Contact: Marc Rotenberg
EPIC
(202) 544-9240
rotenberg@epic.org
Jason Catlett
Junkbusters
(908) 753-7861
catlett@junkbusters.com
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Washington -- February 26, 1999 -- The privacy groups that called last week for the Federal Trade Commission to investigate the Pentium III chip wrote to the FTC today asking the Commission to consider new evidence. The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) and Junkbusters also asked that the complaint filed by the Center for Democracy and Technology should be considered together with their earlier request.
Today's letter to the FTC stated that since their first request to investigate was sent, new reports have appeared in the technical press indicating that Intel's representations concerning a software "solution" to the Processor Serial Number problem are misleading and possibly deceptive. EPIC and Junkbusters said in the letter to the FTC, "We believe that these technical findings may have a direct bearing upon the Commission's consideration of our request for an inquiry.
According to Jason Catlett, President of Junkbusters, Intel's position on the PSN has changed considerably since the boycott was announced January 25. Intel claimed originally that, in response to concerns expressed by privacy groups, it would turn the PSN "off" so that the Serial Number would not be disclosed to others without the user's consent.
But in a meeting with the advocacy groups January 28, Intel admitted that they had not changed the chip at all, and said that any actual change would depend on the implementation by PC manufacturers. EPIC, Junkbusters, and Privacy International then asked five major PC Manufacturers in a separate letter Monday to state their intentions and to have the PSN turned off before the operating system starts up. IBM, Gateway, and Compaq subsequently announced that they would configure their products in this way.
Marc Rotenberg, executive director of EPIC, said that the current Intel proposal is unsatisfactory because the Processor Serial Number remains in the chip, vulnerable to misuse. EPIC and Junkbusters are therefore continuing their opposition to the sale of the Pentium III chip until Intel removes the step in its manufacturing process that burns the number into the Pentium III chips.
The privacy groups also wrote yesterday to the CEOs of five major PC manufacturers urging them to order an immediate suspension of all products containing the Intel Pentium III. The letter said that shipping the Pentium III with an assurance that the end user can control the functionality of the PSN ``would seem premature in light of recent reports to the contrary,'' and ``such a claim made under current circumstances could constitute a material misrepresentation of the sort prohibited by federal consumer protection laws and regulations.'' The groups intend to examine the documentation supplied with PCs, looking for grounds on which legal action against the OEMs could be initiated.
All the letters are available at http://www.junkbusters.com/intel.html
This document is http://www.junkbusters.com/nr16.html