FC: Intel nixes ID tracking numbers in future 1.5 GHz Willamette chip

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

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http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,35950,00.html

   Intel Nixes Chip-Tracking ID
   by Declan McCullagh (declan () wired com)

   3:00 a.m. Apr. 27, 2000 PDT
   Hoping to avoid another campaign by privacy activists, Intel has
   decided not to include a controversial user identification feature in
   its forthcoming 1.5 GHz Willamette chip.

   Absent from Willamette's design are a unique ID number and other
   security measures that could be used to limit piracy by tracking
   users, an Intel source said Wednesday.

   "The decision has been made and the engineers have already been told,"
   said the source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. "The gains
   that it could give us for the proposed line of security features were
   not sufficient to overcome the bad rep it would give us."

   In January 1999, Intel said it would wire a unique ID into each
   Pentium III chip, but then disabled it after privacy activists began a
   boycott and a prominent House Democrat denounced the plan.

   An Intel management committee, after hearing from marketing, privacy,
   and engineering representatives who were opposed to the idea,
   reportedly made the decision not to include similar features in the
   much-anticipated Willamette chip, the source said.

   Besides the serial number, the other missing features include support
   for hardware digital certificates -- something banking and finance
   firms would have preferred

   [...]

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