Using InAcademia makes it easier for Institutions to connect to third parties that offer services to campuses, students and staff using federated access by removing the need for any coordinated effort between Institution and merchant ( such as the need to agree bilateral data protection agreements or participate in specific technical development) at the point of enabling the service.
Institutions supporting InAcademia don’t have to support the downstream services, as InAcademia takes care of that. This is because InAcademia makes it possible for Service Providers to make use of academic identities by using a lighter-weight, lower-maintenance, OIDC-compliant alternative to full federation membership.
InAcademia works with eduGAIN for secure, private authentication and acts as a proxy service to service providers that only need to know if the user is a student or member of your institution. By providing a simple response to an affiliation claim InAcademia offers a uniform, trusted, privacy-preserving way for students to offer proof of academic affiliation. This protects users and removes the need for them to share personal data and documentation to prove their academic affiliation.