Microsoft and Arcot Systems have entered into an agreement to
integrate Microsoft's .net Passport online authentication system
with Arcot's TransFort payment authentication software for credit
cards.
The combination of TransFort with Microsoft's authentication and
single sign-on service will allow banks that issue credit cards to
use Passport to electronically identify card holders making
purchases online.
Passport allows subscribers to enter their name and password once
and access other password-protected Web sites and online services
that are Microsoft partners without having to sign on each time.
More than 200 million Web users are Passport subscribers, according
to Microsoft.
Arcot Systems supplies online payment systems for banks and
merchants that issue credit cards from Visa and MasterCard as well
as providing the software used by Visa for its own Verified by Visa
program.
Under the partnership, Passport will be available for Visa and
MasterCard issuers using Arcot's system. Besides expanding the
services available to Passport subscribers, the deal with Arcot is
intended to allow participating credit card issuing banks to save
money and resources when developing online credit card services,
according to Microsoft.
"This keeps the cost down for the banks and merchants so they don't
have to come up with their own authentication system," said Adam
Sohn, product manager for .net platform strategy at
Microsoft.
Additionally, those card-issuing banks can use their own user name
and password systems or smart cards to authenticate cardholders
online.
Since Passport's launch last year, Microsoft has come under
sustained criticism regarding the level of control of personal
information Passport gives the company.
Last week, the European Union announced it would continue
investigating Passport after European data protection authorities
found that Passport risks breaching European Union privacy laws.
Microsoft already offers a service through Passport called Express
Purchase, which allows a user to store their financial information
including credit card number, card expiration date and mailing
address. Subscribers of Express Purchase can use the service to
make electronic-commerce purchases on Web sites that support the
technology without having to manually enter personal
information.
The deal with Arcot is separate from Express Purchase and serves
somewhat of a complementary service, Sohn said. Express Purchase is
intended to allow users to quickly enter personal information into
a Web site when making a purchase.
Using Passport with Arcot's system allows banks to verify that the
user making the purchase is in fact the owner of the credit card.
In the scenario with Arcot, a user's credit card information is
stored with the credit card issuer rather than with
Microsoft.
"They [the card issuing banks] still own all the customer data.
Passport just does the authentication," Sohn said.