SANTA CLARA, Calif. (AP) - Privacy advocates are criticizing a decision by Intel Corp. to incorporate into its computer chips the ability to transmit identification signals to protect online electronic transactions.
The new chips will send an ID number World Wide Web sites can use to guarantee a machine that claims to belong to a certain person actually is that computer. Being able to make that confirmation is a key problem that must be solved to make electronic commerce work.
The technology is built into the world's largest computer chip maker's new Pentium III microprocessors, which are set to go on sale later this year and will be incorporated into new computers on store shelves.
But privacy experts worry that the feature will force consumers to leave an identifying "fingerprint" wherever they go in cyberspace, helping marketers track their every move.
"It's the computer equivalent, if you will, of Social Security numbers, which is in this country a common identifier," said Barry Steinhardt, associate director of the American Civil Liberties Union. "It will follow you through cyberspace."
Whenever a computer that has the new chip is turned on, the machine will automatically pump out a unique serial number if the computer is connected to the Internet or another online network.
If the Web site requires that the person register and provide details about their identity, the site will have an easy way of tracking what the visitor does online.
"The problem with having your security information in software is that then you are relying on your software to be secure, and it really isn't," said Richard Doherty, founder of the market research firm Envisioneering Inc. "By putting the identification into the chip itself, it's going to be very difficult to steal that information."
Many Web sites already track consumers by placing identifying data files, called "cookies," in visitors' computers. But cookies from one site are meaningless to others. Steinhardt worries that attaching a single number to a computer will make it easier to catalogue the movement and choices that computer users make online.
"We're very concerned about the issue of privacy," said Patrick Gelsinger, an Intel vice president, adding that consumers will be able to shut off the identifying number. The company has written software that will let people know when their PC is sending out its serial number, and there will be a control panel that lets people turn off the signal.
Gelsinger said unique online serial numbers have advantages, including improved ability to identify the author of online content.
Such ID numbers could reduce anonymous online pests, stopping people from getting into chat groups unless they are willing to be identified. The Web site "TalkCity" plans to use the serial numbers to create what it calls "accountable communities," where the identity of anyone can be easily traced.
ID numbers also could provide security for financial transactions. Online stock services could have more confidence that a trading request is not fraudulent if the computer from which the order originated has the correct ID number.
Rival chipmaker AMD says it will watch reactions to the technology before deciding if it will include such identification numbers in its chips.
Intel has a major chip-making factory in Rio Rancho, N.M.