The Liberty Alliance, which includes companies like Sun Microsystems, Sony, American Express, Mastercard and Bank of America, plans to release the details Monday.

The standard is designed to make it easy to log into different systems -- from making online purchases to checking bank or credit card accounts -- while making different authentication systems speak the same language. That realm is currently dominated by Microsoft, whose Passport system runs on about 200 Web sites.

"The promise of electronic commerce has not been delivered on," said United Airlines chief information officer Eric Dean, who also serves as the head of the group's management board. "There are huge possibilities."

[ Read more ]