a refund for any errant or unwanted transactions posting to a user account stored in a payment system database (not shown). Furthermore, the system 100 may cap transactions at a certain dollar amount, such as 150 Euros (approximately 200 USD) so that the system becomes particularly attractive to users 102 making low cost purchases. Users often forget their many usernames and passwords established for accessing a plurality of online merchant websites 106. As a security measure against fraudulent access, some sites lock users 102 out so that access is impossible following repeated failed attempts at entering a correct combination of a user name and password. Other websites 106 enable a user to request a forgotten user name and/or password, but those systems typically require the creation of a new username and/or new password.

[0037] In any scenario, the hassle of recalling a combination of login elements or reestablishing log in elements, far outweighs the benefits of accessing a website to play a game or purchase low cost items, for example, and users 102 are often put off from making purchases online when the burden of accessing content exceeds the desire to obtain the content. The present system and method thereby enable a user to avoid such cumbersome, tedious conditions and access content instantly and automatically without having to intervene for accessing content stored on a web server 108. Furthermore, because the system 100 does not redirect the browsing device 302 of user 102 from the webpage displaying the desired content, online transactions occur seamlessly and automatically from perspective of the user 102 who has been required to do nothing other than make his intended selection from a webpage.

[0038] FIG. 4 is a diagrammatic representation of alternative method steps in which identification of the user 102 over the Internet 202 is accomplished, according to yet another embodiment of the invention. The difference to be noted between the embodiment described in conjunction with FIG. 3 and the present embodiment is that there is no direct interaction between identification server 110 and the web server 108 in the embodiment of FIG. 3. In the present embodiment of the invention, in step 1 of FIG. 4, the user 102 keys in the website address of the website 106 on a web browser 302 and opens a webpage on the website 106. The website server 108 sends HTML text for rendering the webpage on the web browser 302. Here again, the web browser 302 may be a computer program, a software application or mobile based software that is enabled to go to a web server on the Internet and request a page, so that the web browser 302 can pull the webpage through the network and into the computer system 104 of the user 102. Also, the web browser 302 can interpret the set of HTML tags within the webpage in order to display the webpage on the display screen of a computer system 104 as the page is intended to be displayed. The website server 108 in turn renders the webpage on the web browser 302. The action of the user 102 visiting website 106 triggers execution of the embedded software on the web server 108. An externally-embedded software code as discussed in conjunction with FIG. 2, saved on the web server 108, is automatically sent to the computer system 104. This externally- embedded software code, which is essentially a set of instructions in a server side script, is embedded in website 106 by the identification system 110. The externally-embedded software code initiates the automatic process of identification the user 102 without requiring any input from the user at the time of purchase.

[0039] In step 2 of FIG. 4, the externally-embedded software code embedded in the website 106 sends a request to the identification system 110. According to an embodiment of the invention, the identification system 110 enables users 102 to log in to the website 106. According to the embodiment, a part of embedded script may be transmitted over to the identification system 110.

[0040] In step 3 of FIG. 4, the identification system 110 requests an identification dataset stored on the computer system 104. The identification system 110 may transmit the request to the web browser 302 in a JavaScript® or any other server script as discussed in conjunction with FIG. 1. Here, the identification system 110 checks for the presence of an identification dataset on the computer system 104. The identification dataset is a data packet that may contain the data about the user 012, the website 106, the computer system 104 or any other related information which can be stored in a data bundle on the computer system 104. The identification dataset can be used by the identification system 110 to extract any information that may be necessary to identify the user 102. Various web technologies that may be used to construct the identification dataset have been discussed in detail in conjunction with FIG. 3. In an exemplary embodiment, the identification dataset is a browser cookie. The browser cookie, hereinafter refered to as an identification cookie, will be used to describe the embodiment in detail. The identification cookie is a piece of text that is stored on the web browser 302 of the computer system 104. The identification cookie may include the digital signature of the website data, the user data, the computer system 104's machine address (MAC ID) or any other details. Further, the identifying cookie is stored as a permanent cookie on the web browser 302. It will be apparent to a person skilled in the art that any other data and combinations of data also can be included.

[0041 ] After receiving an identification request, the identification system 110 processes the identification request. The details of the processing have been discussed in conjunction with FIGS. 5A and 5B.

[0042] After processing the identification request the identification system 110 returns an identification response to the web browser 106 in step 4 of FIG. 4. The identification response may be a JavaScript® code that contains identification data identifying the user 102. However, any other the web server script may be used to send the identification response. The details of the web script have been discussed earlier in conjunction with FIG. 1. [0043] In step 5 of FIG. 4, the web browser 302 posts the identification data received in step 4 of FIG. 4 to the web server 108. The step 5 of FIG. 4, of sending the identification response to the web server 108, identifies the user 102 to website 106.

[0044] FIGS. 5A and 5B represent a flowchart depicting the method steps of practicing the invention according to an embodiment of the invention.

[0045] In step 502, the user 102 accesses a website 106 by typing the URL of the website

106 into the web browser 302. User 102 is then presented with options. For example, the user may be presented with the option to log in to the website 106 to view a particular content, or to enter the website 106 to play an online game, or to enter the website 106 for an online survey. Here, the externally-embedded software code is activated automatically at the back end of the system 100 when the user 102 visits website 106. In another embodiment, the user 102 may use a 'submit' button to activate the externally-embedded software code. The externally-embedded software code sends a request to identify the user 102 in step 504 along with webpage script to render the webpage as it is intended to be seen on the web browser 302. In step 506, the web browser 302 receives the identification request along with the webpage script. The identification request may be in a JavaScript® or any other the web server scripting language as discussed in conjunction with FIG. 2, and the identification request is a part of the externally-embedded software code.

[0046] Further, the identification request is transmitted to the identification system 110 in step 508, along with the identification cookie stored on the web browser 302. The transmission of the identification cookie can be in any of the web scripts as discussed in conjunction with FIG. 2. [0047] Steps 510 to 516 represent the processing of the identification request in the identification system 110. The details of processing the identification request are presented in the following description. If the identification request received has no identifying cookie present corresponding to the user 102, as checked at step 510, the identification system 110 generates a new identification cookie corresponding to the user 102 for the given website 106, at step 512. Also, the identification system 110 may assign a new code to the new identification cookie. An identification response is thus formed with the new identification cookie. The new identification cookie is then transmitted as the identification response and stored on the web browser 302 at step 514.

[0048] If the identification cookie is present in the identification request, the identification cookie that is received is verified against a user database at and/or in communication with the identification system 110 at the step 516. The identification cookie is matched with all of the stored values of the cookie in the user database. The stored values once matched are used to extract further information about the user 102 and form an identification response. Any additional the user specific details such as any the identification system-assigned ID, the number of times of a user 102 has visited the particular website 106, etc., may be appended as a part of the identification response. Other details may include any user login that the user 102 might have created on the first login to the website 106, or any assigned user code or any other identifying detail. This information forms part of the identification response that is transmitted back to the web browser 302 in step 518.

[0049] The identification response is transmitted to the website 106 and identifies the user 102 to a particular section, content or specific webpage of website 106 in step 520. The user 102 is thus identified by the identification system 110 without any user intervention during the execution of the steps 504 to step 520 occurring at the back end of the system 100.

[0050] According to an embodiment of the invention, when the user 102 logs in to the website 106 for the first time, the website 106 may present an option to choose a required login name. The user 102 selects or forms a login of his choice, which is then transmitted as a part of the identification request and stored in the identification system 110 for future reference. Whenever the user subsequently visits webpage 106 he is automatically logged in with the same chosen login name and without having to enter that login name.

[0051 ] It may be noted that although the method described above identifies a user 102 based on the specific identifying dataset stored on the computer system 104, the above method can be practiced on a different computer system 104 by obtaining the identifying dataset electronically, such as through a personal email. In such an embodiment, a user 102 would request the identifying dataset, for example, the identifying cookie, by sending an email request to the identification system 110 and asking for the identifying cookie. Once received by the computer system 104, the identifying cookie would be automatically stored on the web browser 302. This embodiment requires that a user 102 provide his email ID to the identification system 110.

[0052] It should be apparent to a person skilled in the art that system elements used in the invention are well known in the art; hence other known system elements could also be used in the invention for the same purpose without departing from the scope of the invention.

[0053] While examples of embodiments of the invention have been illustrated and described, it will be clear that the invention is not limited to these embodiments only. Numerous modifications, changes, variations, substitutions and equivalents will be apparent to those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as described in the claims.

Claims

What is claimed is:

1) A user identification method that transacts automatically when a use of a web browser accesses a website over a communication network through the web browser, the user identification method comprising:

a. receiving an identification request at the web browser from the accessed website for the purpose of identifying the user accessing the website;

b. executing software on the web browser that transmits the identification request automatically from the web browser to an identification system storing user profile information, wherein the identification system is in communication with the communication network;

c. receiving an identification response at the web browser from the identification system that has executed a script for processing the identification request; and

d. transmitting the identification response from the web browser to the website, wherein steps a through d do not require the user to actively submit any identification data at the time of accessing the website.

2) The user identification method as recited in claim 1, wherein in the step of executing software on the web browser to transmit the identification request to the identification system, the identification request includes an identifying cookie from the web browser.

3) The user identification method as recited in claim 1 , wherein processing the identification request by the identification system further comprises steps of:

a. receiving the identifying cookie stored in the web browser; and b. verifying the identifying cookie received by the identification system against user profile data stored in the identification system.

4) The user identification method as recited in claim 1, wherein in case of absence of the identifying cookie in the identification request, the step of processing the identification request by the identification system further comprises the sub-step of:

a. generating a new identifying cookie, wherein the new identifying cookie is generated by the identification system for a new user; and

b. storing the new identifying cookie in the web browser, wherein the new identifying cookie is included with the identification response sent to the web browser.

5) The user identification method as recited in claim 4, wherein the information contained in the identifying cookie comprises a digital signature of the website data.

6) The user identification method as recited in claim 2, wherein the step of verifying the identifying cookie received by the identification system further comprises comparing the identifying cookie with the cookies stored in the identification system.

7) The user identification method as recited in claim 1 , wherein in the step of transmitting the identification request to the identification system, the identification request transmits an identifying dataset from the web browser.

8) The user identification method as recited in claim 1, wherein the step of processing the identification request by the identification system further comprises steps of:

a. receiving the identifying dataset stored in the web browser, wherein the identifying dataset is sent by the web browser in response to the request made by the identification system; and

b. verifying the identifying dataset received by the identification system. 9) The user identification method as recited in claim 1, wherein in case of absence of the identifying dataset in the identification request, the step of processing the identification request by the identification system, further comprises the sub-step of:

a. generating a new identifying dataset, wherein the new identifying dataset is generated by the identification system for a new the user; and

b. storing the new identifying dataset in the web browser, wherein the new identifying dataset is included with the identification response sent to the web browser.

10) The user identification method as recited in claim 7, wherein the identifying dataset is an Adobe LocalSharedObject.

11) The user identification method as recited in claim 7, wherein the identifying dataset is a http cookie.

12) An the user identification method in a website, the user identification method comprising:

a. sending an identification request to an identification system, wherein the identification request is sent to the identification system automatically in response to the user's attempt to identify the user to the website;

b. requesting an identifying cookie from the web browser , wherein the request is made by the identification system;

c. receiving the identifying cookie stored in the web browser, wherein the identifying cookie is sent by the web browser to the identification system;

d. verifying the identifying cookie received by the identification system; and

e. sending an identification response to the website by the identification system, wherein the identification response sent identifies the user to the website. 13) The user identification method as recited in claim 12, wherein the step of requesting the identifying cookie from the web browser further comprises step of confirming the presence of the identifying cookie in the web browser.

14) The user identification method as recited in claim 13, wherein the step of confirming the presence of the identifying cookie in the web browser, in case of absence of the identifying cookie, further comprises the sub-step of:

a. generating a new identifying cookie, wherein the new identifying cookie is generated by the identification system for a new the user; and

b. storing the new identifying cookie in the web browser.

15) The user identification method as recited in claim 12, wherein the information contained in the identifying cookie comprises digital signature of the website data.

16) The user identification method as recited in claim 12, wherein the step of verifying the identifying cookie received by the identification system further comprises comparing the identifying cookie with the cookies stored in the identification system.

17) An the identification system for the user identification in a website, wherein the website is hosted at a website server over a communication network, wherein the user accesses the website through a web browser installed in a computer system, the identification system comprising:

a. a means for receiving identification request, the means for receiving identification request enabled to receive an identification request;

b. a means for processing the identification request; and c. a means for sending an identification response, the means for sending the identification response sends the identification response to the web browser after processing the identification request.

18) The identification system as recited in claim 17, wherein the means for processing the identification request is enabled to perform the steps of:

a. requesting an identifying dataset from the web browser , wherein the request is made by the identification system;

b. receiving the identifying dataset stored in the web browser, wherein the identifying dataset is sent by the web browser in response to the request made by the identification system;

c. verifying the identifying dataset received by the identification system;

d. generating a new identifying dataset, in case the identifying dataset is not present in the web browser; and

e. storing the new identifying dataset in the web browser generated in the step d.

19) The identification system as recited in claim 18, wherein the identifying dataset is an Adobe LocalSharedObject.

20) The identification system as recited in claim 18, wherein the identifying dataset is an HTTP cookie.

21) A system that enables a user to access content from a website over a communication network, the system comprising:

a. a browsing device through which a user requests access to content on website using a web browser running on the browsing device in communication with the communication network; b. a web server hosting the website, the website being coded to send an authentication request over the communication network to the web browser running on the browsing device following receipt of the access request by the user described in step a; and

c. an identification system that receives the authentication request over the communication network from the browsing device, processes the authentication request and returns an authentication response over the communication network to the browsing device, thereby enabling the user to access the website without having to recall and enter identification data concurrently with requesting access to the website.

22) The system as recited in claim 21 , wherein the authentication request sent by the web browser to the identification system comprises digital signature of the website data.

23) The system as recited in claim 21 , wherein the authentication request sent by the web browser to the identification system comprises an identification cookie.

24) The system as recited in claim 21 , wherein the authentication request sent by the web browser to the identification system comprises an identification dataset.

25) The system as recited in claim 24, wherein the identifying dataset is an Adobe

LocalSharedObject.