Lessig Warms up to Microsoft

Protector of all things free in the Interwebs, Pied Piper of copyright freedom, Underdog of the digital era--Lawrence Lessig has a new love, and it is...Microsoft? Lessig recently wrote a short post for Wired, in which he lauds the new Borg technology in Vista called InfoCard.

His assessment is that InfoCard gives you much more control over what information you share, and with whom. Lessig makes it sound like a custom personal profile, which you can use to selectively cough up details about yourself, such as what country you live in, without revealing your age, gender, social security number, or anything else. According to Lessig:

Here's how it works: Users' computers (and potentially cell phones and other devices) will hold files called InfoCards that give encrypted sites access to authenticated information about the user. An American Express InfoCard, for example, might carry your name, address, and account number, all authenticated by American Express. When a Web site requests personal data, you choose whether to release that information, securely and with the verification of the card's issuer.

Lessig actually goes so far as to reassure those suspicious of Microsoft that the InfoCard is a protocol, and not a product. Generally speaking, we'd have to agree with him on that one. Anything that replaces Passport so we can more easily access porn sites using our fake Hotmail account is good by Seattlest.