European data protection authorities have said that Microsoft's
.net Passport online authentication system risks breaching European
Union privacy laws, but added that they would continue to study
issues raised by the service.
Officials from the 15 national data protection authorities (DPAs)
met in Brussels and agreed to the findings of their Internet task
force sub-committee, which were drawn up last week.
"The national authorities agreed to look further into .net
passport," said Jonathan Todd, spokesman on internal market issues
at the European Commission.
"A number of elements of the .net passport system raise legal
issues and, therefore, require further consideration," the Internet
task force concluded after its initial analysis of the
system.
The task force said it was focusing on .net because it is the most
important online authentication system in operation today. They
questioned the "value and quality" of the consent given by users to
.net's operations.
They were also concerned by the security risks to people's data
from signing up to .net.
The national DPAs adopted the Internet task force's findings and
said they would continue to monitor future developments in the
field, and especially in Microsoft's authentication system.
Meanwhile, the new head of the European Commission competition
office, Philip Lowe, said that the Microsoft anti-trust
investigation will not conclude before the cases in the US have
finished.
Microsoft is also waiting for an outcome in the US before "talking
seriously" to the European Commission.
US District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly is expected to reach
a decision in the next few months on an anti-trust case by nine
state attorneys general.
In a separate decision, she also will rule on whether a settlement
reached by the US Department of Justice and nine other states is in
the public interest.
Lowe said he expects the commission to rule toward the end of this
year. Microsoft faces fines of up to 10% of its global sales if the
commission finds it guilty of abusing its dominant position in the
market for PC operating systems. It may also be forced to make
structural changes to its business practices in order to allay the
European commission's concerns.
The main concerns are that Microsoft is using its Windows operating
system to grab control of related markets, such as the server
software market. It also believes Microsoft could be stifling
competition by bundling products such as Media Player music and
video software into its Windows products.