Brussels, 30/01/2003 (Agence Europe) - The EU working group "Article 29" on data protection agreed, on Wednesday, on a discussion paper relating to on-line authentication services. In addition to general considerations and guidelines to be applied by all on-line identification systems either already existing or to come, the document comprises two case studies devoted to the dominant systems of the moment, namely Liberty Alliance Project and .NET Passport by Microsoft, of which some modalities had been challenged by the group. The Commission announced on Thursday that Microsoft had agreed to considerably adjust the existing .NET Passport system.
The role of the on-line authentication systems is to allow users who are registered and who have provided a certain form of identification - often including an electronic and verification address, more often than not a password - to navigate in participant sites without having to use a different password for each site. After publication, in June 2002, of a first document identifying the main challenges, the working group engaged dialogue with Microsoft. As a consequence, the Bill Gates company undertakes to bring about substantial changes to the .NET Passport system, changes involving, among other things, a radical change in the flow of information. The most important aspect of the changes is that users will obtain more information and will be provided with a wider choice regarding data that they wish to communicate and the conditions in which the data will be processed by Microsoft on participant websites. The working group underlines that the development of on-line authentication services must respect the principles of data protection set out in the 1995 directive on data protection and by the national legislation transposing this directive. The working group was established under Article 29 of the Directive in order to advise the Commission on issues related to data protection. The Commission carries out the work of the secretariat of the group, but is not a member of it.