IBM stamping ID's into new PC's

Twid writes " Reuters is reporting that IBM is duplicating Intel with the Pentium III and stamping their new PC's with a "watermark" chip to allow for "secure transactions". Just like Intel, no mention is made of how to turn the feature off or how to ensure consumer privacy."

IBM may not have grasped Intel's failure here. Attention IBM: I have been a religious Intel owner. Just the other day I bought several computers with AMD chips instead of Intel P-III's, because I don't want to be tracked - so as long as Intel wants to track me and there's anybody else in the chip-making business, Intel won't be getting my business. You just don't realize that people take their computers seriously - they don't want it ratting on them to every website they visit, they don't want it informing on them behind their back, they don't want Clipper chips performing insecure e-commerce "encryption" for them. It sounds (and of course IBM is releasing this tomorrow, so this is preliminary) like IBM has created a proprietary, closed system, which very probably includes a back-door in it for U.S. law-enforcement access, because otherwise IBM would have trouble exporting it worldwide. Only pointy-haired bosses are going to want to purchase such things. -- michael