diff --git a/activeresource/lib/active_resource/connection.rb b/activeresource/lib/active_resource/connection.rb
index fb3fde59d6a30..c70e3d567d3be 100644
--- a/activeresource/lib/active_resource/connection.rb
+++ b/activeresource/lib/active_resource/connection.rb
@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@ class Connection
     }
 
     attr_reader :site, :user, :password, :timeout
-    attr_accessor :format
+    attr_accessor :format, :use_basic_authentication
 
     class << self
       def requests
@@ -32,6 +32,7 @@ def initialize(site, format = ActiveResource::Formats::XmlFormat)
       @user = @password = nil
       self.site = site
       self.format = format
+      self.use_basic_authentication = true
     end
 
     # Set URI for remote service.
@@ -150,7 +151,11 @@ def build_request_headers(headers, http_method=nil)
 
       # Sets authorization header
       def authorization_header
-        (@user || @password ? { 'Authorization' => 'Basic ' + ["#{@user}:#{ @password}"].pack('m').delete("\r\n") } : {})
+        if self.use_basic_authentication then
+          (@user || @password ? { 'Authorization' => 'Basic ' + ["#{@user}:#{ @password}"].pack('m').delete("\r\n") } : {})
+        else
+          {}
+        end
       end
 
       def http_format_header(http_method)
diff --git a/activeresource/test/connection_test.rb b/activeresource/test/connection_test.rb
index 831fbc4003f42..9cf016eceb05b 100644
--- a/activeresource/test/connection_test.rb
+++ b/activeresource/test/connection_test.rb
@@ -183,6 +183,18 @@ def test_accept_http_header
     assert_nothing_raised(Mocha::ExpectationError) { @conn.get(path, {'Accept' => 'application/xhtml+xml'}) }
   end
 
+  def test_when_use_basic_authentication_is_false_no_authorization_header_is_sent
+    @http = mock('new Net::HTTP')
+    @conn.stubs(:http).returns(@http)
+
+    @conn.use_basic_authentication = false
+    @conn.user = "francois"
+    @conn.password = "life is good"
+
+    @http.expects(:get).with("/people/1.xml", Not(has_key("Authorization"))).returns(stub_everything("HTTP response", :code => "200"))
+    @conn.get("/people/1.xml")
+  end
+
   protected
     def assert_response_raises(klass, code)
       assert_raise(klass, "Expected response code #{code} to raise #{klass}") do