Microsoft revokes Passport service
By Ashlee Vance in Chicago
Published Thursday 30th December 2004 18:58 GMT
Microsoft has given up on trying to hawk its controversial Passport
sign-on service to other companies, according to a report in the LA
Times
Microsoft's decision to shut down its Passport partner program comes
after one of its largest allies - eBay - said it would retire
Passport in January and use its own service instead. Redmond will
still offer up Passport as a single sign-on tool for its own services
such as Hotmail. This move by Microsoft to give up on being a type of
internet services middleman can be seen as a major victory for the
rival Liberty Alliance, which is comprised of serious tech
heavyweights such as IBM, Sun Microsystems, HP and Nokia.
Microsoft told the LA Times that it would now concentrate on making
software tools that can be used by other companies to create their
own web services.
Passport allowed Microsoft to keep track of a wide range of customer
information, including credit card numbers. It could then pass on
this information to partners for use in their own internet services.
The process was meant to make life easier on consumers, as they only
had to remember one user name and password to log on to a wide
variety of web sites and services.
Rivals, however, quickly complained that Microsoft was trying to
dominate internet transactions. Sun, in particular, warned
Microsoft's partners that they would eventually lose control of their
customers if they picked up Passport. The competitors formed Liberty
Alliance to create a set of identity management standards that could
be shared by vendors.
Passport also made privacy advocates nervous. Microsoft suffered one
of its most embarrassing moments in May of 2003 when it revealed that
all 200m Passport users could have their private information made
public because of a security hole in its service. The US Federal
Trade Commission vowed to look into the problem and said Microsoft
could face a huge fine, but the FTC has not disclosed whether or not
it did in fact fine Microsoft in the end.
While Microsoft is backing down from promoting Passport, it still has
very real identity management aspirations. It makes a variety of
products for managing internet services and will certainly continue
to play a role in this part of the software market.
In the end, it seems Microsoft was unable to convince enough partners
of the merits of Passport. Why invite Microsoft to keep track of your
customers when more open options exist for building custom services?
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