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THE WEB'S IDENTITY CRISIS | PAGE 1, 2
Intel isn't the only company or institution playing this game. A similar yearning to replace free-for-all online anonymity with controlled accountability lies behind such disparate phenomena as Microsoft's new software registration scheme and the Child Online Protection Act (COPA). Microsoft feels that, thanks to piracy, it's not making quite enough profits from sales of its Office software suite, so it has devised a new registration scheme for the software: Once you've paid your hundreds of dollars, if you wish to use your programs more than 50 times you will also have to obtain a code from Microsoft that is tied to the particular configuration of your computer's hardware. (For now the scheme will only be applied in certain foreign countries and for academic users in North America, but you can bet Microsoft would like to make it universal.) Like Intel's processor I.D., Microsoft's registration scheme aims to link your personal identity with your personal computer's identity; unlike Intel's plan, there isn't even a pretense here that there's any benefit to the user. Intel and Microsoft both want to know who you are; so, too, do the feds -- at least they want to know enough about you to check your age. In its wisdom, the U.S. government has decided that Web sites need to check visitors' I.D.s at the door before granting them access to material that anyone in any state of the union might consider "harmful to minors." Under the provisions of the Child Online Protection Act (which Salon, along with a group of other plaintiffs led by the American Civil Liberties Union, is now challenging in federal court), Web sites face $50,000-a-day fines and six-month prison terms if they fail to prevent underage visitors from accessing content that's "harmful to minors." Forget about the problem of defining that term; on a more mundane level, there's no way a Web site can card you or check your age if it doesn't know who you are. Credit card numbers alone aren't good enough -- minors can type them into a Web browser, too. That's why the COPA is such a ludicrous law. You're never going to be certain of the age of Web-site visitors until and unless you devise some kind of universal Internet I.D. scheme. And nobody wants that, right? Think again. The Intel chip I.D. tempest is a wake-up call for Net users -- a reminder that personal information is the ultimate asset in the online marketplace, and that if consumers don't defend it, companies across the board will grab it. It used to be that only Web sites with aggressive marketing schemes tried to compile detailed information on masses of users. Now we've got hardware giants like Intel and software giants like Microsoft doing the same thing. Don't doubt for a moment that the new hybrid service providers/content companies like America Online and @Home/Excite will join in, too: Unlike mere Web site operators, they know their customers' names and addresses, which helps explain why they have become Wall Street darlings. To be sure, anonymity isn't an unvarnished good. There are some online activities, like banking, where secure identities are vital. Inevitably, the online world will adopt new systems for ascertaining people's identity. The question worth fighting over is, in whose interests will the system be designed? The skyrocketing market valuations of today's big Internet companies is going to put ever greater pressure on them to deliver real profits, soon. It's a good bet that they will try to do so by gathering, using and even selling whatever information they can about the people who use their sites. As that pressure builds, don't be surprised if more ill-devised schemes like the Intel processor I.D. bubble up from the stewing Net industry. Ultimately, what consumers need is an I.D. plan that offers a good balance between the convenience of online services that know who you are and the privacy we all have a right to expect. (A good technology already exists that meets these criteria -- it's called public-key encryption, and we'd all probably be using it today except for the opposition of the FBI and other law-enforcement groups.) Companies that figure out how to deliver both convenience and privacy
will win users' loyalty and prosper. Those that just try to cram I.D. schemes
down the public's throat -- as Intel got caught doing this week -- will
deserve all the black eyes they get.
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