The gnomes of Zurich have nothing on the trolls of Silicon Valley. When big business starts acting like big government beware of Big Brother.

Contrary to its original provision, the Social Security number is close to becoming a national ID. The FCC wants to track you via your cell phone. I don't know if any government alphabet-soup agencies encouraged Intel to implement its inherently privacy-invading PSN (processor serial number) in the Pentium III chip launched last week, but it wouldn't surprise me.

With luck, by the time you read this maybe Intel will have backed off incorporating an electronic serial number embedded in every Pentium III chip. They are holding firm against tremendous opposition from those concerned about privacy, especially privacy on the Internet. This number could be accessed by web sites and other programs, without the user's knowledge, to identify and track his activities.

Addressing a recent conference, Intel VP Patrick Gelsinger said, "unless you're able to deliver the processor serial number, you're not able to enter that protected chat room."

Intel claims that the PSN is imperative for corporations to track their PCs, and for secure electronic commerce. Many software developers welcome it as a tool against software piracy.

I've often noted my opinion that cookies (information dropped on users' hard drives by web sites, which can be used to track web activity) have the potential to become privacy-invading tools. The PSN provides a hook to synchronize cookies with personal information collected in other ways (such as through site registration or surveys), indexed and accumulated in databases to identify individuals for purposes over which users have no control. The PSN could become, in effect, a permanent cookie.

In response to criticism Intel reluctantly agreed to ship the chips with the PSN turned off, and a software utility by which the user could toggle it on as desired. Before the chip was even released a German computer magazine proved that a clever hacker could turn it on without a user's knowledge. Major computer makers now say they will turn the PSN off in the system BIOS (basic input/output system), making it difficult to turn on. How long until someone finds a workaround for that?

What will prevent software developers from including code in their products that transmits the PSN over the Internet, presumably for the "benign" purpose of registering your software? As many web sites now refuse you access unless you accept their cookies, they may do the same with the PSN. The ordinary user could not avoid being tracked, while the more devious would be able to fake the number. If the idea is to track computer or chip theft, will those of us who turn the number off be suspected of criminal activity?

Fortunately, though Intel still dominates the industry, its competitors, AMD and Cyrix, sell high-quality, lower-priced chips that are used in most sub-$1000 PCs. AMD's K6 processors outsold Intel-based desktop computers in January, for the 1st time.

Think I'm exaggerating the PSN threat? Get this: At the Intel Developers forum, David Aucsmith, Intel's security architect, arrogantly proclaimed, "The actual user of the PC -- someone who can do anything they want -- is the enemy."

To hell with Intel. Ask not for whom Intel trolls, it trolls for thee.

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