Privacy advocates in the US are demanding that the Federal Trade
Commission (FTC) stop Microsoft from "unfairly and deceptively"
obtaining customer information through its Passport services and
Windows XP.
In a letter to the FTC, chairman Timothy Muris and sent to
congressional committee members, several privacy groups urged the
FTC to force Microsoft to "disgorge any personal information
collected fraudulently and deceptively through XP and Passport."
According to a Microsoft representative, the letter was nothing
more than a rehashing of old complaints to coincide with the
release of Windows XP.
The groups expressed concern that the software manufacturer's
Passport authentication service violates the FTC's unfair and
deceptive practices statute because it has the potential to track
and monitor Internet users.
"Microsoft should be stopped from stating or implying that having a
Passport issued by Microsoft is necessary to obtain access to the
Internet, " said Jason Catlett, president of the US-based privacy
company, Junkbusters. Catlett claimed the FTC had failed to protect
consumers by not taking public action against Microsoft.
"This case is a test of the FTC's ability to act in the public
interest," said Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the
Electronic Privacy Information Centre (EPIC), one of the groups to
sign the letter.
Microsoft has denied that it uses deceptive practices and continued
to accuse EPIC and other groups of playing to the media rather than
working with Microsoft to resolve the problems
The privacy groups said that Microsoft's response to their original
complaint in July had failed to address the illegal and intrusive
behaviour they had documented.
The groups also listed several security failures by Microsoft,
which they said indicated that the software maker cannot keep
consumers' personal information secure.