Zeszyty Naukowe Uniwersytetu Szczecińskiego. Studia Informatica

Internet is a widely accessed medium with a significant and growing number of active users each year. internet users frequently become part of the transactions performed remotely. each transaction involves an authorization process, in order to confirm user’s identity or user’s credentials. Such authorizations takes place in daily activities, i.e.: when using e-mail accounts, realizing payments or while doing on-line shopping.Internet users usually do not notice the fact that they take part in the transactions, which aim is to check their credibility. This is because it is executed automatically, as this operation becomes an integral part of using virtual resources.The fact internet is so popular, results in a great variety of people using it. Each global web user has its’ individual set of attributes, being a result of user’s age, sex or the frequency of net using. The attributes might be further generalized into more specified sets (ranges), in order to distinguish a particular group of people. The groups could be characterized by a joint range of attributes, which enable to define the user’s profile. This brings up a question, whether a dependency exists between the features of each user and the types of services such user uses. To provide the answer, internet users have been subjected to a survey. During a study two groups of data have been gained: characterizing the users’ attributes and showing users’ preferences. The comparison of both enabled to conduct the observations about the dependencies between the type of user and the type of remote authorizations methods this certain user was using. The article presents the results showing not only the popularity of different services but also the spread of different services among the internet users.