Intel Turns Off Serial ID Feature -- But Not Critics Wrath

Computer World, February 1, 1999

As more electronic commerce is being conducted on the Internet, there is an urgency to ensure a secure environment for online transactions. Intel Corporation, the world's largest manufacturer of computer chips, unveiled its new Pentium III chip, which has a serial-number security identification feature. Intel's intent was to provide a technology to increase security of online transactions by authenticating the users. However, as a result of pressure from public advocacy groups concerned with privacy issues, Intel has decided to set the default feature to the "off" position. This action has still not satisfied all of the privacy groups, such as the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), who has threatened to boycott Intel products if this new feature is not completely removed.

Consumers of e-commerce want to be assured that their business transactions will be conducted over a secure network environment, free of any tampering by unauthorized users. However, the Pentium III processor serial number (PSN) feature raises another problem of personal privacy, since it validates the user's identity against the PC used to access a Web site. One flaw with Intel's plan to turn off the PSN feature is that a PC manufacturer can still decide to ship their systems with the PSN activated, which means the feature can be turned on without the knowledge of the user. Secondly, the software utility needed to control this feature is vulnerable to hacking, which would compromise the original intent of the PSN for providing secure electronic commerce. Lastly, online merchants may require the user to activate their PSN as a condition for access to their sites, thus enabling the merchants to gather personal computer information about a user.

Consumers are a key factor in the growth of e-commerce, and if they are alienated by privacy infringement, then ultimately this will impact the growth of the industry. Continued efforts will need to be made to address this problem so that Web sites are secure against unauthorized users, while consumer's privacy rights are still respected.

Tony Parrish

ISM5226- Network Development

Industry News, February 3, 1999