U.S. Considers Microsoft Passport as National ID

An anonymous submitter writes: "Ladies and gents, the endtimes have begun. The Seattle Times is reporting that Mark Forman, associate director of information technology at the White House (or 'America's CIO', as he bills himself) has said the feds are considering the use of Microsoft's Passport technology to ID every citizen and every business seeking access to government services online. This is about as scary as it gets." To be fair, it looks very preliminary. Read the article. So many companies have tried to assist the government in providing services over the Net... but I guess if your lobbyists are good enough, you can be heard at the top.

but..... but.... isn't the government still SUING?

[AugstWest]

Shouldn't the fact that the US government is still suing Microsoft weigh in, at least a little bit, on the choice of Microsoft for handling the national IDs?

Is this the same government...

[Krusher55]

Is this the same government that is suing them for being manipulative, controlling and illegially imposing restrictions on their customers? The irony never ends.

Re:OK guys, for real now...

[steeef]

how about some pointers? i don't know about the rest of us here, but i've never written to a representative. what's the best way to get their attention? are there any good points i should be making in this letter?

Re:Um

[Krusher55]

"Only exception is filing income taxes "

Oh, BTW, Microsoft recently imposed changes to the Passport user agreement. They now own your tax return and all the information contained in it.

But then Passport would have to be open sourced. .

[ahfoo]

Because it would be a government publication and government publications cannot be copyrighted. Isn't that the case? Perhaps it you wouldn't call that open souce. But wouldn't it have to be openly documented and copyright free?

Opt out?

[Windcatcher]

You know, I'm getting really tired of EVERY FREAKING WEBSITE UNDER THE SUN wanting my personal information. Not just government web sites, but just about everything else nowadays.

- Want news? Tell us who you are so we can send you spam.

- Want to try a free demo? Tell us who you are so we can send you spam.

- Want to buy our product? It only costs $XXX.XX but you have to give us your personal information if you want it to be activated.

Blah, blah, blah. How about a web site that links to other web sites in various categories that DO NOT demand personal information (including email)? And a "hall of shame" of sites and products (or vendors) to avoid.

- The IRS can force me to get a MS Passport only when they outlaw PAPER.

Cheers,

Wind

Goodbye America

[Martin Spamer]

Goodbye America, It's been nice knowing you.

I cannot help drawing parrallels between this and the National Socialists, in German using IBM equipment used to manage the census, in the runup to the final solution during WW2.

The direction the US is moving is starting to get really scary from the outside.

UK Giovernment heading the same way

[Cally]

Here in the UK the Blair government,in a fit of eStupidity (before the dotcom crash) decided to Make It So any interaction with the gvernment can be done online.Of course, as well as being Dubya's poodle, Blair & Co are still acting like they're terified Daily Mail readers (fascist middle class women, you know the sort) well think they're the same as "Old Labour" -- the socialist party which won elections several times since the war, introduced the NHS, nationalised lots of stuff, raised taxes a lot and generally perceived as "business unfriendly".They try to fend off these suspicions by... being MORE corrupt and "businessmen friendly" than any government in living memory. Surprise surprise,it turns out that UK Online (govt portal and associated services) is closely tied up with Microsoft - to the extent that it was bouncing non IE browsers when first launched (though I believe that's fixed now.) Search the Register [theregister.co.uk] for "govt" and you'll see what I mean. I've been half-expecting them to announce some bullshit along these lines for the last few years. To those saying "HGey, but it's only web authentication" -- yes, it's web authentication to things like paying your taxes, contact any govt department, driving license, Court fines, criminal records, health records,... I shudder to think what this is going to look like in a few years' time. And to be honest, I can't think of a better target for (let's call them) "ethical crackers".

Just when you think GW can't do anything more stupid...*sigh*. Anyone in favour of founding an independent state for geeks?

Couldn't this be a good thing?

[SirKron]

Why would this not be a good thing? With all MS bashing aside. The gov't could tell MS that "yes we will use your passport if:"
1. It is open source to meet security standards.
2. The tecnology can be used from any platform.
3. Security is first priority.

Setting a standard could be good for all of us. I would not mind having a set user identification system, user privacy issues aside, for ecommerce reasons.