Privacy Advocacy Groups Versus Intel

In the wake of 1999, three privacy advocacy groups waged a campaign against Intel’s controversial launch of the Pentium III® processor. Approached as a case study, the conflict between the privacy groups and Intel demonstrates how social movements manipulate the Internet to their advantage when fighting powerful organizations. This article follows the presentation of each of the five strategic dimensions in Charles Euchner’s revised model—time, place, force, mind, and culture—with the Internet tactics used by the privacy advocates in the realm of each dimension. After a description of all the new cyber-protest tactics used in this campaign, an evaluation of both the groups’ success and Intel’s handling of the crisis is provided. The events surrounding the Melissa virus are mentioned due to important similarities and differences between the two cases. Concluding the article is a discussion of how the new protesting capabilities in the hands of social movements change existing paradigms for them as well as for their adversaries.