{"id":1809,"date":"2025-03-12T14:59:20","date_gmt":"2025-03-12T14:59:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/discovery.cevolution.co.uk\/ciam\/?p=1809"},"modified":"2026-04-05T13:38:06","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T12:38:06","slug":"social-authentication-for-customer-identity-and-access-management","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/discovery.cevolution.co.uk\/ciam\/2025\/03\/12\/social-authentication-for-customer-identity-and-access-management\/","title":{"rendered":"Social Authentication for Customer Identity and Access Management"},"content":{"rendered":"<span class=\"span-reading-time rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">Reading Time: <\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\"> 4<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minutes<\/span><\/span>\n<p>As B2C and B2B SaaS application developers move ever-increasingly toward adopting more seamless user experiences, integrating what is typically referred to as Social authentication has gained significant traction and offers significant advantages \u2014 particularly if you&#8217;re planning to go the open-source DIY route when it comes to CIAM integration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group is-content-justification-center is-nowrap is-layout-flex wp-container-core-group-is-layout-23441af8 wp-block-group-is-layout-flex\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-wp-embed is-provider-discover-ciam wp-block-embed-discover-ciam\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"SyJ8TGyedI\"><a href=\"https:\/\/discovery.cevolution.co.uk\/ciam\/2025\/02\/22\/diy-or-buy\/\">Build, Buy or DIY your CIAM Solution?<\/a><\/blockquote><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden;\" title=\"&#8220;Build, Buy or DIY your CIAM Solution?&#8221; &#8212; Discover CIAM\" src=\"https:\/\/discovery.cevolution.co.uk\/ciam\/2025\/02\/22\/diy-or-buy\/embed\/#?secret=gy2R8WC5FW#?secret=SyJ8TGyedI\" data-secret=\"SyJ8TGyedI\" width=\"500\" height=\"282\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>I&#8217;m <span class=\"popup-trigger popmake-378\" data-popup-id=\"378\" data-do-default=\"0\">Peter Fernandez<\/span>, and in this article, I&#8217;m going to be talking about how the Social approach enables users to log in to applications using their existing social media\/platform accounts, streamlining the login process and enhancing security. <\/p>\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"what-is-social-authentication\">What is Social Authentication?<\/h2>\n\n\n<p>Social Authentication \u2014 a.k.a. Social, Social Login, Social Signin, etc. \u2014 refers to the process of using an existing third-party account to log in to your SaaS application(s) via the use of the <span class=\"popup-trigger popmake-407\" data-popup-id=\"407\" data-do-default=\"0\"><strong>OIDC<\/strong><\/span> or <span class=\"popup-trigger popmake-467\" data-popup-id=\"467\" data-do-default=\"0\"><strong>OAuth 2.0<\/strong><\/span> protocol. It offers a wide array of benefits for both a SaaS vendor and the users of an application, and significant advantages for companies seeking to optimise security, user experience, and operational efficiency as part of their CIAM integration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group has-base-color has-accent-4-background-color has-text-color has-background has-link-color wp-elements-1389b4ed4d3e07de7b06a8aa4cf182c6 is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\" style=\"border-radius:20px\">\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\" style=\"padding-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--40);padding-right:var(--wp--preset--spacing--40);padding-bottom:var(--wp--preset--spacing--40);padding-left:var(--wp--preset--spacing--40)\">Whilst most associate Social with the likes of Facebook, Google, X (Twitter), et al, in reality, &#8220;Social&#8221; is the term commonly used to refer to any non-<a href=\"https:\/\/discovery.cevolution.co.uk\/ciam\/authenticate\/login\/federation\/\" data-type=\"page\" data-id=\"1136\">Federation<\/a> Authentication \u2014 i.e. any Authentication using OIDC or OAuth 2 (rather than <span class=\"popup-trigger popmake-470\" data-popup-id=\"470\" data-do-default=\"0\">SAML<\/span>).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Instead of creating a new username and password credential combination, users can authenticate their identity by using credentials from the widely used social networks, such as:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Facebook<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Microsoft<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>LinkedIn<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Google<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>GitHub<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Apple<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>X<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>etc.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>With Social, a user provides permission for your SaaS application to access their basic profile information, such as name, email, and profile picture, stored on the social platform, and your SaaS-associated <span class=\"popup-trigger popmake-415\" data-popup-id=\"415\" data-do-default=\"0\">IdP<\/span> will use the data returned to both authenticate the user and subsequently create the user account. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group has-base-color has-accent-4-background-color has-text-color has-background has-link-color wp-elements-835e795e7ad854e06979ec42ed18e34f is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\" style=\"border-radius:20px\">\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\" style=\"padding-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--40);padding-right:var(--wp--preset--spacing--40);padding-bottom:var(--wp--preset--spacing--40);padding-left:var(--wp--preset--spacing--40)\">Though Social authentication <em>can<\/em> be integrated directly into SaaS and mobile applications through the APIs offered by the various (Social) platforms, for various reasons of security, efficiency and convenience, it&#8217;s better to do so via an application-independent <span class=\"popup-trigger popmake-415\" data-popup-id=\"415\" data-do-default=\"0\">IdP<\/span> implementation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-embed-handler wp-block-embed-embed-handler wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Be More Social With Your CIAM Integration\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/SvbZ4KgZiAo?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"improved-user-experience\">Improved User Experience<\/h2>\n\n\n<p>One of the most immediate benefits of Social authentication is the enhanced user experience. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Traditional registration and login processes often require customers to create and remember a username and password, which can be a barrier to engagement. Not only that, but the intricacies associated with password management can be challenging and costly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>By offering users the option to log in with their social accounts, organisations simplify the process, leading to:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Faster logins<\/strong>: Users don\u2019t need to remember multiple sets of credentials for various services. Social login eliminates the need to create and manage additional passwords.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Fewer friction points<\/strong>: Social authentication removes barriers to registration, reducing the likelihood of abandoned sign-ups or user frustration.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Better Personalisation<\/strong>: With social authentication, access to user profile data enables personalised experiences right from the outset.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>This streamlined user experience can increase user acquisition rates, reduce abandonment, and improve customer retention.<\/p>\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"enhanced-security\">Enhanced Security<\/h2>\n\n\n<p>Social authentication can also enhance security. The use of <strong>Strong Security Protocols<\/strong> like <span class=\"popup-trigger popmake-407\" data-popup-id=\"407\" data-do-default=\"0\">OIDC<\/span> and <span class=\"popup-trigger popmake-467\" data-popup-id=\"467\" data-do-default=\"0\">OAuth 2.0<\/span> means that the social platforms also implement robust security practices, including two-factor authentication (<span class=\"popup-trigger popmake-428\" data-popup-id=\"428\" data-do-default=\"0\">2FA<\/span>) and fraud detection. By relying on these services for authentication, businesses inherit the security features of these established platforms, often reducing the risk of account compromise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Password fatigue is also a common problem in today\u2019s digital landscape. With users managing dozens or even hundreds of passwords across various sites, the temptation to reuse passwords increases, which can lead to security vulnerabilities. The <strong>Reduced Password Fatigue<\/strong> provided by Social authentication eliminates the need for users to remember multiple passwords, mitigating the risks associated with poor password hygiene.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>CIAM integrations that leverage an application-independent IdP can incorporate Social authentication <em>and,<\/em> at the same time, enforce additional policies such as multi-factor authentication (<span class=\"popup-trigger popmake-428\" data-popup-id=\"428\" data-do-default=\"0\">MFA<\/span>) and conditional access based on user risk profiles. This level of <strong>Access Control and Privacy<\/strong> is crucial when dealing with sensitive customer data.<\/p>\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"faster-onboarding-and-registration\">Faster Onboarding and Registration<\/h2>\n\n\n<p>By allowing customers to authenticate via their existing social media accounts, businesses can significantly speed up the onboarding process. Users no longer need to fill out long registration forms with information like name, email address, and profile data as Social login automatically pre-fills much of this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This reduces friction for users and encourages quicker sign-up completion. A fast registration process improves conversion rates and user satisfaction, which can be vital for gaining a competitive advantage in e-commerce, online services, and mobile apps.<\/p>\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"lower-operational-costs\">Lower Operational Costs<\/h2>\n\n\n<p>Integrating Social authentication can also help reduce operational costs. Users are less likely to forget their credentials when using social login because they are relying on a service they use frequently. This reduces the burden on customer support teams who would otherwise have to manage password resets or account recovery processes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Social authentication also simplifies the process of managing user accounts, as businesses can rely on third-party platforms to handle the security aspects of authentication. This reduces the administrative overhead associated with maintaining user credentials and ensuring compliance with regulations like GDPR.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In addition, offloading the handling of passwords can enable you to deploy using a DIY open-source CIAM, providing a means of effectively lowering costs by (a) mitigating the need to subscribe to an expensive 3rd party CIAM SaaS vendor solution and (b) ensuring that the cost factor of hosting your own DIY implementation is kept to a minimum. With the likes of brute-force attack, breached password processing, and other password attack vectors (see below) being mitigated upstream \u2014 and typically free of charge \u2014 you no longer have to invest time, effort, energy or money in a solution<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group is-content-justification-center is-nowrap is-layout-flex wp-container-core-group-is-layout-23441af8 wp-block-group-is-layout-flex\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-wp-embed is-provider-discover-ciam wp-block-embed-discover-ciam\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"anHEKMc3h1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/discovery.cevolution.co.uk\/ciam\/2025\/03\/11\/ciam-attack-vectors-and-protecting-against-them\/\">CIAM Attack Vectors and Protecting Against Them<\/a><\/blockquote><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden;\" title=\"&#8220;CIAM Attack Vectors and Protecting Against Them&#8221; &#8212; Discover CIAM\" src=\"https:\/\/discovery.cevolution.co.uk\/ciam\/2025\/03\/11\/ciam-attack-vectors-and-protecting-against-them\/embed\/#?secret=UqNUNK99nC#?secret=anHEKMc3h1\" data-secret=\"anHEKMc3h1\" width=\"500\" height=\"282\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"access-to-richer-customer-data\">Access to Richer Customer Data<\/h2>\n\n\n<p>When users log in via social platforms like Google or LinkedIn, SaaS application vendors can access rich user profile data that can be used to enhance customer interactions. This data typically includes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Name and email address<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Profile pictures<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Location and social activity (e.g., LinkedIn job titles)<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Friend or connection data (if permitted)<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>This valuable information helps businesses create personalised experiences, offer targeted content, and improve marketing efforts. It also aids in customer segmentation and provides insights into user behaviour, which can drive better decision-making.<\/p>\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"improved-scalability-and-flexibility\">Improved Scalability and Flexibility<\/h2>\n\n\n<p>Social authentication platforms, such as Facebook, Google, and LinkedIn, are already designed to handle a massive volume of users, making them reliable and scalable solutions for handling authentication. By incorporating Social as part of your CIAM integration, supporting a larger number of user accounts and different authentication protocols becomes easier to achieve. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Additionally, CIAM systems that support multiple social login providers offer flexibility; if a customer decides to log in with Google but not Facebook, they can choose. Additionally, leveraging SSO to create a single user account means that the user experience remains consistent no matter which social platform they choose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group is-content-justification-center is-nowrap is-layout-flex wp-container-core-group-is-layout-23441af8 wp-block-group-is-layout-flex\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-wp-embed is-provider-discover-ciam wp-block-embed-discover-ciam\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"kw0nFbpx6I\"><a href=\"https:\/\/discovery.cevolution.co.uk\/ciam\/2025\/03\/05\/the-benefits-of-single-sign-on-sso\/\">The Benefits of SSO in a CIAM Integration<\/a><\/blockquote><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden;\" title=\"&#8220;The Benefits of SSO in a CIAM Integration&#8221; &#8212; Discover CIAM\" src=\"https:\/\/discovery.cevolution.co.uk\/ciam\/2025\/03\/05\/the-benefits-of-single-sign-on-sso\/embed\/#?secret=BQTUpwqnaR#?secret=kw0nFbpx6I\" data-secret=\"kw0nFbpx6I\" width=\"500\" height=\"282\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Social authentication is an invaluable tool for improving user experience, enhancing security, and streamlining account management as part of a broader Customer Identity and Access Management (CIAM) solution. By offering users the ability to log in via trusted third-party platforms like Facebook, Google, and LinkedIn, businesses can reduce friction during the onboarding process, increase customer retention, and lower operational costs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1830,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"authenticate":"","authentication":"","authenticatedMethod":"","authenticatedMember":"","authorizedPermissions":[],"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[22,20,18,32,33],"class_list":["post-1809","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-authentication","tag-ciam","tag-oauth2","tag-oidc","tag-social","tag-socialauth"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/discovery-bucket-ha60ib.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/22\/2025\/03\/12145604\/create-a-featured-image-showing-social-media-platforms-like-facebook-7.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/discovery.cevolution.co.uk\/ciam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1809","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/discovery.cevolution.co.uk\/ciam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/discovery.cevolution.co.uk\/ciam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discovery.cevolution.co.uk\/ciam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discovery.cevolution.co.uk\/ciam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1809"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/discovery.cevolution.co.uk\/ciam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1809\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5634,"href":"https:\/\/discovery.cevolution.co.uk\/ciam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1809\/revisions\/5634"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discovery.cevolution.co.uk\/ciam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1830"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/discovery.cevolution.co.uk\/ciam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discovery.cevolution.co.uk\/ciam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discovery.cevolution.co.uk\/ciam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}