IBM researchers today announced plans for a cloud-based technology that holds potential to help consumers better protect online personal data, including date of birth, home address and credit card numbers. The technology, called Identity Mixer, uses a cryptographic algorithm to encrypt the certified identity attributes of a user, such as their age, nationality, address and credit card number in a way that allows the user to reveal only selected pieces to third parties. Identity Mixer can be used within a digital wallet, which contains credentials certified by a trusted third party, such as a government-issued electronic identity card. IBM says that the issuer of the credentials has no knowledge of how and when they are being used.

Previously available for download and demonstrated to work on smart cards, Identity Mixer is now being made available to developers as a web service in IBM Bluemix, IBM's new platform-as-a-service (PaaS) cloud that combines IBM software, third-party and open technologies. Beginning this spring, Bluemix subscribers will be able to experiment with Identity Mixer within their own applications and web services.