Brussels, 29/05/2002 (Agence Europe) - The Commission is again concerned about certain practices carried out by the American information technology giant Microsoft. In concert with the national data protection authorities, it thus launched a new inquiry concerning, this time, the free "Passport" service proposed by the group which allows personal data to be collected on internet browsers via their electronic address or the sites that they frequent when they make purchases, play games or carry out banking transactions on line. The Commission fears this system is not sufficiently protected and does not breach the laws on respect of users' private life, as the services under Commissioner Bolkestein explain in a response to a question from MEP Erik Meijer (United Left, NL). "Is the Commission aware that, with the Net Passport service (…) a large quantity of personal data is surreptitiously transferred to third parties, mainly by Hotmail users, without them knowing about it?", the latter said in concern, adding that it was impossible to withdraw from this service for which the password required for access can also be easily pirated. We note that the inquiry, on which the Commission hopes to give a report by the end of the year, is totally independent from that carried out by the competition services under Commissioner Monti, which currently analyses abuse of dominant position on the part of Microsoft in the operating systems sector (see EUROPE of 11 May, p.8). If competition services can condemn Microsoft to a fine for dominant position abuse, the Commission can only, in this chapter, inform the Member States of eventual violation of private life and data protection. The final decision, which can above all impose a fine on Microsoft, comes under the national data protection authorities.