I’m pretty excited about the news that Microsoft is joining Dataportability.org. A lot of the work we’ve been doing at dev.live.com over the last year has focused on opening up data stored in Windows Live in secure and user-friendly ways. The Windows Live Contacts control and API, for example, allows users to share their Windows Live Contacts with other sites. We’re working on more APIs that allow users to move their data around the Web—and we can’t wait to see how this new effort can help.

Here’s the official announcement:

“Today Microsoft is announcing that it has joined DataPortability.org, a group committed to advancing the conversation about the portability, security and privacy of individuals’ information online.  There are important security and privacy issues to solve as the internet evolves, and we are committed to being an integral part of the industry conversation on behalf of our users.

The decision to join DataPortability.org is an outgrowth of a deeper theme that technology and the internet should be deployed to help people be at the center of their online worlds, a theme that has begun to permeate our products and services over the past few years. We believe the logical evolution of the internet is to enable the removal of barriers to provide integrated, seamless experiences, but to do so in a manner that ensures that users retain full control over the security and privacy of their information.

Windows Live is focused on providing tools and a platform to enable these types of seamless experiences.  Windows Live has more than 420 million active Live IDs that work across our services and across partner sites.  Through each Windows Live advancement we’re making technical investments to ensure users’ information is available to them in the places they want, even across the networks they use every day.  Windows Live Writer, Mail, Photo Gallery and Spaces, for example, allow users to get access and publish to the places they want, even outside Microsoft’s network.  And the Windows Live Platform and Terms of Use offer a set of APIs and controls that allow for the growth of an ecosystem based on the premise of user control and portability. 

Microsoft feels strongly that getting the right balance for data portability, security and privacy is critical for the industry, and doing it well requires the participation of all the major web services.  We are no stranger to these types of broad industry dialogues, and the one that is taking shape at DataPortability.org will be very effective in furthering users’ interests.”