A system, apparatus, method, and machine readable medium are described for implementing privacy classes within an authentication framework. For example, one embodiment of a method comprises: transmitting a query for client information from a server to a client, the client information including information related to authentication devices coupled to the client; analyzing the query to determine an appropriate privacy class to be used for providing client information to the server; providing a subset of client information selected based on the determined privacy class, the subset of client information including the information related to the authentication devices coupled to the client; and using the subset of client information within an authentication framework to provide user authentication services over a network.