LG - TPM chip good or bad?

can someone please help explan to me what the tpm chip is and what it actualy does? i see people in the forum saying bad things about it. but why?

thanks

 

Not an easy question to answer...

From what I understand, the TPM chip is used in combination with the fingerprint scanner, for security purposes... But to be honest, it doesn't seem like a good enough excuse to me to put one of these chips in there. A software solution should be able to to pretty much the same thing.

TPM stands for Trusted Platform Module, and it's a piece of the puzzle called Trusted Computing, a concept that sounds positive, but in fact could very well become extremely disadvantageous for the consumer. Very little is being said about it in the media, and it's generally hush-hush. Few manufacturers mention it, but most include it. Over all, not much is known about the technology. Why are they trying to hide it from us?

Recommended reading:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trusted_computing
http://www.eff.org/Infrastructure/trusted_computing/20031001_tc.php
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/can-you-trust.html

A good but not very informative short film about Trusted Computing:
http://www.lafkon.net/tc/

The movement against TC (outdated site):
http://www.againsttcpa.com/

Those links should explain it to you better than I ever could.

TPM is pretty much beingforced upon us now... Most computers come with these chips now, whether they advertise it or not. At least LG are honest enough to clearly declare it on their site. I'm looking for a new laptop, and I'm pretty sure I'll get the LG T1, although it has a TPM chip, because:

1) From what I hear you're able to disable/enable the chip in BIOS. It's disabled by default. (?)
2) It's just one TC component (I hope/think!), so it's not a fully TC-enabled system, which means it's not that bad.
3) For the TPM chip to be able to do "bad things", it needs a treacherous operating system. Personally, I wouldn't fully trust Vista or OS X, and perhaps not even XP. Changes can easily slip in via a "security update" at any time. I will mostly use Ubuntu, presuming it works well on the T1.

I hope I don't come across as a loony conspiracy theorist, I'm simply trying to be careful. There's a lot of things going on in the world, and increasing surveillance of regular people, is an apparent trend. Chances are, that we're being eased into this Trusted Computing concept, and we won't realize it until it's too late. The second I don't truly own my computer, and every aspect of it, is the second I stop using it for any personal things. Hopefully non-TC computers will be available too, unless they're outlawed.

So to conclude, read up on TC, get to know the risks involved, then make up your mind. To some people, including me, this is a big deal, to others, it's not. Personally I see it as a potential limitation of my freedom and privacy, and this, we certainly must be defending in times like these. I consider my future LG a bit of an experiment, actually. It'll be on probation forever

Spead the word about TC! Tell your family and friends! This concerns us all, computers will be a huge part of our lives. Get informed!

 

wow Daedra thanks for all the info. i just picked up a T1 myself today after school. i will be getting it tomorrow or the day after!