Security and Appropriateness on the Internet
When we watch television, listen to the radio, read a book, or go to a movie, we don’t need to provide personal information to get access to the media content we’re consuming. However, when we use the Internet—whether it’s to sign up for an e-mail account, comment on a blog, or shop online—we give away personal information, even if we don’t mean to. This has raised concerns about the security of information, personal safety, and the appropriateness of content available on the Web.
Information Security: What’s Private?
Government surveillance, online fraud, and unethical data-gathering methods have become common, making the Internet a potentially treacherous place.
Government Surveillance. Since the inception of the Internet, government agencies around the world have obtained communication logs, Web browser histories, and the online records of users who thought their Internet activities were private. In the United States, for example, the USA PATRIOT Act (which became law about a month after the September 11 attacks in 2001 and was renewed in 2006, with several provisions later extended further) grants sweeping powers to law-enforcement agencies to intercept individuals’ online communications, including e-mail messages and browsing records. The act was intended to allow the government to more easily uncover and track potential terrorists and terrorist organizations, but many now argue that it is too vaguely worded, allowing the government to unconstitutionally probe the personal records of citizens without probable cause and for reasons other than preventing terrorism. Moreover, searches of the Internet permit law-enforcement agencies to gather huge amounts of data, including the communications of people who are not the targets of an investigation. Documents leaked to the news media in 2013 by former CIA employee and former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden revealed that the NSA had continued its domestic spying program for more than a decade, collecting bulk Internet and mobile phone data on millions of Americans.
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Online Fraud. The Internet has increasingly become a conduit for online robbery and identity theft, the illegal obtaining of someone’s credit and identity information to fraudulently spend his or her money. One particularly costly form of Internet identity theft is phishing. Through this tactic, scammers send phony e-mail messages that appear to be from official Web sites—eBay, PayPal, Chase—asking customers to enter or update their credit card details and other personal information (such as bank account numbers). Once scammers have this information, they can go on a shopping spree using the victim’s credit card or siphon funds out of the victim’s bank account.
Unethical Data Gathering. As discussed in the earlier section about the business of the Internet, companies use cookies to collect information and tailor marketing messages. Even more frustrating is spyware, information-gathering software that is often secretly bundled with free downloaded software and that sends pop-up ads to users’ computer screens. Spyware has also made it possible for unauthorized parties (such as hackers) to collect personal or account information about users and to plant viruses and malicious click-fraud programs on computers.
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In 1998, the FTC developed fair information principles to combat the unauthorized collection of personal data online. Unfortunately, the FTC has no power to enforce these principles, and most Web sites either don’t self-enforce them or say they do when they really don’t.17 Consumer and privacy advocates are calling for stronger regulations, such as requiring Web sites to adopt opt-in policies. Opt-in policies require a Web site to obtain explicit permission from consumers before it can collect their browsing-history data.
Personal Safety: Online Predators
In some cases, predators have used access to Internet users to cause harm. For instance, child molesters have used social networking sites to pose as friendly people, with the goal of forming relationships with naïve underage youngsters. Once a relationship takes root online, the predator suggests a face-to-face meeting, with the intent of exploiting the youngster sexually. These incidents have provoked an outcry from parents and demands for better mechanisms for protecting Internet users’ safety.
Appropriateness: What Should Be Online?
The question of what constitutes appropriate content has been part of the story of every mass medium, from debates over the morality of lurid pulp-fiction books in the nineteenth century to arguments over the appropriateness of racist, sexist, and homophobic content in films and music. But the biggest topic of debate has centered on sexually explicit content.
Public objection to indecent and obscene Internet content has led to various legislative efforts to tame the Web. For example, the Children’s Internet Protection Act of 2000 was passed and upheld in 2003. This act requires schools and libraries that receive federal funding for Internet access to use software that filters out any visual content deemed obscene, pornographic, or harmful to minors, unless disabled at the request of adult users. Yet regardless of laws, pornography continues to flourish on commercial sites, individuals’ blogs, and social networking pages.
Although these back alleys of the Internet have caused considerable public concern, sites that carry potentially dangerous information (such as bomb-building instructions and hate speech) have also incited calls for Internet censorship. The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, along with tragic incidents in which armed and disturbed high school students massacred fellow students, have intensified debate about whether such information should be available on the Net.