IT HAS become a sickening trend. Every few years, the keyboard gremlins at Microsoft manage to pull themselves out of their caves just long enough to bribe advertisers and celebrity sponsors into endorsing their latest Windows Operating System. Regardless of the product's quality, it seems that every mouse-waving, keypunching, screen-staring sucker in the civilized world eats it up. Despite warnings that Bill Gates and his smirking cronies are exploiting their virtual monopoly over the computing industry to force their inferior product upon the world, helpless consumers from Boston to Beijing still eagerly open wide for a new spoonful of Windows to be shoveled down their throats. Microsoft's latest operating system, Windows XP, is bundled with a frightening new feature called Passport Service that threatens the personal and financial privacy of many overly trusting consumers.
In the past, the ridiculous leap of faith Windows users take hasn't been so terribly bad. Sure, Windows addiction has stifled innovation among independent software engineering companies and forced millions of people to use an unnecessarily slow and cumbersome interface to complete their computing tasks. But that's nothing compared to what we risk if we bend over for Gates again this time. With the release of the latest Windows software, we're looking at a potential major exploitation of public trust and the possibility of an across-the-board invasion of privacy that would give George Orwell the chills.
Windows XP incorporates an existing Microsoft service called Passport which operates on the premise of making Internet tasks such as shopping more convenient and more efficient. Because more than 165 million people are suspected to buy Windows XP, incorporating Passport into the new operating system gives the service an immediately vast client base. When unsuspecting users everywhere plug in their shiny new designer-colored retro-styled XP-equipped computers, Passport will be ready and waiting for them.
When these XP users go to set up their Internet connection, Passport will pop up onto their screens and cheerfully tell them that they have the opportunity to improve their Internet experience by pre-entering some information into their computer. This information can include credit card numbers, street and e-mail addresses, phone numbers and other identifying characteristics (www.passport.com/Consumer/PrivacyPolicy.asp). Microsoft can then electronically assimilate all of this information. Any time a person needs to transmit some of this information to a Web site, to buy books online, for example, he doesn't have to re-enter his name, address or credit card numbers; Passport will take care of the exchange for him.
The negative effects of Passport are numerous. First, registration for Passport service is confusingly deceptive. The software eagerly confronts every Windows XP user without explicitly stating that Passport registration is not necessary to establish Internet access and without revealing the danger of divulging personal information that may be shared with other online companies. Second, Microsoft claims that it gives its users control over which companies can see data collected by Passport. But in fact, people who do not have extensive knowledge of e-commerce applications may not be able to comprehend exactly what constitutes their consent to share information. During Passport registration there is a series of confusing checkboxes, and the full implications of checking each one are not explained adequately to users.
A third consequence of Passport's presence in all new Windows XP machines is that it increases the dependence of many online shoppers upon Microsoft Internet services. If all Windows users depend upon the Passport service to do their online shopping, then Microsoft can control e-commerce to a great extent. Any online company that does not partner with Microsoft to allow the use of Passport will be doomed to failure, putting Microsoft in a position of almost total control over the e-commerce industry.
While the aspects of Passport that are within Microsoft's realm of control are bad enough, the most dangerous issues actually arise from a lapse in the Passport technology. As far as Microsoft will tell the average consumer, any information given to Passport will be guarded heavily in an electronic data fortress. But in reality, the data they collect will be frighteningly available to any slightly resourceful cyber criminal. As a concerned privacy coalition wrote to the Federal Trade Commission in a letter on Oct. 23, an obvious security bug in Passport "would allow anyone to gain access to Passport identification and credit card data with a single line of code" (http://www.epic.org/privacy/consumer/microsoft/ftcletter10.23.01.html).
The trust that the general public has placed in Microsoft as an operating system provider is dangerous precisely because the public does not know enough to realize when this trust is being exploited. As Microsoft uses its stranglehold on the computing market to encroach upon the dimension of Internet commerce and information sharing, it threatens the prospect of future online competition. While we must be careful not to regulate the free market too closely, we cannot allow Microsoft to achieve its ambitious goals through the deception of its trusting customers. To preserve personal privacy, the public must understand the true nature of Passport and the dangerous ambitions of Microsoft.
(Anthony Dick is a Cavalier Daily viewpoint writer).