Goodbye Anonymity, Hello Corporations

Well I just found this little ditty from digg.com. It looks like over 100 companies including Microsoft, IBM, HP, and a slew of others, have been developing a new chip called a Trusted Platform Module. It will soon be installed in almost every new computer and act as a digital fingerprint that can be read by anyone, anytime over the internet. They say they're going to use this to make online shopping more secure, and make the internet a safe public space. But my fellow techs know that it will put an end to anonymity on the internet. Plus, it really seems like a stupid idea. If these id chips can be read by anyone over the internet, and someone figures out how to hack the chips (which they will, it only takes time), then it will infact make computer fraud and identity theft much, much easier. And this is completely putting aside the anonymity thing. I think that this has goto be one of the stupidest moves by corporations I have seen since the Sony rootkit fiasco (I refuse to buy Sony merchendise since that). Anyway, that's my rant for now, let me know what you think!

Post away!