Swindle, 65, is one of five commissioners at the Federal Trade Commission. The FTC's responsibilities involve policing the Internet for fraud and privacy violations; the agency recently compelled Microsoft to make changes to its Passport authentication system. . .
Swindle, 65, is one of five commissioners at the Federal Trade Commission. The FTC's responsibilities involve policing the Internet for fraud and privacy violations; the agency recently compelled Microsoft to make changes to its Passport authentication system.

Swindle believes the private sector typically is better at resolving online problems than are government bureaucrats. It's not a new argument: When the FTC voted 3-2 in May 2000 to ask Congress for more power to regulate Web sites, Swindle was one of the two dissenters.

Appointed to the FTC by then-President Clinton in December 1997, Swindle previously worked as an assistant secretary in the Commerce Department under President Reagan. He was a Marine aviator in Vietnam, and his plane was shot down in 1966. Swindle, who spent the next six years in a prisoner of war camp, won two Purple Hearts during his combat service. CNET News.com recently caught up with Swindle to get his views on Microsoft, Internet privacy and spam, among other subjects on his radar.