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The Web's identity crisis
BY SCOTT ROSENBERG | Who are you? (Yeah, you!) If you were reading this as a subscriber to a print magazine or a newspaper, I wouldn't need to ask that question: I'd know your name and where you live. I might even have your credit card number. Here on the Web, though, I truly don't know who you are. I can guess, and I can play some tricks with Internet addresses (IP numbers) and "cookies," and I can ask you to register to visit my site (with no assurance that the information you provide is accurate). But I can't honestly say I have any reliable information as to your identity. That ignorance stems from the architecture of the Internet itself, which was designed for openness, not security. If you keep this in mind as you follow the onslaught of Internet-news headlines, a lot of seemingly unrelated and confusing stories start to make a lot more sense. Consider this week's brouhaha over Intel's plan to build unique I.D. numbers into its next-generation Pentium III chip. Intel told the world that it aimed to enhance security for online transactions by giving Web users and merchants a trustworthy identity-verification system: Web sites and other Net-based software could query your processor to make sure you are who you say you are before providing access to, say, online account data or other "for your eyes only" information. Intel sells hardware, so Intel wants to build security into hardware. But the resulting scheme is phenomenally silly on the face of it: Who says I do all my Net-based work from a single computer? What if more than one person uses my computer? Aren't we moving away from the single-desktop-computer model toward a world of diverse Net-access devices, anyway? Isn't the point of Web-based businesses and services that you can access them from any available browser? What if I want to do my online banking from a public Net terminal in an airport or cafe? Privacy groups, which called for a boycott of the Pentium III under the banner "Big Brother Inside," raised other issues with Intel's numbering plan. If your processor cheerfully hands out your unique I.D. to any Web site that asks, those sites can begin to build a vast database of consumer information and behavior. The moment you provide Web merchants with your name and address to fulfill an order, they can link it to your processor I.D.; conceivably, groups of Web merchants could begin to pool their information and assemble the mother of all spam lists. While today's "cookie" files already give Web sites a chance to track you in limited ways, at least the files reside on your computer's hard drive and can be easily deleted (you can also set your browser to reject them). Intel's I.D. is indelible. Under public pressure, Intel quickly reversed course and declared that the I.D. system would be turned off by default on new computers -- you'd have to turn it on yourself for anyone to access your number. Unfortunately, such control is software-based, and thus bound to have holes that unscrupulous Web sites or creative hackers could exploit. The real problem with Intel's scheme goes beyond the technical details. The trouble is that Intel set out to design a scheme to defeat the anonymity that people take for granted on the Net -- without ever asking consumers whether they wanted it or liked it or would design it differently themselves. - - - - - - - - - - - -
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