CNet: EU probes Microsoft over privacy law:

"The European Union’s executive arm announced its investigation into Microsoft’s free .Net Passport service in a written response to a question from Erik Meijer, a Dutch member of the European Parliament. [...] Meijer had raised questions about .Net Passport service, which is designed to collect personal information from Internet users via an e-mail address or other sites while they are engaged online in a purchase, a game or a bank transaction. He said that failure to register with .Net Passport results in exclusion from many sites’ services and that de-subscribing is not possible."

"[E]xclusion from many sites’ services" (emphasis is mine)? No fucking big deal! The very concept of online private property (and people might even have to pay for them?) seems foreign to this (socialist, what else) Euro MP. Of course the Commission is listening to him as a matter of "priority." More on this at The Register. I’m not defending Microsoft’s track record on pricacy, but this request is disingenuous at best.