As of Monday February First, Privacy groups will announce a boycott of all products from Intel Corp. until the company agrees to disable new technology in its upcoming line of Pentium III computer chips that helps identify consumers across the Internet.

Privacy rights groups say personal identification numbers embedded in the new chips could lead to an erosion of privacy, while Intel claims the ID numbers will allow for more secure online transactions. Hmmmm.

Intel said its technology also can be used to avoid piracy by preventing a single copy of software program from being installed on several machines.

“Not even the tamest privacy advocate has failed to condemn it,” said Jason Catlett, president of Junkbusters Inc. of Green Brook, New Jersey, which lobbies on a range of high-tech issues. It organized the boycott with the Washington-based Electronic Privacy Information Center.

http://www.epic.org/