WO2001011484A2

WO2001011484A2 - Digital membership card system

Info

Publication number: WO2001011484A2
Application number: PCT/US2000/018230
Authority: WO
Inventors: Gunner D. Daneels; Peter A. Nee; Jr-Shian Tsai; Sameer S. Kalbag
Original assignee: Intel Corporation
Priority date: 1999-08-06
Filing date: 2000-06-30
Publication date: 2001-02-15
Also published as: CA2381318A1; AU5784200A; JP2003519419A; WO2001011484A3; EP1264241A2; HK1049392A1

Abstract

An electronic commerce system provides a digital membership card for cross company marketing efforts, yet supports the privacy of a user. The system includes a club manager to register a user as a club member, to create a digital membership card for the club member, and to install a digital membership card plug-in for use with a club member's web browser, the plug-in including the digital membership card. The system also includes at least one affiliate to request the digital membership card from the club member, the digital membership card being provided by the digital membership card plug-in, to verify the digital membership card, and to provide a benefit to the club member when the digital membership card is verified. The benefits may include discounts on products and services, free goods and services, or other promotional items.

Description

DIGITAL MEMBERSHIP CARD SYSTEM

BACKGROUND

1. FIELD

The present invention relates generally to computer systems and, more specifically, to electronic commerce.

2. DESCRIPTION

Cross company marketing programs are in common use today. For example, movie theater tickets or sporting event tickets often have printed coupons for other merchandise on the back of the tickets. By linking consumers for one product (such as a film or a sports event) with another product or service (such as food, for example), the companies responsible for the products and/or services may better market them to selected target audiences. The success of these marketing programs depends, at least in part, on the fact that the ticket and coupon are "anonymous." That is, the ticket and coupon typically do not identify a particular user, but only that the ticket/coupon holder belongs to a particular group. For example, the movie theater ticket holder belongs to the group of people who have seen the movie represented by the ticket, and another company may want members of that group to get a discount on other products or services as a promotional tactic. The ticket holder may want to get the discount on the affiliated product or service, but may not be willing to give up his or her privacy in order to receive the discount. If the coupon does not identify the ticket holder, but merely identifies him or her as a member of a group, then further sales may be made.

Although common in the physical world, cross company marketing efforts such as is described above have not yet existed in the on-line world of electronic commerce. It is well-known in the art to employ web browsers for electronic commerce. Generally, a web site is managed or belongs to a particular individual or company and may have its own domain name (e.g., www.xyz_company.com). A web browser typically uses small files resident on a user's personal computer (PC) known as "cookies" to facilitate web page browsing and various on-line transactions. The browser may store data about a user in these files, with each cookie being associated with a web site or domain. One might think that cookies may be readily used for cross company marketing schemes, whereby the cookies store the group membership information for a consumer. However, cookies are typically restricted to a single web domain, whereby one company can access their own cookies but cannot share access to them with other companies in other web domains. Web browsers prevent such sharing for security and privacy reasons. Sharing of individual user data between unrelated companies or businesses is perceived negatively by the consumer, especially if it occurs without the consumer's explicit consent. Even if the user data is explicitly shared between companies via another mechanism, it may contain information details about the user that are not relevant to a given transaction.

Therefore, a mechanism is needed to facilitate cross company marketing programs in electronic commerce that overcomes these and other limitations of the prior art, and that also maintains user privacy.

SUMMARY

An embodiment of the present invention is an electronic commerce system supporting the use of a digital membership card. The system includes a club manager to register a user as a club member, to create a digital membership card for the club member, and to install a digital membership card plug-in for use with a club member's web browser, the plug-in including the digital membership card. The system also includes at least one affiliate to request the digital membership card from the club member, the digital membership card being provided by the digital membership card plug-in, to verify the digital membership card, and to provide a benefit to the club member when the digital membership card is verified.

A club manager is included in the electronic commerce system. The club manager includes a plug-in installation function to install a digital membership card plug-in for use with a user's web browser, a registration function to register the user as a club member, and a credential creation function to create a digital membership card for the club member.

An affiliate is also included in an electronic commerce system for providing benefits to users that possess digital membership cards indicating membership in a club. The affiliate includes a request for credential function to request a digital membership card from a user to verify that the user is a club member, a credential verification function to verify the authenticity of the digital membership card of the user, and a benefit provision function to provide a benefit to the user if the digital membership card is valid.

A user or member system within an electronic commerce system for receiving benefits as a member of a club includes a digital membership card indicating membership in the club, and a digital membership card plug-in to store the digital membership card received from a manager of the club, to verify a request for access to the digital membership card by an affiliate of the club, and to send the digital membership card to the requesting affiliate.

Other embodiments are described and claimed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of the present invention in which: Figure 1 is a diagram of a digital membership card system according to an embodiment of the present invention;

Figure 2 is a flow diagram illustrating club manager and member processing according to an embodiment of the present invention;

Figure 3 is a flow diagram illustrating member and affiliate processing according to an embodiment of the present invention; and

Figure 4 is a diagram illustrating a sample processing system capable of being operated according to an embodiment of a digital membership card system in accordance with the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Privacy is an important concern for many users of PCs who connect to a network such as the Internet and for those who conduct electronic commerce. As discussed above, cookies are widely used for capturing state information about a user, such as personal information (e.g., name, address, telephone number, web site passwords, etc.) and information about web pages visited within a web site. In some cases, the information in a cookie may be very detailed and a user may not wish to share that information across web sites. However, the user may want to share at least some information in a controlled way in order to receive benefits, discounts, or promotions while surfing the World Wide Web (WWW) of the Internet. Thus, an embodiment of the present invention provides a mechanism for sharing at least some information about a user across web domains, but it limits the information shared to the minimum amount necessary to conduct a transaction. It also provides the ability for the user to control, at the point of information transfer, whether to release the information to a requesting entity.

An embodiment of the present invention comprises a digital membership card system. A digital membership card is a digital object stored on a user's personal computer (PC) system that can be presented at the web sites of merchants or other entities for obtaining discounts on goods or service purchases, or perhaps for receiving free goods or services. The digital membership card is considered to be anonymous in that it does not identify the user requesting the discount, but merely indicates that the user is a member of a selected group or club to which a club manager desires to market a discount or other promotional item. The digital membership card (DMC) may, in some embodiments, only contain minimal information about the user (e.g., indication of membership in the club), so that the user's privacy may be supported for electronic transactions. In other embodiments, some personal information may be included in the DMC.

Reference in the specification to "one embodiment" or "an embodiment" of the present invention means that a particular feature, structure or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment is included in at least one embodiment of the present invention. Thus, the appearances of the phrase "in one embodiment" appearing in various places throughout the specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment.

Figure 1 is a diagram of a digital membership card system according to an embodiment of the present invention. A user or member PC 1 0 executes a well-known web browser program 1 2 to interact with a network 1 4, such as the Internet or other computer network. The member PC interacts with one or more server computer systems such as server 1 1 6 and server 2 1 8. The servers perform duties associated with well-known web servers. A club manager 20 comprises an entity for managing a club or other group of members. In one embodiment, the club manager comprises a web site (e.g., a collection of web pages and associated computer programs). The club manager interacts with the member's web browser via server 1 1 6 and network 14. The club manager includes various features and functions, some of which are shown here as plug-in installation 22, registration 24, credential storage 26, and credential creation 28.

The digital membership card system includes at least one affiliate. At least one affiliate 30 comprises an entity for providing discounts, goods, services, or other promotional items to members of a group or club. In one embodiment, the affiliate is a web site coupled to the network by Server 2 1 8. The club manager and the affiliate may or may not be owned, associated with, or otherwise controlled by the same persons or companies. The affiliate interacts with the member's web browser via server 2 1 8 and network 1 4 and with club manager 20 via server 2 and the network. In any given system, there may be any number of affiliates for each club, with one club manager for the club. Any number of members may join the club and interact with one or more affiliates for obtaining discounts or other promotions. Members may join the clubs either before or after any given affiliate becomes involved with the club. Each affiliate includes various features and functions, some of which are shown here as request for credential 32, credential verification 34, benefit provision 35, and error handling 36.

A member's web browser 1 2 includes a digital membership card (DMC) plug-in 38. A plug-in is a computer program operable with the web browser to perform a specific set of one or more functions. Plug-ins for web browsers are well-known in the art and have been created to support various functions. In this instance, the DMC plug-in is designed to support the digital membership card system.

Figure 2 is a flow diagram illustrating club manager and member processing according to an embodiment of the present invention. A user visits a web site at block 80 that may be used for registration in a club. The club comprises a group of users according to any criteria as determined by the club manager. In one embodiment, the club registration web site is the club manager web site. As a result of visiting the club registration site and desiring to become part of the club, the user downloads a digital membership card (DMC) plug-in over the network from the club registration web site and installs the plug-in to operate with the user's web browser at block 82. This block may be implemented, at least in part, by plug-in installation function 22 of club manager 20. At block 84, the user registers with the club and becomes a member. This may involve an interactive qualification process between the club manager and the user. The club manager may or may not request information from the user before allowing the user to become a club member. The registration process may be implemented, at least in part, by registration function 24 of the club manager. Although block 82 is shown as being performed before block 84, in an alternate embodiment, block 84 may be performed before block 82.

Once the user is accepted as a member, the club manager generates a digital membership object for the new member and cryptographically signs the object to create a digital membership card (DMC) at block 86. This processing may be performed, at least in part, by credential creation function 28 of the club manager. Thus, the DMC comprises at least the digital membership object and a digital signature of the digital membership object. The mapping between the member and the DMC may be retained by credential storage function 26 in the club manager. The club manager then installs the DMC into the DMC plug-in at block 88. Generally, the digital membership object may be any block of data. In various embodiments it may comprise one or more of a token (e.g., a constant number such as a one or zero), a membership number, a random number, a billing number, personal information about the user, a user-selected password, or other data. In one embodiment, it may be nothing at all (no data). If the object is a token, it may simply act as an anonymous indication of membership in the club and nothing more. In one embodiment, the object represents a specific membership number.

A DMC merely indicating membership may be useful for exclusive access to fixed cost web content, for example. In this instance, all DMCs contain the same constant values (e.g., a one signed by the club manager's private key). If the DMC token is the same for all users, the value becomes well known and it may be copied from one user to another or can be supplied by "spoofing" software when the affiliate gives the access query for the DMC. If this transaction were easy to "spoof" or "hack", then one does not want to transfer value based on the DMC. However, for a fixed cost system, such potential fraud may not be of concern. .

In one embodiment, well-known public key cryptographic methods may be employed in the digital membership card system. There may be two sets of key pairs, one used for signing DMCs and one for giving affiliates permission to request DMCs of the DMC plug-in. The first key pair (DMC key pair) may be used to verify that a DMC is actually a valid DMC. The second key pair (affiliate key pair) may be used to check the affiliate request to verify that it is a valid request for access to the DMC. During the registration process, the public keys of the club manager may be inserted into the DMC plug-in prior to installation in the user's web browser for future use as will be described below. When the club manager creates the DMC by signing the digital membership object, the club manager uses the private key of one of the club manager's public key/private key pairs to sign the DMC.

After the user becomes a member and has the DMC plug-in embedded with the newly created and signed DMC, the member may contact any affiliate of the club during web "surfing" activities. The member may visit the web site of a club affiliate by using his or her web browser in the normal fashion.

Figure 3 is a flow diagram illustrating member and affiliate processing according to an embodiment of the present invention. When the member visits an affiliate web site to take advantage of club membership via discounts or other promotions, affiliate 30 invokes DMC plug-in 38 at block 100 with a request for the DMC. That is, the affiliate wants to verify that the user requesting access is actually a member of the club. This may be implemented, at least in part, by request for credential function 32 of affiliate 30. In one embodiment, this request by the affiliate may comprise a user input prompt string to be displayed to the user by the DMC plug- in/web browser combination, the domain of the affiliate web site, an optional expiration time, and a cryptographic digital signature from the club manager indicating that the affiliate web site has the authority, according to the club manager, to ask for the DMC from the club member.

When the affiliate joins the marketing program (prior to the member visiting the affiliate's web site), the affiliate gives the club manager a text string representing the domain of the affiliate and, optionally, a user prompt for authorizing access to the member's DMC by the affiliate. The club manager enrolls the affiliate in the marketing program and signs this information with the club manager's affiliate private key (the public key counterpart of this private key/public key pair is embedded in the DMC plug- in). In return, the affiliate obtains the signed block of information that must be sent to the DMC plug-in to request access to the credential. The affiliate also obtains the club manager's public key of the private key/public key pair used to sign the DMC. This key may be used at the affiliate's web site to validate the DMCs given to the affiliate by the users/members. The domain and prompt information may be validated by the club manager when the affiliate joins the marketing program. The affiliate web site causes the DMC plug-in to be executed by checking for the presence of the plug-in in the member's browser configuration.

When the DMC plug-in executes at block 1 02, it verifies the cryptographic signature of the affiliate request and checks that the affiliate web site requesting access to the DMC is of a domain authorized by the club manager as being part of the marketing program. The affiliate request contains the signed string previously created by the club manager. The signed string contains the affiliate's domain and the DMC plug-in obtains the domain that the member is currently visiting from the web browser. The DMC plug-in validates the affiliate request by using the affiliate public key of the club manager (embedded in the plug-in) to verify that the affiliate has a relationship with the club manager (that is, the club manager knows the affiliate is part of the marketing program and indicates this to the member). If the current domain matches the digitally signed domain from the affiliate's request then the DMC plug-in knows that the affiliate is authorized by the club manager because of the valid decryption of the request using the club manager's affiliate public key. In this case, the DMC plug-in knows that the affiliate received the signed string from the club manager because it has been signed by the club manager's affiliate private key.

If the affiliate request is not validated, no further processing relating to club membership is performed. If the affiliate request is validated, the DMC plug-in requests permission of the member on behalf of the affiliate to access the member's DMC at block 1 04. This may be accomplished in one embodiment by displaying a user input prompt to the member that is obtained from the decrypted affiliate request. For example, a prompt might be displayed by the DMC plug-in asking the member "Affiliate web site XYC Co. is requesting your club digital membership card, do you want to give it to them?". The member then responds either positively or negatively. If the member response is negative, no further processing relating to club membership is performed. This processing may be implemented, at least in part, by error handling function 36 of the affiliate.

If the member gives approval at block 106, then the DMC plug-in sends the DMC to the affiliate at block 1 08. The affiliate verifies the authenticity of the DMC by checking the digital signature of the digital membership object in the DMC at block 1 10. If the DMC includes a membership number, this information may be stored by the affiliate for tracking or billing purposes. The verification processing may be implemented, at least in part, by credential verification function 34 of affiliate 30. The affiliate uses the club manager's DMC signing public key (obtained when the affiliate enrolled in the marketing program) to verify the digital signature of the DMC. It then knows that the DMC came from the club manager and has not been "hacked" or otherwise tampered with because only the club manager has the private key that was used to create the DMC. If the DMC is validated, then the affiliate grants access to the member to the merchandising discount or other promotion at block 1 1 2. This processing may be implemented, at least in part, by benefit provision function 35 of the affiliate. The benefit given to the club member by the affiliate may be anything of value, such as a prize, a product discount, a service discount, free goods, free services, exclusive access to content, goods, or services not available to the general public, etc.

Embodiments of the present invention establish a sufficient level of trust between the member's web browser and the affiliate web site in order to establish the . user's membership in a jointly marketed club and that the affiliate is a trusted partner in the club. This enables web-based cross company marketing programs.

With the present invention, registration in the club by a user and use of the DMC at any given affiliate web site are independent. That is, the user does not have to follow a web link from the club manager's web site to the affiliate's web site in order to take advantage of membership in the club. Instead, once the user becomes a member of the club, the member can arrive at an affiliate's web site by any means and receive the benefit of club membership in a way that is trustworthy and private. Hence, the present invention decreases the administrative load on the club manager by avoiding having to maintain links to affiliate web sites as affiliates join and leave the club. Additionally, when setting up the club and issuing DMCs to new members, the club manager does not have to know of all the affiliates in advance. Existing club members will be able to use a new affiliate without change to the DMC plug-in or the member's DMC. Thus, an affiliate does not have to be already associated with the club when the user becomes a member.

In the preceding description, various aspects of the present invention have been described. For purposes of explanation, specific numbers, systems and configurations were set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention. However, it is apparent to one skilled in the art having the benefit of this disclosure that the present invention may be practiced without the specific details. In other instances, well-known features were omitted or simplified in order not to obscure the present invention.

Embodiments of the present invention may be implemented in hardware or software, or a combination of both. However, embodiments of the invention may be implemented as computer programs executing on programmable systems comprising at least one processor, a data storage system (including volatile and non-volatile memory and/or storage elements), at least one input device, and at least one output device. Program code may be applied to input data to perform the functions described herein and generate output information. The output information may be applied to one or more output devices, in known fashion. For purposes of this application, a processing system embodying the set top device 10 includes any system that has a processor, such as, for example, a digital signal processor (DSP), a microcontroller, an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), or a microprocessor.

The programs may be implemented in a high level procedural or object oriented programming language to communicate with a processing system. The programs may also be implemented in assembly or machine language, if desired. In fact, the invention is not limited in scope to any particular programming language. In any case, the language may be a compiled or interpreted language.

The programs may be stored on a storage media or device (e.g., hard disk drive, floppy disk drive, read only memory (ROM), CD-ROM device, flash memory device, digital versatile disk (DVD), or other storage device) readable by a general or special purpose programmable processing system, for configuring and operating the processing system when the storage media or device is read by the processing system to perform the procedures described herein. Embodiments of the invention may also be considered to be implemented as a machine-readable storage medium, configured for use with a processing system, where the storage medium so configured causes the processing system to operate in a specific and predefined manner to perform the functions described herein.

An example of one such type of processing system is shown in Figure 4, however, other systems may also be used and not all components of the system shown are required for the present invention. Sample system 400 may be used, for example, to execute the processing for embodiments of a method for providing a digital membership card, in accordance with the present invention, such as the embodiment described herein. One or more of the club manager, affiliate, and user may be implemented on a sample system. Sample system 400 is representative of processing systems based on the PENTIUM®II, PENTIUM® III, and CELERON™ microprocessors available from Intel Corporation, although other systems (including personal computers (PCs) having other microprocessors, engineering workstations, other set-top boxes and the like) and architectures may also be used. In one embodiment, sample system 400 may be executing a version of the WINDOWS® operating system available from Microsoft Corporation, although other operating systems and graphical user interfaces, for example, may also be used.

Figure 4 is a block diagram of a system 400 of one embodiment of the present invention. The system 400 includes a processor 402 that processes data signals. The processor 402 may be a complex instruction set computer (CISC) microprocessor, a reduced instruction set computing (RISC) microprocessor, a very long instruction word (VLIW) microprocessor, a processor implementing a combination of instruction sets, or other processor device, such as a digital signal processor, for example. Processor 402 may be coupled to a processor bus 404 that transmits data signals between processor 402 and other components in the system 400. System 400 includes a memory 406. Memory 406 may be a dynamic random access memory (DRAM) device, a static random access memory (SRAM) device, or other memory device. Memory 406 may store instructions and/or data represented by data signals that may be executed by processor 402. The instructions and/or data may comprise code for performing any and/or all of the techniques of the present invention. Memory 406 may also contain additional software and/or data (not shown) . A cache memory 408 may reside inside processor 402 that stores data signals stored in memory 406. Cache memory 408 in this embodiment speeds up memory accesses by the processor by taking advantage of its locality of access. Alternatively, in another embodiment, the cache memory may reside external to the processor.

A bridge/memory controller 41 0 may be coupled to the processor bus 404 and memory 406. The bridge/memory controller 41 0 directs data signals between processor 402, memory 406, and other components in the system 400 and bridges the data signals between processor bus 404, memory 406, and a first input/output (I/O) bus 412. In some embodiments, the bridge/memory controller provides a graphics port for coupling to a graphics controller 41 3. In this embodiment, graphics controller 41 3 interfaces to a display device (not shown) for displaying images rendered or otherwise processed by the graphics controller 41 3 to a user.

First I/O bus 41 2 may comprise a single bus or a combination of multiple buses. First I/O bus 41 2 provides communication links between components in system 400. A network controller 414 may be coupled to the first I/O bus 41 2. The network controller links system 400 to a network that may include a plurality of processing systems (not shown in Figure 4) and supports communication among various systems. The network of processing systems may comprise a local area network (LAN), a wide area network (WAN), the Internet, or other network. In some embodiments, a display device controller 41 6 may be coupled to the first I/O bus 41 2. The display device controller 41 6 allows coupling of a display device to system 400 and acts as an interface between a display device (not shown) and the system. The display device receives data signals from processor 402 through display device controller 41 6 and displays information contained in the data signals to a user of system 400.

A second I/O bus 420 may comprise a single bus or a combination of multiple buses. The second I/O bus 420 provides communication links between components in system 400. A data storage device 422 may be coupled to the second I/O bus 420. The data storage device 422 may comprise a hard disk drive, a floppy disk drive, a CD-ROM device, a flash memory device, or other mass storage device. Data storage device 422 may comprise one or a plurality of the described data storage devices.

A keyboard interface 424 may be coupled to the second I/O bus 420. Keyboard interface 424 may comprise a keyboard controller or other keyboard interface device. Keyboard interface 424 may comprise a dedicated device or may reside in another device such as a bus controller or other controller device. Keyboard interface 424 allows coupling of a keyboard to system 400 and transmits data signals from a keyboard to system 400. A user input interface 425 may be coupled to the second I/O bus 420. The user input interface may be coupled to a user input device, such as a remote control, mouse, joystick, or trackball, for example, to provide input data to the computer system. A bus bridge 428 couples first I/O bridge 41 2 to second I/O bridge 420. The bus bridge operates to buffer and bridge data signals between the first I/O bus 41 2 and the second I/O bus 420.

Embodiments of the present invention are related to the use of the system 400 to support digital membership cards. According to one embodiment, such processing may be performed by the system 400 in response to processor 402 executing sequences of instructions in memory 404. Such instructions may be read into memory 404 from another computer-readable medium, such as data storage device 422, or from another source via the network controller 41 4, for example. Execution of the sequences of instructions causes processor 402 to execute digital membership card processing according to embodiments of the present invention. In an alternative embodiment, hardware circuitry may be used in place of or in combination with software instructions to implement embodiments of the present invention. Thus, the present invention is not limited to any specific combination of hardware circuitry and software.

The elements of system 400 perform their conventional functions well-known in the art. In particular, data storage device 422 may be used to provide long-term storage for the executable instructions and data structures for embodiments of methods of digital membership cards in accordance with the present invention, whereas memory 406 is used to store on a shorter term basis the executable instructions of embodiments of the methods for digital membership cards in accordance with the present invention during execution by processor 402.

While this invention has been described with reference to illustrative embodiments, this description is not intended to be construed in a limiting sense. Various modifications of the illustrative embodiments, as well as other embodiments of the invention, which are apparent to persons skilled in the art to which the inventions pertains are deemed to lie within the spirit and scope of the invention.

Claims

CLAIMSWhat is claimed is:

1 . An apparatus for managing a club in an electronic commerce system comprising: a plug-in installation function to install a digital membership card plug- in for use with a user's web browser; a registration function to register the user as a club member; and a credential creation function to create a digital membership card for the club member.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising: a credential storage function to store information associating the club member with the digital membership card.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the digital membership card comprises a digital membership object and a digital signature of the digital membership object generated by the credential creation function using a private key of a public key/private key pair.

4. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the digital membership object comprises a token.

5. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the digital membership object comprises at least one of a membership number, a billing number, a user- selected password, and personal information about the user.

6. An apparatus in an electronic commerce system for providing benefits to users that possess digital membership cards indicating membership in a club comprising: a request for credential function to request a digital membership card from a user to verify that the user is a club member; a credential verification function to verify the authenticity of the digital membership card of the user; and a benefit provision function to provide a benefit to the user if the digital membership card is valid.

7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the digital membership card comprises a digital membership object and a digital signature of the digital membership object generated by using a private key of a public key/private key pair and the credential verification function verifies the digital signature of the digital membership object using a public key of the public key/private key pair.

8. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the benefit is at least one of a prize, a product discount, a service discount, free goods, free services, and exclusive access to content, goods, or services not available to the general public.

9. An apparatus in an electronic commerce system for receiving benefits as a member of a club comprising: a digital membership card indicating membership in the club; and a digital membership card plug-in to store the digital membership card received from a manager of the club, to verify a request for access to the digital membership card by an affiliate of the club, and to send the digital membership card to the requesting affiliate.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the digital membership card comprises a digital membership object and a digital signature of the digital membership object generated by using a private key of a public key/private key pair.

1 1 . The apparatus of claim 9, further comprising a web browser configured with the digital membership card plug-in to interact with the club manager and the affiliate for registration as a member of the club and to receive benefits as a club member.

1 2. An electronic commerce system comprising: a club manager to register a user as a club member, to create a digital membership card for the club member, and to install a digital membership card plug-in for use with a club member's web browser, the plug-in including the digital membership card; and at least one affiliate to request the digital membership card from the club member, the digital membership card being provided by the digital membership card plug-in, to verify the digital membership card, and to provide a benefit to the club member when the digital membership card is verified.

1 3. The electronic commerce system of claim 1 2, further comprising at least one server and a network for coupling the club manager to the at least one affiliate.

14. The electronic commerce system of claim 1 3, wherein the club manager and the at least one affiliate comprise web sites.

1 5. The electronic commerce system of claim 1 2, wherein the digital membership card comprises a digital membership object and a digital signature of the digital membership object generated by the club manager using a private key of a public key/private key pair.

1 6. The electronic commerce system of claim 1 5, wherein the digital membership card is verified by the at least one affiliate using a public key of the public key/private key pair.

17. The electronic commerce system of claim 1 5, wherein the digital membership object comprises a token.

1 8. The electronic commerce system of claim 1 5, wherein the digital membership object comprises at least one of a membership number, a billing number, a user-selected password, and personal information about the user.

1 9. A method of distributing a digital membership card in an electronic commerce system comprising: downloading a digital membership card plug-in to a system of a user; registering the user as a member of a club; generating the digital membership card for the club member; and installing the digital membership card into the digital membership card plug-in.

20. The method of claim 1 9, wherein the digital membership card comprises a digital membership object and a digital signature of the digital membership object, and wherein generating the digital membership card comprises generating the digital signature by using a private key of a public key/private key pair.

21 . The method of claim 1 9, further comprising storing information associating the club member with the digital membership card.

22. A method of accepting a digital membership card in an electronic commerce system comprising: invoking, by an affiliate of a club, a digital membership card plug-in configured with a web browser of a club member to request access to the digital membership card; obtaining permission by the affiliate from the club member to access the club member's digital membership card; receiving the digital membership card by the affiliate; verifying the digital membership card; and providing a benefit to the club member if the digital membership card is verified.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the digital membership card comprises a digital membership object and a digital signature of the digital membership object, and wherein verifying the digital membership card comprises verifying the digital signature by using a public key of a public key/private key pair.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the digital membership object comprises a token.

25. A method of using a digital membership card in an electronic commerce system comprising: registering as a member of a club with a club manager; receiving a digital membership card from the club manager; visiting a web site of an affiliate of the club; sending the digital membership card to the affiliate; and receiving a benefit from the affiliate based, at least in part, on an indication of membership in the club represented by the digital membership card.

26. The method of claim 25, further comprising: verifying a domain of the affiliate prior to sending the digital membership card to the affiliate.

27. The method of claim 25, further comprising: obtaining approval from a user before sending the digital membership card to the affiliate.

28. An article comprising: a machine readable medium having a plurality of machine readable instructions, wherein when the instructions are executed by a processor, the instructions distribute a digital membership card in an electronic commerce system by: downloading a digital membership card plug-in to a user system; registering a user as a member of a club; generating the digital membership card for the user; and installing the digital membership card into the digital membership card plug-in.

29. An article comprising: a machine readable medium having a plurality of machine readable instructions, wherein when the instructions are executed by a processor, the instructions accept a digital membership card in an electronic commerce system by: invoking, by an affiliate of a club, a digital membership card plug-in configured with a web browser of a club member to request access to the digital membership card; obtaining permission by the affiliate from the club member to access the club member's digital membership card; receiving the digital membership card by the affiliate; verifying the digital membership card; and providing a benefit to the club member if the digital membership card is verified.

30. An article comprising: a machine readable medium having a plurality of machine readable instructions, wherein when the instructions are executed by a processor, the instructions support use of a digital membership card in an electronic commerce system by: registering as a member of a club with a club manager; receiving a digital membership card from the club manager; visiting a web site of an affiliate of the club; sending the digital membership card to the affiliate; and receiving a benefit from the affiliate based, at least in part, on an indication of membership in the club represented by the digital membership card.