micropayments in the form of personal
information [ 3].
One billion users, while a very large
number, represents less than 18% of
the global population and just a fraction of those who will turn to the Internet in the future. Although some
progress has been made, these most
sensitive of our hopes, dreams, and
intentions [ 2] are routinely passed to
online companies that scrupulously log
and retain our revelations, sometimes
indefinitely, where they are data-mined
to allow customized advertising and
help improve our online experience.
Encryption offers little help, as online
companies are a trusted party in the
communication. Your computer and
its Internet connections accelerate the
loss of privacy. Counterintuitively, the
more usable a given online application,
the worse it is in terms of our personal
privacy. Online companies are not the
only ones with access to this information. It also flows across the networks
of our ISPs, which have the power to
collect, and even alter, practically every
bit we send and receive. The information visible to online companies and
the ISPs is largely the same; only the
network vantage point is different.
In most instances of online navigation and interaction, it would be prudent to assume that these disclosures
are never discarded. Once a disclosure
is made, it can never be undone. At
best, we must trust our ISPs and online organizations
to eventually discard the information. At the same
time, network neutrality is under attack. We cannot
assume the information we receive is what the information provider actually sent.
In some ways, trust is increasingly irrelevant,
because, if we are to be members of the Internet-enabled society, we have no other option but to rely on
the powerful tools we have at our disposal (such as
those provided by major search engines). Like rats
forced to endure electric shocks to acquire food, we
must use these tools to acquire information and communicate. The implications of data disclosure and
retention are profound, including corporate and law-enforcement abuses and identity theft, as well as sec-ond- and third-order effects impossible to predict.
Those of us who are aware of the risks already self-censor our activities, even as we continue to indulge them.
part of the Internet fabric. Approximately one billion
Internet users worldwide rely on networked technology to provide information and interconnection for
all aspects of their lives, both personal and professional. Everything from our physical location, to what
we think, to who we know can all be found in this
data. Despite the best intentions of those doing the
collecting or communicating, it is impossible to guarantee it will stay private or not be used for some malicious purpose. As an example, AOL disclosed, in
August 2006, the search queries of some 657,000 of
its users that contained sensitive and personally identifying information [ 1]. This incident only hints at
the risks the world’s most powerful leaders, as well as
ordinary citizens, face when using myriad “free” tools
(such as search, email, mapping, news, word processing, calendaring, and blog hosting). Free online services aren’t really free; we pay for them with