Privacy groups to announce boycott of Intel products

[Brian High]

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Privacy groups to announce boycott of Intel products

January 25, 1999

Web posted at: 3:02 a.m. EST (0802 GMT)

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Privacy groups will announce a boycott Monday of all
products from Intel Corp. until the company agrees to disable new technology
in its upcoming line of Pentium III computer chips that helps identify
consumers across the Internet.

Privacy rights groups say personal identification numbers embedded in the
new chips could lead to an erosion of privacy, while Intel claims the ID
numbers will allow for more secure online transactions.

Intel said its technology also can be used to avoid piracy by preventing a
single copy of a software program from being installed on several machines.

"Not even the tamest privacy advocate has failed to condemn it," said Jason
Catlett, president of Junkbusters Inc. of Green Brook, New Jersey, which
lobbies on a range of high-tech issues.

It organized the boycott with the Washington-based Electronic Privacy
Information Center.

Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Massachusetts), urged Intel on Friday to reconsider
its plans, "to better balance both commercial and privacy objectives."
Markey is the senior Democrat on the House consumer protection subcommittee
and active in Internet privacy issues.

Intel spokesman Chuck Mulloy said late Sunday that the company hadn't been
notified of the boycott. He said Intel has been in talks about its
technology for several weeks with Junkbusters, and previously had meetings
planned this week with both Catlett's group and the privacy information
center.

Mulloy said it would be "difficult to tell" the potential impact of any
boycott of Intel.

Developing user profiles
"That serial number can be linked in databases like your Social Security
number is used by credit bureaus and marketing companies," Catlett said. "It
allows a massive profile to be efficiently collected and sold."

Intel, the world's largest chipmaker with $26.2 billion in sales last year,
announced last week that the new Pentium III chip, to be sold within months,
will by default transmit its unique serial number internally and across the
Internet.

Consumers can turn the feature off, but it turns itself back on each time
the computer is restarted.

In addition to making about 85 percent of the world's computer processors,
Intel also manufactures memory chips plus hardware for computer networks,
communications and graphics.

Catlett called the Pentium III chips that already have been produced "toxic
hardware."

"They should destroy them," said Catlett, who spoke last year at a summit on
Internet privacy in Washington organized by the Commerce Department.

As part of their boycott, organizers will unveil a parody of the company's
ubiquitous "Intel Inside" logo. Theirs features the same familiar swirl but
with the words, "Big Brother Inside."

Tough law in Europe
Intel's announcement comes at an awkward time for the Clinton
administration.

David Aaron, undersecretary of state for commerce, was to begin negotiations
Monday in Europe -- the same day as the boycott announcement -- over a tough
new privacy law enacted by the 15-nation European Union last October.

"It couldn't have come at a worse time," Catlett said. "This new feature
from Intel is really throwing kerosene on the fire of the trans-Atlantic
privacy negotiations."

Aaron must assure Europeans that the United States has adequate privacy
protections or risk a prohibition against businesses in those 15 countries
from disclosing personal information about citizens there to U.S. companies.

Aaron warned Friday that such a ban would carry "a very adverse impact on
the operation of the economies on both sides of the Atlantic and could be a
very serious blow."

The Electronic Privacy Information Center said it will meet later in the
week with the Federal Trade Commission to discuss Intel's plans.

The FTC has criticized the online industry for its failure to protect
privacy rights, and the agency successfully pressed last year for a new law
that prohibits Web sites from collecting personal information from children
without parental permission.

Coincidentally, the FTC also is suing Intel for alleged antitrust
violations. The trial is set to begin March 9.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

(c) CNN


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