The Washington-based Center for Democracy and Technology said it will
ask the Federal Trade Commission on Friday to investigate a controversial
technology built into its new Pentium III chips.

The move is the most serious challenge to Intel over privacy concerns in
the new chips, which also go on sale Friday.

Other privacy groups previously organized a boycott of the new Pentium
chip and asked the FTC to investigate. But none had filed a formal
complaint with the regulatory agency.

An Intel spokesman declined to comment about the threat of the FTC
complaint.

The FTC has broad authority and could enjoin Intel's sale of the affected
chips, although the agency's chairman, Robert Pitofsky, has already
acknowledged: "As things stand, I don't think we have the authority to do
that."

Intel, the world's largest computer chip-maker, designed its Pentium III to
be able to transmit a unique serial number internally and to Web sites that
request it, to help verify the identity of consumers.

The company said the technology will help online merchants eliminate
fraud, but some privacy groups contend it gives companies unprecedented
ability to trace a consumer's digital footprints as they wander the Web.

-- Evil AP - 2/25/99