IP: Online Privacy Move Raises New Antitrust Concerns for Microsoft

[David Farber <dfarber () fast net>]

Online Privacy Move Raises New Antitrust Concerns for Microsoft
By MICHAEL BRICK
NYTimes.com/TheStreet.com

In defiance of antitrust prosecutors, Microsoft crushes competitors. In
compliance with prosecutors, it seems the company sometimes does the same.
A quietly simmering dispute over two different ways to ensure online privacy
has exposed a new dilemma for the software giant. As it wins control over
the market for Web browsers, the company is betting its future on its .NET
initiative, selling software online. But in this new marketplace, Microsoft
is learning that it can potentially trample rivals as a mere side effect of
good public relations and other small matters. Matters may come to a head
Wednesday when advertisers and online advertising agencies bring their
concerns to Microsoft.


A group of state attorneys general met Microsoft officials and engineers in
Seattle recently to discuss Internet Explorer, the Web browser central to
the long-running antitrust case that pits some of those attorneys against
the company. With the ruling against the Redmond, Wash.-based company on
appeal, these prosecutors wanted Microsoft's help on a seemingly unrelated
issue.

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http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/08/biztech/articles/03tsc-msft.html