MS Agrees To EU-Proposed Passport Changes

glitch_ writes "News.com has a story about how Microsoft has reached an agreement with the European Union to implement a package of changes in its .Net Passport online authentication service, to prevent the service from running afoul of EU data protection laws."

Nice to see...

[Dave2 Wickham]

...that they've implemented these options globally, although I suppose it makes sense (I expect it'd be easier). One thing I couldn't seem to see from the article is what information you can control, and in which ways... does anyone know?

Re:Nice to see...

[AndrewRUK]

"Directive 95/46/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 October 1995 on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data [eu.int]" is the relavent bit of EU law.
Basically, all personal data is controlled, personal data being "any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person ('data subject')."
It restricts processing of personal data (which covers doing pretty much anything with that data) to when the individual has given their consent, or one of the following: processing is required to carry out a contract with the individual, to carry out any legal obligation, to "protect the vital interests of the data subject," "for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the controller or in a third party to whom the data are disclosed," or finally (a slightly odd one, imho) "for the purposes of the legitimate interests pursued by the controller or by the third party or parties to whom the data are disclosed, except where such interests are overridden by the interests for fundamental rights and freedoms of the data subject." I reckon the last is slightly odd because it's basically "do what you like, as long as it doesn't breach their right to privacy."
Also, the data subject has the right to a copy of any personal data about them that a copmany holds, and, perhaps most importantly in this case, restricts transfer of data to any counrty outside the EU, unless that country "ensures an adequate level of protection."

To sumarise, in answer to the "what info" question, anything about a person who can be identified, and to "what restrictions", the above is the simplist sumary I can come up with at hald pat midnight.

In Socialist Europe......

[Captain Pedantic]

The man on the street has real rights, and global corporations have to respect that.

Cool!

[orthogonal]

So now I can use my Microsoft Passport when I take a plane to France?

Well..

[Burb]

Nice to see that in nasty, rights-restricting, socialist pinko Europe we can have laws that protect the rights of the individual.

Also covered by the Beeb [bbc.co.uk], which goes on to comment:

The strictures that apply to Microsoft will also affect the Liberty Alliance identity system set up to provide an alternative to Passport.