Microsoft’s .NET Password allows users to use one set of registration details across all participating web sites. Dutch MEP Erik Meijer tabled questions to the Commission on 4th March 2002, expressing his concern that failing to register with .NET would result in the exclusion of a user from many web sites’ services and that the system does not offer an unsubscribe option.
Among his questions, Meijer asks:
Is the Commission aware of Microsoft's free .NET Passport service, which, while consumers are engaged in a purchase, a game, a request or a bank transaction on line, is designed continually to collect their personal information via for instance, an e-mail address (Hotmail), a chat programme (MSN Messenger), a shop (Expedia.com), an auction site (QXL), a community (MSN Communities) or a hotel chain (Hilton.com) and that, as a result, a vast quantity of personal information is surreptitiously passed on to unknown parties by, in particular, Hotmail address owners without their noticing it?
The Commission has agreed to investigate Microsoft’s privacy practices as a matter of priority.