Web Design Book - Is Internet Explorer 7 a protection racket?

There’s an interesting post over at iVirtua about Internet Explorer’s new “green websites” functionality, which the sneakily released a few weeks ago.

Basically, websites will now be able to pay for a security certificate, so that people who visit the site are are told (though a green web address bar) that the site isn’t a security risk.

Sounds useful, huh?

Nobody wants to be scammed, right?

Right - but that includes website owners too.

In order to get a “green certificate” you need to:

a) Be a limited / incorporated company
b) Pay Microsoft money for a certificate

Looking at it another way, Microsoft are helping to run a protection racket whereby you need to pay money so that a big red sign doesn’t come up when people visit your site, saying that it could be dangerous to buy off you.

Imagine if people coming to your store were told that “it might be a dangerous site, and Microsoft can’t guarantee anything you buy from it will get to you”. Well, that’s what’s going to happen, more or less.

I wouldn’t surprised to see this challenged in the courts - it seems like another possible breach on American Anti-Trust laws.