Intel tracked me when I went to the loo
LAST TIME I was in a top secret Intel establishment - look, I mean the chip company, not the freaking NSA - I needed to take a leak.
Look, not issue a leak, leak a leak, I mean have a wee, go to the wazzeria, take your pick, all that coffee got to me, OK?
I had to go with a minder in Albuquerque, where water is short at the best of times.
Security is tight at Intel. They didn't want me going into the loo and radiating secret information about their pesky 786 chip to the opposition, or expressing things that should have better been kept to myself.
I am pleased to say the minder was the soul of discretion. I went to the stall, and made a satisfying ssssssss sort of noise, washed my hands, and then was taken back to meeting room 101 - you know, the one like the black cube supposed to be in the middle of the Folsom fab.
I had seen no secrets.
Except. I had noticed that the soap was a generic type of soap, and the towels were stamped Intel Confidential.
The UK government used to print On Her Majesty's Service on their loo rolls. But it's so long since I worked for Her Majesty's government that it's all probably stamped Intel Confidential too, too.
I only mention this because apparently it is still common practice at Intel Folsom, where there is said to be a secret black cube only open to the top guns. ยต
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I've worked in a few development labs, with stuff that would be released to customers in months (not years), and find cameras covering all work areas and hallways and badge readers at every door (not just external ones). Nobody thinks that anything is private from the company, and we're only a few months away from customer's hands. Intel's labs, I'm sure, work on projects far earlier in the development cycle, of course they are going to want to make sure you're being looked after.
Is anyone else as confused as me after reading this?
That's just standard procedure. I suppose you were issued a visitor badge. Visitors are supposed to be escorted at all times, which unfortunately means you will be escorted to the bathroom as well. That's so people don't wander around, regardless of whether there are secret materials around or not. Overkill, I know, but Intel keeps some of Grove's paranoia around.
Inside of Intel sites, anyone needs to visibly carry an identification badge above their waist. 
There are three types of badges:
* "blue badge" for regular full-time employees
* "green badge" for contractors regularly working on site
* "pink badge" for visitors and one-time contractors (e.g., the plumber fixing the loo the author went to, or the author himself, for that matter)

While blue and green badges are free to roam wherever they desire, pink badges require to be accompanied at all times. When a pink badge signs in at the frontdesk, a blue badge signs this off and thereby assumes the responsibility for that pink badge following the guidelines while on site. The blue badge is released from their responsibility with the pink badge signing out at the time of leaving the site.
Intel has been monitoring its employees for a LONG time, even sending its own security department out to sort through the trash of suspected employees for any clues.

It's an old book, but "Inside Intel" by Tim Jackson (published by HarperCollins) is a really interesting read on this and other Intel subjects, up until 1997. Highly recommended geek reading!

Oliver.
This thread just perpetuates the impression that Intel peeps are a bunch of tightasses. 

One pointless article and all these tightwads come out of the woodwork.
There are more badge types than three!! 

TO name a few more... There is the green stripe badge with gold 1/3 overlay for "permanent contractors". There is the violet stripe. (More of a sickly wine color, with just a bit of blue grape juice added.) There is the yellow/blue "barber pole" badge. Etc.

And all of them have a form of RFID circuitry built in, don't you know.
It wasn't "On Her Majesty's Service" anywhere
I saw it. "MOD property" was the one I
remember.