FIGHT BACK : THINK YOU'RE ANONYMOUS IN CYBERSPACE? THINK AGAIN.Byline: David Horowitz
There's a famous cartoon that shows a dog seated at a computer telling another dog, ``On the Internet, no one knows you're a dog.'' And that's always been one of the great attractions of surfing the net - the illusion that you can sail through cyberspace Coined by William Gibson in his 1984 novel "Neuromancer," it is a futuristic computer network that people use by plugging their minds into it! The term now refers to the Internet or to the online or digital world in general. See Internet and virtual reality. Contrast with meatspace. anonymously, leaving no trace of who you are, where you've been or where you're going. I say illusion because I'm hearing more and more warnings about loss of privacy on the Internet. It's not so much government spies spies n. Plural of spy. v. Third person singular present tense of spy. that people fear so much as commercial advertisers The New-York Commercial Advertiser was a nineteenth century American newspaper. . Like most people who use the Internet and World Wide Web, I'm not a computer expert. So, when I hear that computers can identify and track an individual's travels on the network, I can't be sure how seriously I should take that. But if even some of what these people say is true, privacy in cyberspace may be just an illusion, after all. The image evoked by writer Leslie Miller in USA Today USA Today National U.S. daily general-interest newspaper, the first of its kind. Launched in 1982 by Allen Neuharth, head of the Gannett newspaper chain, it reached a circulation of one million within a year and surpassed two million in the 1990s. is of a billboard that looks back at you and remembers who you are, where you came from and when you looked at that particular advertisement. According to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. Miller, some sites on the World Wide Web already have the technical capability to capture that kind of information about everyone who visits that site. Over time, according to Miller's scenario, computers can use these bits and pieces of data to assemble quite sophisticated profiles of people's ages, interests, incomes, addresses and how they spend their money. The next step, of course, is to put that all together in the form of mailing lists An automated e-mail system on the Internet, which is maintained by subject matter. There are thousands of such lists that reach millions of individuals and businesses. New users generally subscribe by sending an e-mail with the word "subscribe" in it and subsequently receive all new . Perhaps I'm not as worried about this phenomenon as I should be. I agree with those who say that we must be vigilant about government or corporate intrusions on our privacy. But I also realize that advertisers have been gathering this kind of stuff for years, and the world has not come to an end because of it - yet. What people cruising the Internet should realize is that they cannot take privacy and anonymity for granted. This may be good, bad or both - good if it causes people to behave on line as if they were accountable for their actions, and bad if it inhibits anyone's freedom of expression or association. The bottom line - be careful out there. You're not invisible, even in cyberspace. MEMO: David Horowitz's column appears on Saturdays. |
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