REDMOND, Wash., Aug. 8, 2002 — The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) today announced it has reached an agreement with Microsoft Corp. related to its Passport authentication service. The agreement addresses security and privacy issues.
“We have been working to raise the bar for Internet security and privacy, and believe that the agreement with the FTC will raise it further — for both ourselves and industry,” said Brian Arbogast, corporate vice president responsible for Passport at Microsoft. “The agreement reinforces Microsoft’s commitment to improving security, and we will meet and work to exceed this high bar.”
The agreement calls for the formalization, documentation and independent audit of Passport’s security procedures, to give the FTC as well as customers and partners the clear indication that Microsoft is meeting a high standard for online security.
“We cooperated fully with the FTC in a very thorough review, which included issues that are legally novel and technologically complex,” said Brad Smith, senior vice president and general counsel at Microsoft. “Consistent with our heightened security obligations, we accept responsibility for the past and will focus on living up to this high level of responsibility in the future.”
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