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Technology Stocks : Identix (IDNX) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: David who wrote (12315)	1/29/1999 12:59:00 PM
From: David	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 26039

Intel is still getting hammered over its new chip: nytimes.com Here's an excerpt for those who can't get to the site: "Privacy advocates who object to the Intel Corp.'s plan to put identification numbers in its next generation of computer chips on Thursday went to the Federal Trade Commission to seek a recall of the Pentium IIIs. "The meeting with the FTC followed a visit by Intel executives to the Capitol Hill offices of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, an online advocacy group. On Monday, EPIC and two other organizations called for a boycott of the world's largest chipmaker, saying the new technology would compromise the privacy of computer users. "In response to the boycott, Intel announced that the company would alter the software that turns the identification feature on and off, but the privacy groups said that solution was inadequate . . . . "'They met with us for almost two hours," said Marc Rotenberg, director of EPIC. "We decided after the meeting that we would actually extend the boycott.' "'There are two specific things we want: We want them to agree to remove the processor serial number from any future Pentium III chip, and we want them to agree to recall all processors shipped with the processor serial number enabled.'" It's pretty clear from this story and the digital photo story what the lesson is: Technology should not be allowed to take personal information from consumers without their knowledge and consent. Although this rule doesn't appear to apply to fingerscanning or similar devices in which the consumer needs to cooperate, it could if people think the biometric template is personal information that is usable in other ways (such as tracking activities), and they have no real choice in whether or not to provide it. I think this a political advantage to the onboard CPU approach -- although the higher price may easily outweigh this issue in most applications.