- WASHINGTON (AP) _ Intel Corp. bowed today to concerns by privacy groups
upset over new technology that allows consumers to be identified as they
move across the Internet. The company promised it will offer free software
to allow customers to easily turn off the feature permanently on its upcoming
line of Pentium III computer chips, to be sold within months. Intel also
said it will turn off the feature by default for Pentium III chips that
haven't already been produced and distributed to the world's computer makers.
Consumers could then choose to activate the technology, which for security
reasons would require restarting their computers, Intel spokesman Chuck
Mulloy said. Intel, the world's largest chip-maker with $26.2 billion in
sales last year, announced last week that its new chip will by default
transmit its unique serial number internally and across the Internet to
help verify the identity of users.
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- Among other things, the feature offers
a boon for electronic commerce, allowing companies and shoppers to feel
more secure in the transmission of sensitive data. With existing Pentium
III chips already in production, consumers can turn the feature off, but
it turned itself back on each time the computer was restarted. Privacy
groups that had launched a boycott of Intel products just four hours before
the company's announcement today said they were ``delighted that Intel
has taken one small step toward respecting people's privacy.'' But they
said Intel's software concession still was inadequate.
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- ``You still have the problem of an ID
number, and Web sites can force people to disclose that ID number as a
condition to get into the sites,'' complained David Banisar of the Washington-based
Electronic Privacy Information Center. ``Just having a software patch does
not resolve the underlying concerns.'' The privacy information center organized
the boycott with Junkbusters Corp. of Green Brook, N.J., which lobbies
on a range of high-tech issues.
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- In addition to making about 85 percent
of the world's computer processors, Intel also manufactures memory chips
plus hardware for computer networks, communications and graphics. Jason
Catlett, president of Junkbusters, called the Pentium III chips that already
have been produced ``toxic hardware.'' ``They should destroy them,'' said
Catlett, who spoke last year at a summit on Internet privacy in Washington
organized by the Commerce Department. As part of their boycott, organizers
unveiled a parody of the company's ubiquitous ``Intel Inside'' logo. Theirs
features the same familiar swirl but with the words, ``Big Brother Inside.''
Rep. Edward J. Markey, D-Mass., urged Intel on Friday to reconsider its
plans, ``to better balance both commercial and privacy objectives.'' Markey
is the senior Democrat on the House Commerce consumer protection subcommittee
and active in Internet privacy issues. Intel's plans came at an awkward
time for the Clinton administration.
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- David Aaron, undersecretary of state
for commerce, was to begin negotiations today in Europe _ the same day
as the boycott announcement _ over a tough new privacy law enacted by the
15-nation European Union last October. Aaron must assure Europeans that
the United States has adequate privacy protections or risk a prohibition
against businesses in those 15 countries from disclosing personal information
about citizens there to U.S. companies. ``It couldn't have come at a worse
time,'' Catlett said. ``This new feature from Intel is really throwing
kerosene on the fire of the trans-Atlantic privacy negotiations.''
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- Aaron said last week that such a ban
would carry ``a very adverse impact on the operation of the economies on
both sides of the Atlantic and could be a very serious blow.'' The Electronic
Privacy Information Center said it will meet later this week with the Federal
Trade Commission to discuss Intel's plans. The FTC has criticized the online
industry for its failure to protect privacy rights. Last year, the agency
successfully pressed for a new law that prohibits Web sites from collecting
personal information from children without parental permission. Coincidentally,
the FTC also is suing Intel for alleged antitrust violations. The trial
is set to begin March 9.
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