Intel has modified its plans to embed an identifying signature in its next generation of computer chips, bowing to protests that the technology would compromise the privacy of users.
Intel, which makes about 85 per cent of the world's computer processors, had announced that each of its forthcoming Pentium III chips would have an identifying serial number that would enhance the security of electronic commerce and guard against software piracy.
But advocacy groups called for a consumer boycott of the chip, saying they feared it would mark a further erosion of anonymity on the Internet and would allow companies to collect detailed profiles of consumers, which could then be resold.
Intel then said it would modify the identification system in the new chips so that it was automatically disabled unless the computer user voluntarily turned it on. The company said it would also offer free software to allow customers to turn off the feature permanently.
'We've always understood that there are security questions that get raised when someone is providing identification in a transaction,' Tom Waldrop, an Intel spokesman, said. 'Whether an individual is showing a driver's licence or handing over a credit card number, it always raises a privacy question. We have done things to address that. You have to weigh the positive value of having more secured Internet transactions, more secure electronic commerce, against privacy concerns.' Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Centre, a privacy advocacy group in Washington, DC, said it was merely a 'temporary fix'. 'It can be as easily disabled as enabled. There's not enough assurance here that the chip will not be misused.' Intel said it would continue to work with consumer groups to allay fears about the new chip.
Intel said the chip signature was intended to promote the growth of electronic commerce by giving companies a better way to verify identities of customers. It could also be used to avoid piracy by preventing a single copy of a program from being installed on several machines.
