Microsoft Launches Passport

Microsoft today "launched" Passport. Passport is an on-line wallet service, meaning that all your billing and other information is stored centrally with Microsoft, so that you don't have to retype it every time. Passport was used by a few Microsoft sites before, but with today's announcement, an additional fifty or sixty sites have adopted the technology. While my initial concerns were about privacy, they were mostly (but not completely) covered by the aforelinked press release. A news.com article cites a research analyst as saying that one day, Microsoft may wish to take a percentage of the profits, and go for a monopoly on e-wallets. Certainly is a lot to speculate on here...