Is the TPM chip the end of anonymity on the Internet?
Did you know that over 20 million PCs worldwide are equipped with a tiny security chip called the Trusted Platform Module (TPM)? The TPM will do something never before seen on the Internet: provide virtually fool-proof verification that you are who you say you are. Looks like things are coming together for the industry and those who worry about digital rights better sit down for this one.
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.
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