Computer security is undeniably important, and as new vulnerabilities are discovered and exploited, the perceived need for new security solutions grows. "Trusted computing" initiatives propose to solve some of today's security problems through hardware changes to the personal computer. Changing hardware design isn't inherently suspicious, but the leading trusted computing proposals have a high cost: they provide security to users while giving third-parties the power to enforce policies on users' computers against the their wishes. In other words, they pressure you into handing some control over your computer to someone else. This is a "feature" readymade for abuse by software authors who want to anticompetitively choke off rival software.
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