The goal of ClaimID was to help users collect and screen information created about them and by them on the web, to help them manage their online identity.
[2] Both Stutzman and Russell were PhD students at University of North Carolina's Chapel Hill School of Information and Library Science when they began the company.
In August 2007, Peter Saint-Andre submitted an Internet-Draft draft to the IETF defining the MicroID spec.
[5] MicroID was a deployed Internet standard designed for use as a lightweight, decentralized identity primitive in web applications and communities.
Both print and digital news outlets, including Businessweek, the San Francisco Chronicle, Reuters, New Scientist and Asian News International, described ClaimID as part of the online reputation management (ORM) movement.