Province
TORONTO — Ontario’s privacy commissioner says identity theft and online fraud are threatening to make obsolete the way people use the Internet.
Anne Cavoukian says Internet users are wary of putting personal information online and that e-commerce will suffer as a result.
She’s throwing her support behind Microsoft’s latest effort to accommodate such fears, a new operating system called Vista that’s due out in January.
Vista will introduce the concept of infocards — a way for websites to verify a customer’s identity without receiving or keeping personal or financial information.
Infocards allow the bank to act as a middle man in an online purchase, sending payment confirmation to a retailer without transmitting a credit-card number.
The idea is to replicate online how identity is verified in real life, through the use of separate cards such as drivers’ licences or credit and library cards.
© The Vancouver Province 2006
