Intel to Let Users Permanently Disable Tracking

Just hours after privacy groups began a boycott, Intel Corp. on Monday reversed itself and said it will allow consumers to permanently disable a new technology that helps identify computer users as they move across the Internet.

Intel, the world’s largest computer chip maker with $26.2 billion in sales last year, also said it will include software that turns off the feature by default in future copies of its Pentium III processors not yet distributed to the world’s computer makers.

The Santa Clara-based company promised to offer the software to owners of existing Pentium III chips, making it easy to permanently turn off the tracking technology.

Consumers can choose to activate the technology, which for security reasons would require restarting their computers, said Intel spokesman Chuck Mulloy. Intel won’t need to redesign its chips.

Intel’s concession came only hours after a boycott was announced in Washington by privacy groups, which launched a campaign complete with a parody of the company’s ubiquitous Intel Inside logo. Theirs features the familiar swirl but with the words, Big Brother Inside.

“This acknowledges that consumers want Intel inside their computer, not inside their private lives,” said Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), who last week urged Intel to reconsider its plans. “It’s a great victory for consumers and for the privacy rights of all Americans.”

Intel said last week that its new Pentium III chip would by default transmit its unique serial number internally and to Web sites that request it to help verify a user’s identity.

The feature could be turned off by consumers, but it would be turned back on each time the computer was restarted.

Among other things, the technology is a boon for electronic commerce, allowing companies and shoppers to feel more secure in the transmission of sensitive data.

Privacy groups involved in the boycott said they were “delighted that Intel has taken one small step toward respecting people’s privacy,” but they said the concession was inadequate.

“You still have the problem of an ID number, and Web sites can force people to disclose that ID number as a condition to get into the sites,” said David Banisar, an attorney with Washington-based Electronic Privacy Information Center. “Just having a software patch does not resolve the underlying concerns.”

The privacy information center organized the boycott with Junkbusters Corp. of Green Brook, N.J., which lobbies on a range of high-tech issues.

The Federal Trade Commission, which last year pressed for a law that prohibits Web sites from collecting personal information from children without parental permission, said the Intel debate “highlights consumer concerns about how confidential various information [is] for them.”

“Every time one of these episodes occurs, it escalates,” said Jodie Bernstein, director of the FTC’s consumer protection bureau. “This will certainly resonate on Capitol Hill and with the administration.”

Markey, senior Democrat on the House Commerce consumer protection subcommittee, compared the technology’s risks with a consumer browsing through stores in a shopping mall, with shopkeepers sharing details about the consumer’s purchases and tastes.

The boycott Web site is at https://www.privacy.org/bigbrotherinside.