MS Passport and... Visa

HeUnique writes "Well, people have seen it coming. According to this story Microsoft is extending the Passport authentication system to process Credit card payment (currently: Visa and MasterCard) through a deal with Arcot Systems. Of course, with the ever-changing privacy terms that some companies keep changing without notifying their user - it won't take much long until they'll take your credit cards info for 'verification' and who knows what they'll do with it.. sigh.." In a nutshell: "Microsoft and Arcot plan to offer, later this fall, a service that will let banks require computer users to type in their Passport username and password to authenticate Visa or MasterCard credit cards." Take the word "require" in that sentence with a grain of salt, I guess. Favorite quote: "People will start trusting the system now that it's linked to credit cards." Sure.

Comments

hmm

[seizer]

Of course, any real web business would have to be insane to limit its clientele to Passport account holders only. Note how Microsoft has 14 million registered users of Passport (how many just for MS Messenger?). Now note how many people on the net - approximately 400 million? So do you see Amazon saying that only 3% of the net can buy their books? Nope, didn't think so.

Re:hmm

[Fly]

Yes, but the Passport account is "free" since it does not require uses to pay, so Amazon or other sites would simply coerce users to sign up for their "free" passport accounts. This way Microsoft becomes the gatekeeper for more and more Web services and gets everyone's information, which is part of the actual cost of the "free" service.

It's much easier for them to dictate the standards for the Web when they've got everyone registered for their services.

Let he who is without sin

[FortKnox]

Favorite quote: "People will start trusting the system now that it's linked to credit cards." Sure.

Before we start railing MS about bugs, let he who is without sin cast the first stone.

Anywho, its not the hacking to get the password I'm worried about. Most people don't know how to make a good password, and most are easily guessable.

Trust?

[Ride-My-Rocket]

Why in God's name would I trust a company that changed its privacy policy overnight, much to the chagrin of millions of people worldwide (Hotmail.com)? Why would I trust a company that surreptitiously modified the EULA of their _media player_ to include consent to modify the DRM / OS it runs on?

I trust my VISA (and credit card companies in general), because they tend to work in my interest and take care of me when I have bonafide problems with unauthorized usage and such. I have zero trust in Microsoft, a company that has systematically undermined my digital rights on a regular basis without apparent consideration of what I want. It may be "good for business", but it's not good for me.

That being said, I plan on reformatting my Win2k boxes at home this weekend and uninstalling the Media Player. I'll also be removing the "Automatic Updates" feature they added to their "Windows Update" site recently -- I don't trust them not to modify my preferences there, either.

Re:Trust?

[4of12]

yet you trust Visa over Microsoft.

Good point which many probably aren't aware of in this forum.

I dislike VISA for what it does to maintain and to milk its monopoly as much as I dislike Microsoft for the same. VISA does arm twisting and revenue extraction not just from consumers, but also from participating retailers that get charged fees that, well, are as economically inelastic as what Microsoft charges for licensing fees.

As a computer geek, I'm just more cognizant of MS actions than I am of VISA. The other thing about MS is that it's monopoly stands to grow substantially more invasive, instrusive and unavoidable as Web services increase. VISA is relatively static by comparison, though people are buying groceries and fast food on the things where they didn't 10 years ago.

Now if VISA were able to subsume the role the central government and be the de facto electronic cash, then there'd be more reason for concern.

I can just see it advertised how recording every dime spent and tracing every transaction eliminates terrorism, pedophiles, drug dealing and prostitution. Every cash related movement of every individual such as Mohammed Atta would be recorded and analyzed for "suspicious activity". And the sheep I call my fellow citizens might just buy into it given enough FUD at the right time. The Islamic extremists will win as our governments become as restrictive as their own.

Not so simple

[Codex The Sloth]

What happens to your "choice" when all the bank use Passport? There aren't as many banks as there used to be and an oligopoly is nearly as effective as a monopoly. The RIAA wouldn't be an issue if there were viable music labels that didn't participate in it. An oligopoly can be ad hoc as well without any organizational structure -- I dare say we all object to crazy ATM fees (weren't ATMs supposed to save the bank money?) but we all end up paying them.

Re:This is much worse than "offering the service"

[ImaLamer]

The scary part isn't here yet, at least not all the way.

Passport is the string that ties it all together. You will need passport to conduct business, either as a buyer or seller. I'm sure there will be "merchant" (lack of a better word) accounts which costs a bundle for the seller and they must have them to collect.

But currently many people are safe. You are nagged to death to get a passport or associate your passport with Windows but you can have a passport without Windows. The day will come however where you it is a must!

It truly scares me. I can see how three business steps, maybe two, could control the whole industry. And I'm not just talking about the "Desktop" market or even the computer market, I'm saying they could literally grab chunks of the Internet and put it in their own pockets.

Congress and the Justice Department need to jump on this and look into their plans before it's too late.

That is if anyone is serious about our or privacy or freedom.

Simple Solution

[eples]

Here is my simple solution to MS' latest Passport move:

• Find what I want online, and then pick up the telephone and dial the toll-free number to order.

Problem solved. Passport dies a slow and embarassing death.