Also, how is your technology any different than the WALLET's which were created by Microsoft or IBM which has failed due to many reasons including those pointed out by John. If I don't have the convenience of moving around and doing all my tasks as normally I can, I don't want that technology - This is what users have been saying and will be saying.
Ravi -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Monday, May 13, 2002 6:31 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Alternative to Microsoft Passport: Sunshine vs Hai Brent, All this is interesting (from a theoretical point of view), but forgive me if I think that the entire concept of your ActiveCheckout applet misses the boat - in the real world. It is a well-established fact that the least secure part of the "Internet world" is the majority of PCs from which average users access cyberspace; most users have neither the skill NOR THE INTEREST to properly protect their systems, and the advent of DSL and cable modem connection (with their permanent I.P. addresses) has obviously made the situation even far worse! As a result, the *worst* possible tack to take, IMHO, is to maintain users' personal information (credit card numbers, etc.) on their own machines - you might as well tattoo that information on their foreheads! Frankly, I believe that your company has made exactly the same mistake as Microsoft, which caused them to become so vilified - you have emphasized convenience over security. Try to imagine that it is not necessarily a "good thing" for users to have that level of convenience when purchasing something online - and before you jump into the fray and start arguing this point with me from a theoretical basis, take note of the fact that, in a recent and very comprehensive study carried out by U.C.L.A., it was found that *91%* of online users rated themselves as being somewhat or totally uncomfortable with the idea of passing their financial information online at all! That is NOT a minor blip which can be overcome by convincing all those misguided people that they're wrong to be afraid, because of this "great new technology" or that ... Ask me sometime if I believe that there will EVER be a secure way to store or transmit personal information safely online ... Cheers, John Vinokur President Payment Central Inc. mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ---Original message--- BR>As you might agree, the business of authenticating internet payments needs BR>to stay within a trusted domain such as financial institutions rather than a BR>technology company such as Microsoft. BR>However, most banks do not want to develop, manage or support additional BR>technology for authenticating consumers over Internet channels. BR>To this end we have developed a FREE applet, ActiveCheckout, which gives BR>online consumers control of their identity including their credit card BR>information. This allows the consumer to store their information on their BR>local machine, rather than on Microsoft's Passport servers, and assists in BR>transferring this information to websites during registrations or online BR>purchases. BR>The applet has the ability to communicate with issuing bank(s) for realtime BR>authentication during online purchases. It currently supports MasterCard's BR>SPA standard and we are in discussion with Visa regarding support for BR>Verified by Visa (3-D secure). This could improve the security of Verified BR>by Visa transactions by reducing the possibility of "man-in-the-middle" BR>attacks. BR>ActiveCheckout can be installed from http://checkout.gpayments.com/ and BR>further information can be found at http://checkout.gpayments.com/faq.htm BR>Our ActiveCheckout project was codenamed "Sunshine" as a direct response to BR>Microsoft's Hailstorm initiative and you can even download a Sunshine BR>character animation for the applet. BR>We are always impressed with the quality of contributions made through this BR>forum and consider the members to be among the leading thinkers in the BR>ePayments industry. We would greatly appreciate and seriously consider any BR>feedback that you may have regarding this applet approach to identity and BR>authentication management for Internet payments. BR>Regards, BR>Brent Clark BR>GPayments
