Make no mistake the Internet is under siege and it really is a big deal. Be it the NSA, The Five Eyes, China, Iran, or even privacy conscious Germany, snooping is widespread by nearly all national governments and many local governments as well.
Worse are the private concerns like Google, Microsoft, Apple, Facebook, Acxiom, Angry Birds or your other favorite apps. They will jump every hurdle to compromise that which you do not wish to share. And those are just the most obvious ones.
Roaming Aimlessly Around The "World Wild Web"
Peer beyond the shaky safety of your browser, computer, and router to the world of packets and there lies a Mongol horde of hackers spammers and tricksters ready to pounce upon your slightest security slovenliness. I stand amazed at the number of things trying to break into the server at work each day or my router at home.
It's just too easy for even the minimally talented hacker to employ rather sophisticated software to roam aimlessly around the "World Wild Web" looking for any door ajar or window cracked open.
Still the Internet is a truly a marvelous and wonderful place. A place of entertainment, knowledge, and decadence, waiting your every click. True, one must discern and learn to trust the content, but that has always been true even at your local university library staffed by an army of Dewey decimal quality control experts.
Without the proper government supervision, all this could be ending for the Internet as a public utility. And it is certainly a public utility even in the most narrow of definitions.
NSA Guilty of Dereliction of Duty
The recent revelation that the NSA knew of the 2 year vulnerability in the much depended upon ssl protocol and that they didn't tell those they have sworn to protect is absolutely unthinkable except to the wacky world of conspiracy theorists. It just highlights the US Government's glaring failure to protect and defend its citizens.
Now comes the US Government's appearing to not defend "Net Neutrality" the backbone principle of the Internet to date. The Internet was built on this principle that " all Internet data is born and lives equal in cyperspace. Our Internet freedom is now in question and the One elected to preserve it appears to be turning his back or the core concepts. It is a big Big BIG deal.
All we can do is bitch and bitch. We should or the corporate money interests and their rabid gangs of lobbyists moving through the revolving doors of industry and government will empty our lunch pail and leave the US further behind the rest of world for Internet access.
Bill Moyers Essay: What Happened to President Obama’s Promised Net Neutrality?
Running for president in 2007, Barack Obama pledged to keep the Internet open to all, upholding the principle of Net neutrality. Now his FCC chairman, Tom Wheeler, has introduced new rules that have caused an uproar among public interest groups and media reform advocates.
{vimeo}https://vimeo.com/93590847{/vimeo}
Yet another take by Cheq Unger of the The Young Turks
Mozilla To FCC: Hey, There's Another Way To Protect Net Neutrality
With all the hand-wringing over the FCC and net neutrality, the folks over at Mozilla have jumped into the fray, offering the FCC another possible path. Much of the fight is over whether or not the FCC should "reclassify" broadband providers under Title II of the Telecommunications Act, thereby making them "telco services" (subject to common carrier rules) or leave them under Title I as "information services" (not subject to common carrier rules).
The problem is that even though they almost certainly should be telco services, the political shitstorm it would create to reclassify means that no one in the FCC seems to have any interest in kicking off that particular political battle (not to mention that the FCC would be required to have a very good reason for why it's changing the designation -- beyond just "we think it's better.")
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About the Author
Robert Jennings is co-publisher of InnerSelf.com with his wife Marie T Russell. He attended the University of Florida, Southern Technical Institute, and the University of Central Florida with studies in real estate, urban development, finance, architectural engineering, and elementary education. He was a member of the US Marine Corps and The US Army having commanded a field artillery battery in Germany. He worked in real estate finance, construction and development for 25 years before starting InnerSelf.com in 1996.
InnerSelf is dedicated to sharing information that allows people to make educated and insightful choices in their personal life, for the good of the commons, and for the well-being of the planet. InnerSelf Magazine is in its 30+year of publication in either print (1984-1995) or online as InnerSelf.com. Please support our work.
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