Microsoft Working on New ID System for Windows

[R.A. Hettinga]

<http://www.reuters.com/printerFriendlyPopup.jhtml?type=internetNews&storyID=8026568>

Reuters


Microsoft Working on New ID System for Windows
 Tue Mar 29, 2005 01:23 PM ET

 By Reed Stevenson

 SEATTLE (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp. (MSFT.O: Quote, Profile, Research)
will build software for managing identities into Windows in order to beef
up security by giving users more control over their personal information,
the world's largest software maker said on Tuesday.

 The ID technology called "info-cards" will give users more control over
their own personal information in order to shop and access services online,
said Michael Stephenson, director in Microsoft's Windows Server division.

 Microsoft is currently working on a new Internet Explorer Web browser and
version of Windows, code-named Longhorn, but Stephenson declined to say
whether "info-cards" would be built into the current Windows XP version or
Longhorn.

 "We're trying to make the end-user experience as simple as possible,"
Stephenson said, adding that Microsoft's "goal is to make sure that this is
as broadly accessible as possible."

 The initiative is the latest effort by the software giant to improve the
reliability and security of its software. Identity theft has become a
growing concern in the United States as personal data is increasingly used
to make purchases, and log into Web sites for vital information and
services.

 The U.S. government is considering greater regulation of data brokers
following a rash of break-ins and other data losses that have heightened
concern about identity theft -- a crime that costs consumers and businesses
an estimated $50 billion annually.

 The technology proposed by Microsoft is reminiscent of two software tools
detailed by the Redmond, Washington-based company in 2001 called Passport
and Hailstorm.

 Hailstorm was quietly shelved after privacy advocates said it put too much
sensitive information into the hands of a single company and partners
expressed similar reservations.

 Passport, used to provide a single log-in for multiple Web sites and store
basic personal information, did not gain the wide audience that Microsoft
hoped for. Online marketplace eBay Inc. (EBAY.O: Quote, Profile, Research)
, an early Passport adopter, stopped using the service for its users in
January.

 While Microsoft's earlier plans involved the use of centrally stored
information beyond computer desktop, the "info-card" system will keep data
stored on a personal computer, Microsoft said.

 "It's going to put control of digital IDs into the hands of an end-user,
the end-user will be in full control," Stephenson said.

ChoicePoint Inc. (CPS.N: Quote, Profile, Research) , which maintains
personal profiles of nearly every U.S. consumer for companies that need to
conduct credit and security checks, said earlier this year that it
inadvertently gave criminals tens of thousands of consumer records,
sparking fears of widespread identity theft and government probes.

 On Monday, the University of California, Berkeley, said that a laptop
computer containing the names and Social Security numbers of nearly 100,000
graduates, graduate students and applicants, was stolen earlier in March
and that police were investigating the theft.
-- 
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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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