IBM and Novell Monday announced their support for an open source project aiming to give users more control over how information such as passwords and financial details are shared across multiple Web sites.

The two companies, along with Parity Communications, will contribute code to Project Higgins, a concept developed by Harvard Law School's Berkman Center for Internet and Society. The project is managed by the Eclipse open source foundation. The future application is envisioned to allow users the simplicity, for example, of changing their address across multiple Web accounts. Users would control their own information rather than external organizations, IBM said, setting rules for how much personal information businesses such as an insurance company or bank would see.

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