The European Commission is investigating Microsoft’s .NET Passport
web services to check whether or not the system complies with EU
data protection law following questions being raised by Dutch MEP
Erik Meijer.
Microsoft’s .NET Password allows users to use one set of
registration details across all participating web sites. Dutch MEP
Erik Meijer tabled questions to the Commission on 4th March 2002,
expressing his concern that failing to register with .NET would
result in the exclusion of a user from many web sites’ services and
that the system does not offer an unsubscribe option.
Among his questions, Meijer asks:
Is the Commission aware of Microsoft's free
.NET Passport service, which, while consumers are engaged in a
purchase, a game, a request or a bank transaction on line, is
designed continually to collect their personal information via for
instance, an e-mail address (Hotmail), a chat programme (MSN
Messenger), a shop (Expedia.com), an auction site (QXL), a
community (MSN Communities) or a hotel chain (Hilton.com) and that,
as a result, a vast quantity of personal information is
surreptitiously passed on to unknown parties by, in particular,
Hotmail address owners without their noticing it?
The Commission has agreed to investigate Microsoft’s privacy
practices as a matter of priority.
