Date: Fri 12-Feb-1999

Publication: Bee

Author: CURT

Quick Words:

iinfo-Brand-Intel-privacy

Full Text:

STD HEAD: INTERNET INFO FOR REAL PEOPLE

Intel Chip ID and Privacy

By Bob Brand

This paranoia-esqe story could easily have debuted on Art Bell's late night

radio talk show. Sadly, this story is true.

On January 20, Intel announced that its newest member of the Pentium family of

microprocessors (Pentium III), due in March, contains a Processor Serial

Number (PSN). The feature, touted as a home shopping/online banking/e-commerce

security chastity belt, instantaneously mobilized the electronic privacy

community. With chips already in the hands of computer manufacturers, Intel

explained the chip broadcasts its PSN (burned in the chip) when the hardware

was turned on.

Naturally, this would result in Pentium III owners bringing a silent 96-bit

cyber-DNA marker to all websites visited, courtesy of Intel. Holy Cookie

Monster, Batman!

Before you could say "Richard Jewel," an aghast cyber-community filled

websites with articles about Intel's Orwellian doublespeak. Cryptologists Kim

Schmitz and Bruce Schneier quickly pointed out that PSN could be easily

defeated by hackers and other no-goodnicks.

Rather than quell the flames of fraud-fear, their articles poured gasoline on

the fire. A highly organized protest was launched by the consumer watchdog

group Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC). Their cyber-slick website,

called Big Brother Inside, gets high marks for timely, rich, low-glitz

content.

Coordinating with JunkBusters and Privacy International (headquartered in

London), EPIC has initiated a full-blown Intel boycott.

Legislative Muscle

State Representative Steve May, an Arizona Republican, plans to introduce

legislation banning the sale or manufacture of Pentium III chips in the state.

In addition, Rep May's bill would prevent Arizona government agencies from

buying computers or processors containing serial numbers.

(Currently Sun Microsystems imprints serial numbers on UltraSparc

microprocessors. Nevertheless, this emotionally charged issue has traction.)

Intel has not seen this degree of negative media attention since Dr Thomas R.

Nicely, a professor of mathematics at Lynchburg College, unleashed the 1 + 1 =

1.999 Pentium math co-processor fire storm on the Internet on October 30,

1994.

You may recall that Andy Grove initially dismissed the problem as

"unimportant." Intel, assisted by a Pentium boycott from IBM, reluctantly had

a limited callback. It quickly escalated into a full-scale recall. Although Mr

Grove has retired, Intel VP Patrick Gelsinger probably remembers the incident

as if it happened last week.

Mr Gelsinger agreed to "turn off" the automatic identification broadcast

feature with a quick software fix. In addition, Intel met boycott organizers

on January 28 and explained how they would solve the problem with a "software

patch."

No Dice

As of February 8, the boycott remains firmly in place. EPIC is not satisfied

that Intel proposal will sufficiently eliminate the privacy problem.

The website clearly explains what they want: "Intel to disable the PSN in

their production of the Pentium III and to recall all existing Pentium III

chips." If the demands are not met, EPIC, et al, threaten to extend the

boycott to any PC manufacturer who ships a Pentium III system with a PSN

inside.

The opening volley of this battle has been fired. The war between privacy and

commercial interests will continue to wage as long as IP packets fly through

the network cloud. The privacy protectors conjure up images of

AltaVista-strength databases collecting PIII chip IDs cross-indexed against

DMV records, eBay purchase/bid data and e-mail listserv/newsgroup headers.

This data loaded in output queues of Stanford Wallace-type spammers paints a

disturbing picture. More information should become available shortly. Stay

tuned.

Follow the action at http://www.bigbrotherinside.com/.

URLs (Uniform Resource Locators) of interest:

http://www.bigbrotherinside.com/

http://www.epic.org/

http://www.privacyinternational.org/

(This is the 141th of a series of elementary articles designed for surfing the

Internet. Next, Geekfest - Installing Linux is the subject on tap. Stay tuned.

Until next week, happy travels through cyberspace.

Previous issues of Internet Info for Real People can be found at

http://www.thebee.com. Please e-mail comments and suggestions to

rbrand@JUNO.com or editor@thebee.com.)