Privacy fight against Intel rears ugly head again

Privacy groups' fight against Intel's Pentium III serial number technology has stepped up again with another three organisations joining the campaign.

The Centre for Democracy and Technology (CDT), the Gay and Lesbian Alliance against Defamation and Consumer Action, yesterday filed an additional brief to the Federal Trade Commission, adding to an earlier filing from other privacy organisations.

The groups are protesting against serial numbers in Intel's latest chip, the Pentium III, which they believe could be used to track users activities on the Internet.

At the end of February several other groups including the Electronic Privacy Information Centre asked the Federal Trade Commission to investigate the matter and to stop distribution of the chips.

They also called on PC vendors to stop shipping new systems, that included the Pentium III.

As a result of their complaints, Intel agreed to ship the chips with the technology switched off rather than on as planned earlier.

The groups said this action was not enough and called for a complete boycott on Intel products until the Pentium III was withdrawn.

The UK Data Protection Registrar has also looked into the matter, but has decided that Intel has addressed any privacy issues and is satisfied that the company is not violating data protection laws.

The additional information given to the FTC yesterday includes complaints that the serial number technology will, "transform the World Wide Web from a largely anonymous environment into one where individuals are expected, or even required to identify themselves in order to participate in online activities, communicate and make purchases."

"This is a far cry from the world we live in today - either offline or online - and would represent a grave erosion of consumers' online privacy," the statement from the groups to the FTC read.

Some groups said they believe the technology could be used to persecute or harass their members.

Intel executives were unavailable for comment.

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