For the scary applications (regarding user freedom) of Intel SGX, see Joanna Rutkowska's two blog posts about Software Guard Extensions. Part 1: http://blog.in

For the scary applications (regarding user freedom) of Intel SGX, see Joanna Rutkowska's two blog posts about Software Guard Extensions. Part 1: http://blog.invisiblethings.org/2013/08/30/thoughts-on-intels-upcoming-software.html http://blog.invisiblethings.org/2013/08/30/thoughts-on-intel... Part 2: http://theinvisiblethings.blogspot.com/2013/09/thoughts-on-intels-upcoming-software.html http://theinvisiblethings.blogspot.com/2013/09/thoughts-on-i... Intel SGX also had some useful applications alongside those that are harmful to users, like search engines that provably don't log queries, mail servers that provably don't keep your mail, provably safe Bitcoin mixers and so on. But if using Intel SGX requires a business agreement with Intel, I worry we will only see the bad things and not the useful ones. It is possible I am wrong and cloud providers will give people who aren't Hollywood access to Intel SGX. But all the applications require trusting Intel and the NSA. Hollywood surely does not mind trusting them, do we? Intel x86 considered harmful[1] talks about all the scary stuff with Intel's processors. [1]: http://blog.invisiblethings.org/papers/2015/x86_harmful.pdf http://blog.invisiblethings.org/papers/2015/x86_harmful.pdf