[thelist] MS Passport = evil scourge of modern man?

martin burns martin at members.evolt.org
Thu Aug 17 02:56:15 CDT 2000


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At 17:30 16/08/00, you wrote:
>Hail thelist,

Salvete


>It seems like kind of a slow day, for me anyway.  I just read this article
><wrap>
>http://joel.editthispage.com/stories/storyReader$139
></wrap>
>from Joel on Software, and thought some of you might find it interesting.
>He discusses how Microsoft Passport may bring about an end to whatever 
>privacy we have left on the web.  A quote:
>
>"Am I the only one who is terrified about Microsoft Passport? It seems to 
>me like a fairly blatant attempt to build the world's largest, richest 
>consumer database, and then make fabulous profits mining it. It's a 
>terrifying threat to everyone's personal privacy and it will make today's 
>"cookies" seem positively tame by comparison." --Joel on Software

Unless the Ts&Cs/privacy statement explicitly say otherwise, any
commercial operator collecting user data is going to exploit it, even
if it's to sell more of their own products (ie by making offers more
tailored to the customer).

This isn't *necessarily* a bad thing, as long as you know what's
happening. A European company wouldn't be allowed to do this
btw without user permission. We have real data protection
legislation (even if the enforcement bodies are under-resourced).

Cheers
Martin
________________
Martin Burns, Content Management Consultant
tel: +44 (0)778 068 6418
PGP fingerprint: A9B9 101F 55F9 40BE 5E00  98E7 71E8 1E70 A835 CCCB
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