Oops, sorry, didn't mean to make you choke. They think Microsoft wants to own as much of the computing world as it can, and they're right, but that in itself doesn't make the company evil. The evil is in the company's arrogance and anti-competitive practices, which I've addressed before. Unlike the browser, which was code that ran on the client desktop, the core of HailStorm is services that run on Microsoft servers, and any developers can license the tool kits to build on those services. HailStorm can speed your e-commerce project development, because by writing to its APIs, you can outsource your authentication engine and user repository.
Any hosted service raises security concerns.
Those are serious issues Microsoft needs to address. If it can jump over the security and privacy hurdles, Microsoft will make HailStorm a winner. With Microsoft pushing to make the service universally available and accepted, companies that fail to take advantage of the service could find themselves at a competitive disadvantage by having to write and maintain their own authentication directories, or outsource that development. Look for a blossoming in the market for third-party authentication tools, likely from companies that already offer biometric or smart card authentication products, such as VeriSign, RSA Security, and Arcot Systems. Talk Back below.