The Internet began as a frontier akin to the Wild West where the borders were not defined, the horizon clear, and the possibilities were endless. Today, there is the movement toward a more monitored Internet with horizons defined by country locations such as .us, .eu, .ca, etc. The possibilities though continue to expand and will become more prevalent as cloud computing begins to dominate. Think of pressing a touch screen in your kitchen to turn on your oven and monitor heat levels and perhaps even just working your can opener. While one could argue that the technology dependence may be getting too high, it is inevitable that most people will adopt these conveniences as they become more affordable. The main question is: will you be safe both from attacks and will your personal data be secure?
Obama back in 2009 stated the following:
"None of this progress would be possible, and none of these 21st century challenges can be fully met without American's digital infrastructure, the backbone that underpins a prosperous economy and strong military and an open and efficient government. Without that foundation, we can't get the job done.
This goes along with the discussions on cyber security in class. The government sees national security on the cyber front of such importance that, according to a New York Times article,
"A fact sheet released by the White House also promised that the United States would respond to attempted hacking “as we would to any other threat to our country." The one paper in class argued that it will be treated similar to a utility where protection of consumers is emphasized. Here, Internet Service Providers may be required to protect its consumers and businesses will be required to report hackings, but we see how that will be hard to do with the prevalence of lawsuits.
However, I do not believe that this is not just a utility. Personal data online can include your accounts for those utilities, your banks, and perhaps the appliances in your house. Thus, it can be more dangerous. Alright, may not more than a nuclear meltdown, but stick with me on this one. Full transparency of this online identity, save important personal information, can enable everyone to know who is saying what, what they're doing, and create a safety net as people are less likely to cause trouble if they are "out in the open" in the cyber world. Despite this, it can also lead to stifling creativity and expression of true thoughts. It will also take away the ability to maintain multiple independent circles of contacts such as one account is for a music group, another is for sports, and so on.
What can be the best solution? I agree that there has to be some regulation because the proliferation of getting viruses through any download is tiring. The endless ads are another nuisance, and companies should not be able to monitor your online habit. It's sad to think the ISP knows when someone's infected, but they let it slide by. As with most things in life, the solution has to be midway. Complete transparency could create an oppressed society because the ones with the fiber optic cables can still hide those in power if need be. ISPs and governments should be able to catch malware running across networks, but only after it has been confirmed as so and is listed on a public website, subject to scrutiny. However, intrusions into your personal life without your permission should not be allowed unless if suspected hackings occurred by you or someone else. There should be a strong judicial base in dealing with offenses to such infiltrations. So, overall transparency online should only be for safety reasons while allowing people to create anonymous accounts because "privacy means preserving the original sense of unlimited opportunity the Internet seemed to offer, as an unconstrained space for individual action."
I agree with everything that you state in this blog. The internet started out as an excellent opportunity for people to openly communicate and share their interest to the world. As the years go on the internet has become a less and less safe environment. As you stated the Internet Service Providers know everything about our activity. They will only share certain things right back to us though to protect their credibility. Every Internet Service Provider is out to gain the most consumers to challenge their competition. While at the same time doing a lot of foul play in the background that most people don’t even know about, because it is never shared to the world. These services are keeping daily logs every day of all of their consumers and know when we are affected by a virus, without us even knowing. They wait until it gets obvious, and that when we have to go and buy spyware, and malware. It is a never ending cycle of business. Without one thing the other wouldn’t exist. It so easy to gain a virus on the computer these days. Just simply searching for information and clicking on the wrong link can cause that. I mean the internet has to be regulated to keep it functioning properly for everyone that pays for the service. Some companies are just going too far without IP addresses and tracking are searches to display ads. They can still make plenty of money off ads online with tracking our moves like that. You just have to use the internet at your own risk. You already know what you’re getting into when logging in.
I agree with everything that you state in this blog. The internet started out as an excellent opportunity for people to openly communicate and share their interest to the world. As the years go on the internet has become a less and less safe environment. As you stated the Internet Service Providers know everything about our activity. They will only share certain things right back to us though to protect their credibility. Every Internet Service Provider is out to gain the most consumers to challenge their competition. While at the same time doing a lot of foul play in the background that most people don’t even know about, because it is never shared to the world. These services are keeping daily logs every day of all of their consumers and know when we are affected by a virus, without us even knowing. They wait until it gets obvious, and that when we have to go and buy spyware, and malware. It is a never ending cycle of business. Without one thing the other wouldn’t exist. It so easy to gain a virus on the computer these days. Just simply searching for information and clicking on the wrong link can cause that. I mean the internet has to be regulated to keep it functioning properly for everyone that pays for the service. Some companies are just going too far without IP addresses and tracking are searches to display ads. They can still make plenty of money off ads online with tracking our moves like that. You just have to use the internet at your own risk. You already know what you’re getting into when logging in.
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