U.S. Considers Microsoft Passport as National ID

An anonymous submitter writes: "Ladies and gents, the endtimes have begun. The Seattle Times is reporting that Mark Forman, associate director of information technology at the White House (or 'America's CIO', as he bills himself) has said the feds are considering the use of Microsoft's Passport technology to ID every citizen and every business seeking access to government services online. This is about as scary as it gets." To be fair, it looks very preliminary. Read the article. So many companies have tried to assist the government in providing services over the Net... but I guess if your lobbyists are good enough, you can be heard at the top.

Comments

OK guys, for real now...

[sphealey]

If this bothers you (and to me it is VERY disturbing), please put pen to paper and write your Congresspersons expressing in firm, polite language why you oppose this idea. Please.

sPh

Re:OK guys, for real now...

[misfit13b]

Click here for contact info.

Re:OK guys, for real now...

[revscat]

It's fairly well known now that email is mostly ignored by Congresscritters. They can't tell for sure if the email is coming from one of their constituents, it's too easy to do, and they get too many of them. Faxes are better, stamped snail mail is best.

Actually cold hard cash is best, but we're talking above the table methods here.

Re:OK guys, for real now...

[daviddennis]

From what I've heard ...

• Be civil. Nobody likes to hear flaming, and your representative will almost certainly toss flames in the trash.

• Be brief. These are busy people you're writing to. Heck, even the person hired to read your letter is a busy person, since he gets whole sacks of these things.

• Don't use someone else's words. It's easy to rely on others to write letters for you. But the more identical letters they receive, the more likely it is that they'll feel this is an organized lobbying campaign instead of something from the grass roots. You want people to think your letter is genuine, so proceed accordingly. A relatively small number of sincere, well-written, DISTINCT letters are going to be as effective as hundreds of identical screeds.

• Proofread. This should go without saying, but, judging by what I see on Slashdot, many of us have lost the habit.

• Write a paper letter. They know how easy it is to bat out an email, so they don't give them much weight. In any event, nobody has time to wade through the millions of emails they get, so they sit unread.

• You may even want to hand write it instead of using a computer. That will make it more of a novelty, and it will be obvious you are /really/ willing to put in an effort. Perhaps "I have to write in longhand so Microsoft's goons won't get me if I do it in Word their spies in Redmond will get it." Okay, that was a joke, but you get the idea.

For this issue specifically, it might be worth checking out how controversial Microsoft Government has been elsewhere. If you want an idea of what this is going to look like, check out this article in The Register (UK). You may also want to do a few more searches over there since there's lots of meaty material.

Hope that helps.

D

It was bad enough when I couldn't get into MSDN

[Brento]

Now I can't imagine being unable to reenter the country because the Passport servers were down again. Grrrreat.

Re:It was bad enough when I couldn't get into MSDN

[dattaway]

We have detected a virus on your card and you will be detained until we release a patch.

Re:Um

[Drizzten]

Take a look around FirstGov and realize the wealth of information available on federal government websites. I visit several of them on a weekly basis for statistics and data that I can't get elsewhere. Putting some sort of chancy identity authentication scheme in the way of accessing these sites freely would most certainly affect my browsing there. I worry about this because:

...the government plans to begin testing Web sites where businesses can pay taxes and citizens can learn about benefits and social services

My emphasis. It bothers me they want to restrict our free access to this information.

Re:Read. The. Article

[sphealey]

I swear to -god- my five year old has better reading comprension than some of you people.

The article mentions that is is for online services three times.

Problem is, once an entity reaches a certain size, it is required to deal with the federal gov't electronically. For example, employers of more than 200 people must file all their tax information electronically. They also must verify that their employees are eligible to work in the US.

It is not a long step (in fact, it is a very very short step) from there to having employers say to you "Ready to start work? Sure - just step up to that HR kiosk, fire up Internet Explorer(tm), and use your Federal Passport(tm) to authenticate who you are.". What? No Microsoft Passport(tm)? Sorry - no paycheck for you. And so on for other "optional" services that allow you to do optional things such as eat.

sPh

I just payed my federal and state taxes online.

[laetus]

And you can (online) in my state and locality:

* pay local traffic tickets,
* renew driver's licenses,
* renew vehicle registrations,
* pay property taxes,
etc.

Once a federal online ID becomes pervasive, it'll be used for every state and local online transaction also, just like SSN's filtered down to the state and local levels. And personally, I don't want M$ having all that info.

Dear Congressman Bob...

[ackthpt]

Dear Representative {Insert Their Name Here},

Thank you for taking your valuable time away from being wined, dined and brainwashed by lobbyists to read this letter. I strongly oppose the U.S. Federal Government setting precedent in support of a known and guilty monopolist. Please insist upon an Open Standard, arrived at by a broad spectrum of those with strong experience in the areas of Preservation of Individual Privacy and Integrity & Security of Data. Do not allow this perceived opportunity to lock the people of the United States of America into a closed standard which has proven non-secure in the past and the goals of the provider so transparent.

Regards, {Insert Your Name Here}

Good job!

[CaptainPhong]

Gee, that sounds like the perfect way to punish someone who abuses their Monopoly power - give them a big contract!