Anonymous billing

Abstract

Aspects of the subject matter described herein relate to billing for transactions involving a claims provider. In aspects, in conjunction with presenting a claim to a relying party, billing information is provided to a billing service. The billing information may include information to identify a claims provider that provided the claim and information that identifies the relying party. The information does not include data that can be used to determine the natural identity of a user that presented the claim. In response, a count is updated that can be used for billing. The count is not usable to determine the natural identities of users that presented claims to the relying party.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method implemented at least in part by a computer, the method comprising:
 receiving a message that identifies a claims provider that provided a claim but that does not identify a user using the claim to access a service;   obtaining an indication of a relying party that relied on the claim in conjunction with providing access to the service;   updating a count that indicates a number of claims provided by the claims provider that the relying party has relied on, the count not identifying the user; and   providing the count to a billing component for billing the relying party for claims provided by the claims provider and relied on by the relying party.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein receiving the message that identifies a claims provider that provided the claim comprises receiving the claim itself. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein receiving the message that identifies a claims provider that provided the claim comprises receiving the claim, the claim including an identifier of the user, the identifier having been obscured. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein receiving the message that identifies a claims provider that provided the claim comprises receiving a token that includes the claim. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 4 , further comprising removing natural identity information from the token prior to the receiving the token that includes the claim. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein receiving the message that identifies a claims provider that provided the claim comprises receiving data that identifies the claims provider that provided the claim but that does not include the claim. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein receiving a message that identifies a claims provider that provided a claim but that does not identify a user using the claim includes receiving a message that includes an identifier of the claims provider but does not include an identifier of the user. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein obtaining an indication of a relying party that relied on the claim in conjunction with providing access to the service comprises a lookup of a network address of an entity that provided the claim to a validating service. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein receiving a message that identifies a claims provider that provided a claim comprises receiving a claim that indicates a characteristic of the user without revealing a natural identity of the user. 
     
     
         10 . In a computing environment, a system, comprising:
 a billing service hosted on one or more computers, the billing service configured to perform actions, including:
 obtaining data that identifies a claims provider that provided a claim but that does not identify a user using the claim to access a service; 
 obtaining an indication of a relying party that relies on the claim in conjunction with providing access to the service; 
 updating a count that indicates a number of claims provided by the claims provider that the relying party has relied on, the count not identifying the user; and 
 using the count for billing the relying party for claims provided by the claims provider and relied on by the relying party. 
   
     
     
         11 . The system of  claim 10 , further comprising a validation service configured to verify that the claim is validly signed. 
     
     
         12 . The system of  claim 11 , wherein the validation service is hosted on one or more computers controlled by the relying party. 
     
     
         13 . The system of  claim 11 , wherein the validation service is hosted on one or more computers outside of control of the relying party. 
     
     
         14 . The system of  claim 10 , further comprising a user device configured to erect a privacy boundary to prevent transmission of natural identity information to the billing service. 
     
     
         15 . The system of  claim 14 , wherein the user device is further configured to encrypt natural identity information in the claim prior to sending the claim to the billing service. 
     
     
         16 . The system of  claim 14 , wherein the user device is further configured to remove natural identity information in the claim prior to sending the claim to the billing service. 
     
     
         17 . The system of  claim 14 , wherein the user device is further configured to download and execute user agent code in response to redirection data received from the relying party, the user agent code including instructions to erect the privacy boundary. 
     
     
         18 . The system of  claim 10 , wherein the one or more computers hosting the billing service provide the billing service as a service reachable to entities connected to the Internet. 
     
     
         19 . A computer storage medium having computer-executable instructions, which when executed perform actions, comprising:
 receiving a claim that identifies a claims provider but that does not include identity information usable to identify a natural identity of a user using the claim to access a service; and   providing, to a billing service, billing information that includes a relying party identifier and a claims provider identifier, the relying party identifier identifying a relying party that relied on the claim to provide access to the service, the claims provider identifier identifying the claims provider, the billing service configured to update a count that indicates a number of claims provided by the claims provider that the relying party has relied on and to bill based on the count, the billing information not usable to determine a natural identity of the user.   
     
     
         20 . The computer storage medium of  claim 19 , wherein providing billing information comprises providing the claim, the claim having the identity information obscured via encryption of the identity information by a device under control of the user.