The end of anonymity on the Internet?

[CyberGuy]

By Michael Rogers

Columnist

Special to MSNBC

Updated: 7:53 a.m. ET Dec. 13, 2005

As the joke goes, on the Internet nobody knows you?re a dog. But although anonymity has been part of Internet culture since the first browser, it?s also a major obstacle to making the Web a safe place to conduct business: Internet fraud and identity theft cost consumers and merchants several billion dollars last year. And many of the other more troubling aspects of the Internet, from spam emails to sexual predators, also have their roots in the ease of masking one?s identity in the online world.

Change, however, is on the way. Already over 20 million PCs worldwide are equipped with a tiny security chip called the Trusted Platform Module, although it is as yet rarely activated. But once merchants and other online services begin to use it, the TPM will do something never before seen on the Internet: provide virtually fool-proof verification that you are who you say you are.

Some critics say that the chip will change the free-wheeling Web into a police state, while others argue that it?s needed to create a safe public space. But the train has already left the station: by the end of this decade, a TPM will almost certainly be part of your desktop, laptop and even cell phone.

The TPM chip was created by a coalition of over one hundred hardware and software companies, led by AMD, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Microsoft and Sun. The chip permanently assigns a unique and permanent identifier to every computer before it leaves the factory and that identifier can?t subsequently be changed. It also checks the software running on the computer to make sure it hasn?t been altered to act malevolently when it connects to other machines: that it can, in short, be trusted. For now, TPM-equipped computers are primarily sold to big corporations for securing their networks, but starting next year TPMs will be installed in many consumer models as well.

With a TPM onboard, each time your computer starts, you prove your identity to the machine using something as simple as a PIN number or, preferably, a more secure system such as a fingerprint reader. Then if your bank has TPM software, when you log into their Web site, the bank?s site also ?reads? the TPM chip in your computer to determine that it?s really you. Thus, even if someone steals your username and password, they won?t be able to get into your account unless they also use your computer and log in with your fingerprint. (In fact, with TPM, your bank wouldn?t even need to ask for your username and password ? it would know you simply by the identification on your machine.)

The same would go for online merchants ? once you?d registered yourself and your computer with an Amazon or an e-Bay, they?d simply look for the TPM on your machine to confirm it?s you at the other end. (Of course you could always ?fool? the system by starting your computer with your unique PIN or fingerprint and then letting another person use it, but that?s a choice similar to giving someone else your credit card.)

Another plus for the TPM is that your computer will be able to make sure that it?s really a legitimate e-commerce site you?re connected to, and not some phishing-style fraud. There would still, of course, be ways that you could access your bank or e-commerce accounts from other computers when you were traveling, but the connection wouldn?t be as secure as using your own computer. Plans are already underway to put TPMs into smartphones and other portable devices as well.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10441443

[CyberGuy]

My question is what happens when you sell one of these computers with your personal stuff on that ID chip. This article does not address that as far as I can tell.

[Gregory Matthews]

What about people like me who build their own computers?

It appears, as described above, to act in part like Microsofts Product Activation software? That established the means for individual computers to be identified.

What about the many people who access financial (or whaterver else) data from both a home computers and computers off site such as from work?

[Jeannieb43]

We've never sold our old computers, but we've donated them to a charitable organization. First, however, we took the CPU to a computer store and had the hard drive scrubbed.

Was that "scrubbing" sufficient to remove this tracking chip?

[CyberGuy]

Quote:

---

What about people like me who build their own computers?

It appears, as described above, to act in part like Microsofts Product Activation software? That established the means for individual computers to be identified.

What about the many people who access financial (or whaterver else) data from both a home computers and computers off site such as from work?

---

This technology will be built into all mother boards and or processors in the future. Already some computers are coming with built in finger print ID. It is part of the sign in part of the program. No one without your fingerprint can log onto the computer. The chip then will ID who you are. Some laptops come with that now. This will be good if you buy a lot online. This chip will ID exactly who you are and with your fingerprint it will be almost foolproof unless you leave the computer on after you sign on then anyone can use your computer to buy stuff online with your ID. That would not be good.

[Paul Beach]

What if your computer breaks down and you have to use another one? How will you be able to do anything online?

[CyberGuy]

You would have to do the old fashioned way. Jump through hoops as you do now when you make a purchase. Give credit card numbers the secret 3 number id on the back of the credit card and other questions. As to doing stuff on the internet. It is the buying stuff on the internet that would be harder not browsing the internet.

[CyberGuy]

Readers on identity and anonymity online

Trusted Platform Module provokes heated response from both sides

By Michael Rogers

Columnist

Special to MSNBC

Updated: 7:31 p.m. ET Dec. 21, 2005

Michael Rogers

Columnist

Not surprisingly, there was a flood of reader response to last week's column Let's See Some ID, Please." The piece described the Trusted Platform Module that is being built into many new computers. The goal of the TPM is to create what is touted to be fool-proof identification on the Internet, intended to circumvent online fraud, theft and similar illegal behavior.

Few readers were middle-of-the-road on this issue, rather splitting evenly over whether this was a great idea, or the end of freedom and democracy as we know it. Some of the former:

Brian C. Barnes: Austin, TX: Anonymity would be great, in an ideal world. Unfortunately, there are too many low life jerks who take advantage any way they can, and so we have to assume a more defensive posture. If the Internet is to be a really useful infrastructure, and not just a "back alley slum" type of place, then unfortunately, this is a necessary step.

Bill Reimann: This is good news to good people. We no longer have to gamble that software programs protect our privacy or prevent fraud. This is a perfect balance between the anonymity embedded in proprietary software and the certainties of hardware standards.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10564396/