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Persona is living proof that federated authentication on the Web can be more safe, usable, and private. With that framework in place, Mozilla has reallocated Persona’s full-time developers to other projects, entrusting Persona’s ongoing development ... [More] to its community. There are no plans to decommission Persona. If it fits your needs, please use it. We will support you. Specifically, Mozilla staff will continue to resolve critical bugs, service disruptions, and security issues. Moreover, Mozilla’s new network operations center will handle tier 1 incident response for Persona. The center’s robust, human-backed, 24/7 monitoring will further increase Persona’s reliability and improve incident response times. Basically, if Persona works for you now, great! If you’re holding out for new features, we in the Persona community would love to review pull requests, chat on IRC, or respond to mailing list discussions. Below, you’ll find answers to frequently asked questions regarding this transition. If yours isn’t addressed, please reach out to us. Frequently Asked Questions What’s happening to the Persona team? The Mozilla staff from the Identity team are already working on Cloud Services projects including Firefox accounts and Sync. Persona’s community has stepped up to lead Persona’s development. This includes both long-term volunteers and former paid contributors, all of whom deeply believe in Persona’s unique vision for decentralized authentication. Why has Mozilla stopped funding new feature development on Persona? For a variety of reasons, Persona has received less adoption than we were hoping for by this point. However, we do still believe that Persona offers a unique and useful alternative to passwords, and we intend to support it as such. Reducing the scope of Persona and stabilizing its core APIs over the last quarter has shown us that adding more features was not the way forward. Meanwhile, Firefox and Firefox OS need a suite of integrated services (Sync, Marketplace, Find My Device) backed by a common account system (a “Firefox Account”). We believe that these needs are more time sensitive, and thus higher priority, than Persona. Why don’t Firefox Accounts use Persona? Each project addresses very different needs. Persona is designed to be a dead simple email verification tool, while Firefox Accounts is a full-fledged, persistent account system. By developing them separately, we’re able to keep each project lean and focused on its own use cases. For instance, it’s possible that Firefox Accounts will use Persona for email verification in the future. Where possible, Firefox Accounts and Persona share infrastructure, protocols, data formats, and both server-side and client-side JavaScript libraries. Work on this common foundation benefits both projects. Will Mozilla continue to host Persona? Absolutely. Persona is a critical part of Mozilla’s own infrastructure, and we have no plans to decommission it. Even in maintenance mode, we understand the importance of authentication and are committed to responsible stewardship of Persona. Should we ever consider decommissioning it, we will provide ample notice and a long deprecation window. This will absolutely not happen in 2014. How can I help? Persona is open source! We’re currently working on putting together documentation for new contributors — look for another post here in a week or two — but until then, we’d love to see you on GitHub, our IRC channel, or our mailing list. [Less]

Update: Further discussion on Hacker News. Also, our “After Action Review” (AAR) summarizes the lessons learned by Persona. Persona is living proof that federated authentication on the Web can be more safe, usable, and private. With that framework in ... [More] place, Mozilla has reallocated Persona’s full-time developers to other projects, entrusting Persona’s ongoing development to its community. There are no plans to decommission Persona. If it fits your needs, please use it. We will support you. Specifically, Mozilla staff will continue to resolve critical bugs, service disruptions, and security issues. Moreover, Mozilla’s new network operations center will handle tier 1 incident response for Persona. The center’s robust, human-backed, 24/7 monitoring will further increase Persona’s reliability and improve incident response times. Basically, if Persona works for you now, great! If you’re holding out for new features, we in the Persona community would love to review pull requests, chat on IRC, or respond to mailing list discussions. Below, you’ll find answers to frequently asked questions regarding this transition. If yours isn’t addressed, please reach out to us. Frequently Asked Questions What’s happening to the Persona team? The Mozilla staff from the Identity team are already working on Cloud Services projects including Firefox accounts and Sync. Persona’s community has stepped up to lead Persona’s development. This includes both long-term volunteers and former paid contributors, all of whom deeply believe in Persona’s unique vision for decentralized authentication. Why has Mozilla stopped funding new feature development on Persona? Persona received less adoption than we were hoping for by this point. A summary of the lessons learned is available in Persona’s “After Action Review” (AAR). Nevertheless, we do still believe that Persona offers a unique and useful alternative to passwords, and we intend to support it as such. Reducing the scope of Persona and stabilizing its core APIs over the last quarter has shown us that adding more features was not the way forward. Meanwhile, Firefox and Firefox OS need a suite of integrated services (Sync, Marketplace, Find My Device) backed by a common account system (a “Firefox Account”). We believe that these needs are more time sensitive, and thus higher priority, than Persona. Why don’t Firefox Accounts use Persona? Each project addresses very different needs. Persona is designed to be a dead simple email verification tool, while Firefox Accounts is a full-fledged, persistent account system. By developing them separately, we’re able to keep each project lean and focused on its own use cases. For instance, it’s possible that Firefox Accounts will use Persona for email verification in the future. Where possible, Firefox Accounts and Persona share infrastructure, protocols, data formats, and both server-side and client-side JavaScript libraries. Work on this common foundation benefits both projects. Will Mozilla continue to host Persona? Absolutely. Persona is a critical part of Mozilla’s own infrastructure, and we have no plans to decommission it. Even in maintenance mode, we understand the importance of authentication and are committed to responsible stewardship of Persona. Should we ever consider decommissioning it, we will provide ample notice and a long deprecation window. This will absolutely not happen in 2014. How can I help? Persona is open source! We’re currently working on putting together documentation for new contributors – look for another post here in a week or two – but until then, we’d love to see you on GitHub, our IRC channel, or our mailing list. [Less]

Update: The persona.org services hosted by Mozilla will be decommissioned on November 30th 2016.Update: Further discussion on Hacker News. Also, our “After Action Review” (AAR) summarizes the lessons learned by Persona. Persona is living proof that ... [More] federated authentication on the Web can be more safe, usable, and private. With that framework in place, Mozilla has reallocated Persona’s full-time developers to other projects, entrusting Persona’s ongoing development to its community. There are no plans to decommission Persona. If it fits your needs, please use it. We will support you. Specifically, Mozilla staff will continue to resolve critical bugs, service disruptions, and security issues. Moreover, Mozilla’s new network operations center will handle tier 1 incident response for Persona. The center’s robust, human-backed, 24/7 monitoring will further increase Persona’s reliability and improve incident response times. Basically, if Persona works for you now, great! If you’re holding out for new features, we in the Persona community would love to review pull requests, chat on IRC, or respond to mailing list discussions. Below, you’ll find answers to frequently asked questions regarding this transition. If yours isn’t addressed, please reach out to us. Frequently Asked Questions What’s happening to the Persona team? The Mozilla staff from the Identity team are already working on Cloud Services projects including Firefox accounts and Sync. Persona’s community has stepped up to lead Persona’s development. This includes both long-term volunteers and former paid contributors, all of whom deeply believe in Persona’s unique vision for decentralized authentication. Why has Mozilla stopped funding new feature development on Persona? Persona received less adoption than we were hoping for by this point. A summary of the lessons learned is available in Persona’s “After Action Review” (AAR). Nevertheless, we do still believe that Persona offers a unique and useful alternative to passwords, and we intend to support it as such. Reducing the scope of Persona and stabilizing its core APIs over the last quarter has shown us that adding more features was not the way forward. Meanwhile, Firefox and Firefox OS need a suite of integrated services (Sync, Marketplace, Find My Device) backed by a common account system (a “Firefox Account”). We believe that these needs are more time sensitive, and thus higher priority, than Persona. Why don’t Firefox Accounts use Persona? Each project addresses very different needs. Persona is designed to be a dead simple email verification tool, while Firefox Accounts is a full-fledged, persistent account system. By developing them separately, we’re able to keep each project lean and focused on its own use cases. For instance, it’s possible that Firefox Accounts will use Persona for email verification in the future. Where possible, Firefox Accounts and Persona share infrastructure, protocols, data formats, and both server-side and client-side JavaScript libraries. Work on this common foundation benefits both projects. Will Mozilla continue to host Persona? Absolutely. Persona is a critical part of Mozilla’s own infrastructure, and we have no plans to decommission it. Even in maintenance mode, we understand the importance of authentication and are committed to responsible stewardship of Persona. Should we ever consider decommissioning it, we will provide ample notice and a long deprecation window. This will absolutely not happen in 2014. How can I help? Persona is open source! We’re currently working on putting together documentation for new contributors – look for another post here in a week or two – but until then, we’d love to see you on GitHub, our IRC channel, or our mailing list. [Less]

Update: The persona.org services hosted by Mozilla will be decommissioned on November 30th 2016.Update: Further discussion on Hacker News. Also, our “After Action Review” (AAR) summarizes the lessons learned by Persona. Persona is living proof that ... [More] federated authentication on the Web can be more safe, usable, and private. With that framework in place, Mozilla has reallocated Persona’s full-time developers to other projects, entrusting Persona’s ongoing development to its community. There are no plans to decommission Persona. If it fits your needs, please use it. We will support you. Specifically, Mozilla staff will continue to resolve critical bugs, service disruptions, and security issues. Moreover, Mozilla’s new network operations center will handle tier 1 incident response for Persona. The center’s robust, human-backed, 24/7 monitoring will further increase Persona’s reliability and improve incident response times. Basically, if Persona works for you now, great! If you’re holding out for new features, we in the Persona community would love to review pull requests, chat on IRC, or respond to mailing list discussions. Below, you’ll find answers to frequently asked questions regarding this transition. If yours isn’t addressed, please reach out to us. Frequently Asked Questions What’s happening to the Persona team? The Mozilla staff from the Identity team are already working on Cloud Services projects including Firefox accounts and Sync. Persona’s community has stepped up to lead Persona’s development. This includes both long-term volunteers and former paid contributors, all of whom deeply believe in Persona’s unique vision for decentralized authentication. Why has Mozilla stopped funding new feature development on Persona? Persona received less adoption than we were hoping for by this point. A summary of the lessons learned is available in Persona’s “After Action Review” (AAR). Nevertheless, we do still believe that Persona offers a unique and useful alternative to passwords, and we intend to support it as such. Reducing the scope of Persona and stabilizing its core APIs over the last quarter has shown us that adding more features was not the way forward. Meanwhile, Firefox and Firefox OS need a suite of integrated services (Sync, Marketplace, Find My Device) backed by a common account system (a “Firefox Account”). We believe that these needs are more time sensitive, and thus higher priority, than Persona. Why don’t Firefox Accounts use Persona? Each project addresses very different needs. Persona is designed to be a dead simple email verification tool, while Firefox Accounts is a full-fledged, persistent account system. By developing them separately, we’re able to keep each project lean and focused on its own use cases. For instance, it’s possible that Firefox Accounts will use Persona for email verification in the future. Where possible, Firefox Accounts and Persona share infrastructure, protocols, data formats, and both server-side and client-side JavaScript libraries. Work on this common foundation benefits both projects. Will Mozilla continue to host Persona? Absolutely. Persona is a critical part of Mozilla’s own infrastructure, and we have no plans to decommission it. Even in maintenance mode, we understand the importance of authentication and are committed to responsible stewardship of Persona. Should we ever consider decommissioning it, we will provide ample notice and a long deprecation window. This will absolutely not happen in 2014. How can I help? Persona is open source! We’re currently working on putting together documentation for new contributors – look for another post here in a week or two – but until then, we’d love to see you on GitHub, our IRC channel, or our mailing list. [Less]

Mozilla Persona is a way to sign into websites that works with any email address. Today, we’re happy to announce a new Persona Identity Bridge for Gmail users. This means that every Gmail user can now sign into Persona-powered websites with just a ... [More] few clicks using their existing account credentials. No new password required. Check it out: Combined with our Identity Bridge for Yahoo, Persona now natively supports more than 700,000,000 active email users. That covers roughly 60-80% of people on most North American websites. The Gmail bridge is available now, and all Persona-enabled sites will automatically use it. You can try it right now by signing into Webmaker. Persona remains committed to privacy: Gmail users can sign into sites with Persona, but Google can’t track which sites they sign into. If you run a website, now is an excellent time to start using Persona. Your users are ready; what are you waiting for? [Less]

Mozilla Persona is a way to sign into websites that works with any email address. Today, we’re happy to announce a new Persona Identity Bridge for Gmail users. This means that every Gmail user can now sign into Persona-powered websites with just a ... [More] few clicks using their existing account credentials. No new password required. Check it out: Combined with our Identity Bridge for Yahoo, Persona now natively supports more than 700,000,000 active email users. That covers roughly 60-80% of people on most North American websites. The Gmail bridge is available now, and all Persona-enabled sites will automatically use it. You can try it right now by signing into Webmaker. Persona remains committed to privacy: Gmail users can sign into sites with Persona, but Google can’t track which sites they sign into. If you run a website, now is an excellent time to start using Persona. Your users are ready; what are you waiting for? [Less]

Mozilla Persona is a way to sign into websites that works with any email address. Today, we’re happy to announce a new Persona Identity Bridge for Gmail users. This means that every Gmail user can now sign into Persona-powered websites with just a ... [More] few clicks using their existing account credentials. No new password required. Check it out: Combined with our Identity Bridge for Yahoo, Persona now natively supports more than 700,000,000 active email users. That covers roughly 60-80% of people on most North American websites. The Gmail bridge is available now, and all Persona-enabled sites will automatically use it. You can try it right now by signing into Webmaker. Persona remains committed to privacy: Gmail users can sign into sites with Persona, but Google can’t track which sites they sign into. If you run a website, now is an excellent time to start using Persona. Your users are ready; what are you waiting for? [Less]

Last April we announced Identity Bridging in Persona, so… what is Identity Bridging? Persona is designed to allow you to use your existing email address to log into any website that supports Persona. If your email provider doesn’t support Persona ... [More] , Mozilla will step in and vouch for you, so long as you can verify your email address. Traditionally, this verification was just like any other system: Mozilla would send you an email and ask you to click on the confirmation link it contained. With Identity Bridging, Persona learned a new trick; instead of sending confirmation emails, Persona can ask you to verify your identity via your email provider’s existing OpenID or OAuth gateway. This makes Persona a near-seamless experience for hundreds of millions of users worldwide, and site owners don’t have to change a thing to take advantage of current or future bridges; it’s all automatic. What’s more, users still experience all of the same privacy-protecting and anti-tracking benefits of Persona. We launched Identity Bridging with support for Yahoo Mail. We can’t wait to show you what’s next. [Less]

Last April we announced Identity Bridging in Persona, so… what is Identity Bridging? Persona is designed to allow you to use your existing email address to log into any website that supports Persona. If your email provider doesn’t support Persona ... [More] , Mozilla will step in and vouch for you, so long as you can verify your email address. Traditionally, this verification was just like any other system: Mozilla would send you an email and ask you to click on the confirmation link it contained. With Identity Bridging, Persona learned a new trick; instead of sending confirmation emails, Persona can ask you to verify your identity via your email provider’s existing OpenID or OAuth gateway. This makes Persona a near-seamless experience for hundreds of millions of users worldwide, and site owners don’t have to change a thing to take advantage of current or future bridges; it’s all automatic. What’s more, users still experience all of the same privacy-protecting and anti-tracking benefits of Persona. We launched Identity Bridging with support for Yahoo Mail. We can’t wait to show you what’s next. [Less]

Last April we announced Identity Bridging in Persona, so… what is Identity Bridging? Persona is designed to allow you to use your existing email address to log into any website that supports Persona. If your email provider doesn’t support Persona ... [More] , Mozilla will step in and vouch for you, so long as you can verify your email address. Traditionally, this verification was just like any other system: Mozilla would send you an email and ask you to click on the confirmation link it contained. With Identity Bridging, Persona learned a new trick; instead of sending confirmation emails, Persona can ask you to verify your identity via your email provider’s existing OpenID or OAuth gateway. This makes Persona a near-seamless experience for hundreds of millions of users worldwide, and site owners don’t have to change a thing to take advantage of current or future bridges; it’s all automatic. What’s more, users still experience all of the same privacy-protecting and anti-tracking benefits of Persona. We launched Identity Bridging with support for Yahoo Mail. We can’t wait to show you what’s next. [Less]