A congressman urged Intel Corp. on Friday to reconsider plans to give its upcoming Pentium III computer processor the ability to transmit across the Internet unique numbers to help identify consumers. Rep. Edward J. Markey, D-Mass., said that he understood the technology's implications for online commerce, where the anonymity of the Internet can encourage fraud. But he worried it also will help online marketers track consumers on the Web surreptitiously. Calif. Its new Pentium III chip, to be sold early this year, will by default transmit its unique serial number internally and across the Internet to help verify the identity of users.
Consumers can turn the feature off, but it turns itself back on each time the computer is restarted.
Intel said the technology is needed to encourage trust in online sales and can also be used to prevent piracy by preventing a single copy of a software program from being installed on several machines. To mollify privacy advocates, Intel said it will not maintain a master database of consumer names matched to Pentium serial numbers. Intel also encouraged Web sites and software programmers to warn consumers whenever the serial number is retrieved. It predicted the first such Internet pages and software will appear within months. We acknowledge there are certain risks associated with that serial number.