Intel Adjusts ID Code To Consumer Concerns

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January 25, 1999 (5:37 PM EST)

By Mary Mosquera,

A boycott targeting Intel products has not been lifted, despite the chip maker's announcement that it will offer consumers the choice to deactivate controversial technology that identifies users as they move around the Internet, said a civil-liberties group Monday.

The ID code reduces the privacy of consumers online, said the Electronic Privacy Information Center, the group initiating the boycott. Intel said the technology improves security of online transactions, and consumers have the choice to use it or not.

Intel's new Pentium III chip, expected out later this quarter, includes a serial number that is accessible by software, such as browsers, when a user visits a site. The new chips follow consumers as they click through the Internet, and data is collected about them, without their knowledge or consent for marketing or law-enforcement purposes, said David Banisar, policy director at the Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington, D.C.

Santa Clara, Calif.-based Intel yielded just hours after the group announced its boycott. Originally, Intel had the serial code set in the "on" position in the hardware and offered a control facility to turn it "off," said Intel spokesman Howard High. Later Monday, Intel switched the default to a permanent "off," leaving it up to consumers to activate it.

Banisar said the response was not a significant solution. To disable the technology, the control utility must be added to an operating system, he said. "But the burden is still on the consumer to be aware of it and care about it," Banisar said.

The technology is meant to help authenticate the identification of users to assure security in e-commerce, High said. EPIC sees it differently. "The government eventually wants an ID attached to every message on the Internet," Banisar said.

A strong encryption product that scrambles data except for the intended receiver would be a better solution, Banisar said. But the United States limits encryption exports. "Intel was afraid of the U.S. government," he said.

High said the serial-number technology is not a substitute for encryption. "We have to create capabilities that can be exported around the world," he said. Intel's chips provide hardware building-block technologies for encryption. It can be adjusted for stronger or weaker encryption software.

"We know the code also raises concerns on the privacy side," he said. Intel will brief EPIC and JunkBusters, another lobbying group that is sponsoring the boycott, on Thursday in Washington, D.C.

With the default deactivating the serial number, consumers must take the initiative. "If they don't understand the feature, they won't use it," High said.

It can only be reactivated if the user shuts down the computer and reboots. If a user chooses to activate the tracking technology, Intel cannot guarantee that sites will not use it for database gathering, it said.

Internet sites will have an application that can grab the chip serial number when the user enters the site, like a cookie. "People have said they don't like cookies. This is like a permanent cookie," Banisar said.

Meanwhile, Commerce Undersecretary David Aaron is meeting with European Union negotiators trying to convince them that U.S. privacy-policy conforms with Europe's stricter privacy laws or risk the loss of transatlantic business.

"Intel's new chip makes the U.S. government look bad. It demonstrates that self-regulation is not working," Banisar said.