-Caveat Lector-
Critics may demand Pentium III recall
By Maria Seminerio
January 29, 1999
ZDNN
Online privacy advocates, saying they emerged from a meeting with Intel
Corp. officials angrier than ever about the chip maker's plans to put
identification numbers on its Pentium III microprocessors, say they may
eventually demand a recall of the next-generation chips.
The Electronic Privacy Information Center, Privacy International, and anti-
spam group Junkbusters on Thursday asked the Federal Trade
Commission to induce Intel to recall the chips, and are renewing their call
for a boycott of Intel and any PC maker shipping systems that include them.
"After meeting with Intel officials for two hours on January 28, the
organizers of the boycott determined that the software patch announced by
Intel Monday was not sufficient to eliminate the privacy problems of the
(chip)," the groups said in a statement. They also called on Intel to disable
the ID mechanism in future Pentium III chips.
The controversy erupted last week after Intel debuted the new chip and
announced plans to include the ID mechanism, which company officials
called a security measure for e-commerce. Intel said it had no plans to link
the data from the chips to customers' names and addresses, but this did
little to calm critics' fears about the technology they have dubbed "Big
Brother Inside."
On Monday, in response to the initial calls for a boycott, Intel reversed
course and said the chips will ship in an inactive mode, leaving it up to
customers to activate it if they wish. Initially the company had planned to
ship the microprocessors with the ID function turned on.
The privacy groups also said Intel's dominance of the chip market should
trigger consumer fears about the ID plan.
"We conclude that it is contrary to the public interest in privacy for chips
with an (ID) to proliferate widely into the consumer computer market," the
groups said in a statement. "Given Intel's dominance of the processor
market, this would happen within a few months unless sufficient pressure
were applied to Intel to disable the feature in the Pentium III."
Junkbusters President Jason Catlett said the FTC presented several
options to the privacy groups during the Thursday meeting, including
eventually asking for the chips to be recalled if the privacy problem is
deemed dire enough.
(While some Pentium III chips have shipped to PC makers, none are set to
be included in PCs sold directly to consumers until late February or early
March.)
Intel 'forthright'
The FTC meeting came after the groups' talks with officials from Intel's
security division, Catlett said. While he characterized the Intel executives
as "forthright" in explaining the technical problems involved in disabling the
ID feature, he maintained the company's proposed software solution is
inadequate.
"What they told us is that the decision (to turn off the ID feature) is not in
their hands, but would be in the hands of the browser makers and the PC
manufacturers," Catlett said. "And if you look at their history of setting
defaults, they have collected as much data as possible."
The software fix would enable Intel to ship the chips with the feature turned
off, but the company can't force OEMs or browser makers to keep it that
way, Catlett said.
"Intel's proposed solution won't work because they are not in control of it,"
he said. "The commercial motivation is to go exactly the opposite way."
On or off?
While acknowledging it will be some time before consumers get access to
the chips, he said the privacy groups' main concern is that end users "won't
know whether the ID is on or off" when they buy a new PC.
Catlett said the boycott will continue until Intel either redesigns the chips to
remove the feature or recalls those already in circulation.
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Publishing Company.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Steve Wingate
California Director
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