Total newbie: how to deactivate .NET passport

  • Thread starter Thread starter dvt
  • Start date Start date
D

dvt

Hi.

In an effort to do something nice for me :), my wife set up my computer and
my Pocket PC with a .NET passport. She did not know that I do *not* want a
passport. I don't have any idea how to get rid of it. I want no traces of
the functionality of the passport or the .NET stuff. Can you help me get
rid of this thing?

My reasons for the attempted annhilation: I don't like the privacy policy.
Plus I don't have any idea what this passport stuff does, and I was getting
along just fine without it.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Dave
dvt at psu dot edu

[crossposted to microsoft.public.dotnet.faqs, .dotnet.general, .pocketpc
because I don't have the foggiest notion where to go for help]
 
Dude, you worry too much - its just a login to a bunch of different sites.
Linux / anti-MS zealots, I am not interested in your vitriol. Post below
anyway ;).
 
Tom said:
Dude, you worry too much - its just a login to a bunch of different
sites.
Click to expand...

You might be right. I simply don't want to spend the time to learn about
passport and .net stuff. I am perfectly happy without that functionality,
and I would rather not give my personal info to "a bunch of different sites"
if ther is no reason to do so.
Linux / anti-MS zealots, I am not interested in your vitriol.
Post below anyway ;).
Click to expand...

Heh heh. I doubt that I would be considered an anti-MS zealot. A brief
google should prove that.

Dave
dvt at psu dot edu
 
... I would rather not give my personal info to "a bunch of different sites"
if ther is no reason to do so.
Click to expand...

Dude, that's the whole point of Passport. It keeps you from having to
give your personal info to "a bunch of different sites." It tells the
sites "Here's a cookie to identify this user. I guarantee that this
cookie will always identify the same user. You don't need to know his
personal information."

-- Rick
 
dvt said:
You might be right. I simply don't want to spend the time to learn about
passport and .net stuff. I am perfectly happy without that functionality,
and I would rather not give my personal info to "a bunch of different sites"
if ther is no reason to do so.
Click to expand...


Maybe I'm all wet, but AFAIK, the whole "passport" thing is simply
creating a single Hotmail (or MSN) e-mail account that Microsoft could use
for multiple websites/functions. When I created mine I did NOT have to
give any personal information- not even a name. The only uses for my
"Passport" so far is my never-used Spam collector (my Hotmail account's
inbox) and my "ID" for Microsoft Reader e-books.

Unless I'm missing something, I don't see a "big brother" in the making
here- my name isn't even attached to my passport.

The theoretical advantage to the passport, I assume, would be a
unified login for all DRM-type content, at least from Microsoft. As it
stands now, I have separate logins and passwords for Reader,
Audible, Avantgo, Mazingo, etc. After Microsoft buys them all out
and eventually conquers the entire Earth, I suppose my Passport
(which by then will be on a chip embedded subcutaneously) will
finally be my login for everything...
 
Maybe I'm all wet, but AFAIK, the whole "passport" thing is simply
creating a single Hotmail (or MSN) e-mail account that Microsoft could use
for multiple websites/functions.
Click to expand...

You're not all wet, but you're a little damp. :-)

You don't have to use a Hotmail (or MSN) account for a passport. Any
old email address will work. And Microsoft's plan (as I understand it)
is to provide a web service validating users to third parties.

-- Rick
 
dvt--

Have you tried reformatting your harddrive and installing RedHat?

That MIGHT work.

;-)

In short, let's face it-- Passport is one of the MANY things that a given
user does not know about happening behind the scenes. This is the case with
all modern operating systems.

Unless one wants to pull about assembler code, then one MUST trust the OS.

Period.

The age of innocence is gone.

One's life is an open book.

Privacy is dead.

It has been this way for years.

The genie CANNOT be put back in the bottle.

Anybody who tells you different is delusional.

Get used to it quick or throw all of your electronic equipment in the river
and move to a mountain.

Even then...

Note also this other significant fact-- there is NO off-switch for
technology at large. It is now an intrinsic part of our existence and will
be for the foreseeable future. End of story.

Here are some good rules of thumb for those who haven't figured it out.

(1). If one does not do anything wrong, then one does not have anything to
hide.

(2). If one always tells the truth, then one does not have to remember
anything.

Ask: What are I afraid of? That the world will know I wear green socks?
That someone will see that I visited the Tiddley-Winks site?

Are these things really meaningful?

Don't I have better things to do?

And so on.

Grow up.

I'm sorry to be the one to break your little image, but it is better that
you learn this way than the hard way.

HTH.

--Mark


Hi.

In an effort to do something nice for me :), my wife set up my computer and
my Pocket PC with a .NET passport. She did not know that I do *not* want a
passport. I don't have any idea how to get rid of it. I want no traces of
the functionality of the passport or the .NET stuff. Can you help me get
rid of this thing?

My reasons for the attempted annhilation: I don't like the privacy policy.
Plus I don't have any idea what this passport stuff does, and I was getting
along just fine without it.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Dave
dvt at psu dot edu

[crossposted to microsoft.public.dotnet.faqs, .dotnet.general, .pocketpc
because I don't have the foggiest notion where to go for help]
 
Well, I see this got handled by a number of louts.
It seems nothing got posted, atleast over here, as to solving your problem,
dvt. It is off topic, but anyway:

goto control panel, users, your user name(whatever that may be)
on the left there should be a link that says "manage my network passwords".
Remove the one that says Passport.net/*
Your passport is removed.

I might add, to the people nagging at you, that there is really no explicit
need to have a passport registered. Even if you use passport services(and I
use several), assocaiting it with your account is generally not nessecery,
you can type in your passport password easily enough. And, honestly, I argue
that any mechanism that provides identification that the user doesn't know
about is an incorrect mechanism. Paging and network activity is one thing,
even local network logons(while sometimes security risks), invisible logon
to the greater world is a subject all users should know as throughly as they
understand the keys to their car(and that those keys are niether definatly
unique nor totally safe).

I also bring up the fact that atleast two of the three groups imply they are
there as support. No one that has crossposted over
here(microsoft.public.dotnet.general) has even attempted to provide support.
 
Daniel--

You make some good points.

However, let's be careful not to mislead.

The web, in general, is NOT safe.

That's my main point and if I've made it a little forcefully then good--
after all, what's the "bad" side of warning people to be careful, that
they'll protect themselves too much.

Basically, despite one's best intentions to "protect oneself", the internet
is a strange and dangerous place and the only safe assumption is that one
should be VERY careful.

For every bit of understanding one gains, there is a hoard of jerks who are
just chomping to thwart human progress.

Of course, this is just my opinion-- however, there MANY (probably
millions) people who have recently been hacked by the BlasterWorm and SoBig
that will agree with me that the internet is a dangerous place.

(In fact, its a shame it should be this way. But, then again, its not safe
to leave your front door unlocked when you sleep anymore, no matter where
you live. So it goes.)

All this coupled with the fact that making an airtight OS has proven to be
beyond the reach of Computer Science so far, there is all the more reason
to KNOW that there is little that is truly safe.

It seems that it is a circle in the end.

That is, as long as we have computer programmers, computer programs will be
hackable.

And so on.

--Mark






Well, I see this got handled by a number of louts.
It seems nothing got posted, atleast over here, as to solving your problem,
dvt. It is off topic, but anyway:

goto control panel, users, your user name(whatever that may be)
on the left there should be a link that says "manage my network passwords".
Remove the one that says Passport.net/*
Your passport is removed.

I might add, to the people nagging at you, that there is really no explicit
need to have a passport registered. Even if you use passport services(and I
use several), assocaiting it with your account is generally not nessecery,
you can type in your passport password easily enough. And, honestly, I
argue
that any mechanism that provides identification that the user doesn't know
about is an incorrect mechanism. Paging and network activity is one thing,
even local network logons(while sometimes security risks), invisible logon
to the greater world is a subject all users should know as throughly as
they
understand the keys to their car(and that those keys are niether definatly
unique nor totally safe).

I also bring up the fact that atleast two of the three groups imply they
are
there as support. No one that has crossposted over
here(microsoft.public.dotnet.general) has even attempted to provide
support.
 
Yeah, safety has been an illusion since the birth of man. All you can do is
hope and defend your self.
I just don't think ignoring things or accepting that you just don't know
whats going on is defending yourself, I consider it more like not being
aware your door even has a lock, even though the lock won't stop anyone who
is serious about getting in.
 
Ditto.


Yeah, safety has been an illusion since the birth of man. All you can do is
hope and defend your self.
I just don't think ignoring things or accepting that you just don't know
whats going on is defending yourself, I consider it more like not being
aware your door even has a lock, even though the lock won't stop anyone who
is serious about getting in.
 
Daniel said:
It is off topic, but anyway:
Click to expand...

I apologize for that. I'm still not sure where it would have been *on*
topic, but that isn't important since you wrote this...
goto control panel, users, your user name(whatever that may be)
on the left there should be a link that says "manage my network
passwords". Remove the one that says Passport.net/*
Your passport is removed.
Click to expand...

A great big thank you, Daniel. I spent several hours searching the 'net for
that answer and MS was not at all helpful.

As for the thread regarding safety, I do not expect to "live in a bubble."
I do hope to protect myself as much as possible within my personal
constraints. This passport was, in my opinion, an unnecessary risk.

Dave
dvt at psu dot edu
 
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