Word: passport
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Shoppers wanting to get their caffeine fix online at Starbucks.com now have only one path to take when they pay for their beans. If they are already registered with Passport, Microsoft's new identity-verification program, they can use it to complete their purchase. If they aren't, they are sent to a site where they can sign up for Passport. What Starbucks.com shoppers can't do: buy their coffee without letting Microsoft be part of the transaction...
...features two of the Net's fiercest competitors, Microsoft and AOL Time Warner (parent company of TIME). Starbucks used to let shoppers pay for their purchases by simply providing a credit card and some personal information--like most e-commerce sites. But in May, it made the switch to Passport. Now every time a buyer makes a purchase, his e-mail address and other personal information is sent to Microsoft to be verified--and stored in Microsoft's vast database. Passport, which Microsoft plans to roll out in force this fall, already has more than 50 affiliated sites. But Starbucks.com...
Privacy advocates are waking up, and they don't like the smell. Last week the Electronic Privacy Information Center filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission charging that Passport collects personal information deceptively. The advocates' nightmare vision is that Microsoft will use Passport to collect piles of data on Internet users, including what sites they visit, what they buy, whom they send gifts to and where they travel...
...force my way to the front of the line amid grimaces and scowls, flash my U.S. passport and am ushered in. Inside the embassy, I report my presence in the country as all U.S. citizens are advised. I’m directed towards the safety information posted in the back of the office, where I learn that the State Department strongly advises against leaving city boundaries...
...currently waiting for his diplomatic passport from Benin to arrive after he submitted ten photographs for documentation...