Europe Said to Agree on Microsoft Privacy Issues

[R. A. Hettinga]

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/30/business/worldbusiness/30SOFT.html?ei=5062&en=fa850440cebec7cf&ex=1044507600&partner=GOOGLE&pagewanted=print&position=top

The New York Times


January 30, 2003 

Europe Said to Agree on Microsoft Privacy Issues 
By
THE NEW YORK TIMES 


y The New York Times BRUSSELS, Jan. 29 -
Data-protection officials from the 15 member nations of the European Union
will ask Microsoft to make additional changes to Passport, its online
customer authentication system, people close to the officials'
deliberations on the matter say. 

The officials concluded a two-day
conference here today with an agreement on how to respond to offers by
Microsoft to bring Passport into compliance with the union's strict data
privacy laws. 

But they decided not to make it public until later this
week to permit time for it to be translated from English into French. A
Microsoft spokesman said the company could not comment until the final
language of the decision was available. 

One person who attended the
meeting said Microsoft had offered to make substantial changes to Passport.
He said that a central problem the officials had identified with Passport
was the way it permits Microsoft to share personal details it gathers about
consumers with other companies that participate in Microsoft's e-commerce
platform. 

Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company |Permissions |Privacy
Policy 

-- 
-----------------
R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah at ibuc.com>
The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'

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