Webupon

There are several factors that are contributing to this climate of fear; not a single motivating variable, but an amalgamation of driving forces that have culminated in the 21st Century zeitgeist that is consumed by a quest to safeguard the most intricate elements of our being: who we are.

Fueling this futile crusade is an intangible, yet certainly very real concept; an ever-growing, ever-changing, pervasive and ubiquitous presence that is exponentially expanding, irrespective of one’s will: The Internet. What began as a very focused, narrow platform to share information, has erupted in a magnificent maelstrom of expertly-designed technology, affordable high-speed broadband and a userbase of billions worldwide – and left in the stead of the old Internet? The Web 2.0.

This revolution of interactivity, versatility and malleability of the medium has spawned the mammoth uber-sites that exist existentially today –
MySpace
,
Facebook
,
Digg
– these are entities that are simply nothing more than static pages on an individual level. However, the new age of the Internet encourages user participation, and the content creators are now the content consumers – thus, the aforementioned Web 2.0 applications piggyback off of the diverse array of articles, images, and files that are uploaded in the thousands daily.

This begs the question: with as much sensitive information transgressing over private networks such as instant messaging dialogs as there is public-domain, and intendedly-so publicly viewable pieces of media, how long before one caste of intelligence transgresses the ambiguous barrier that prevents our sensitive material from being leaked to the wider populace? Shielding this knowledge has become the desideratum of the Netizen.

Often, those who are cited in their derision of the Internet are, as they say, “out of touch,” with the web phenomenon – however, there is some gravity and clout to the arguments put forth by said individuals. There have been (however rare) instances of information abuse as a direct result of communication that has taken place on the Internet. Pedophiles, in the past, have sought potential victims by “cyber stalking” – on the flip side of the coin, this practice, one could say, has been nearly eradicated due to the gradual mass migration from public text-based chat lobbies (although internet relay chat is still a popular option) to trusted interpersonal networks that facilitate the interconnectivity of known associates.

Although somewhat of a gray area due to the contention of legality vs. morality, copyright watchdogs have used trackers to root out known culprits. Despite this, there are no uncertainties about the injustice perpetrated by those who harvest credit card information and other such potent data from unsuspecting, and unfortunately often not-so-savvy users. The threat of this, however, is greatly exaggerated – firewalls and server-side protection methods have all but made this a moot point, or at least deferred it until the hackers outwit their virtual antagonists.

Unfortunately, the unsuspecting youth are often nonplussed – perhaps too much so – by the threat that the breach of privacy poses. They voluntarily submit themselves to the inquisition of the prowling eyes of MySpace, whose queries often delve beyond superficial aspects of the psyche. While broadcasting birthdays, names and ages to a local audience – a network of trusted “friends” – may seem harmless, and actually is in its singularity, it is when this network expands that the data becomes compromised.

Simply by following a direct route of common friends – somewhat like a six degrees of separation – one can acquire personal details about whomever they wish. Startling, but true. Admittedly, in order to cloak their profiles from prying eyes, their are certain measures in place, but this still does not filter out all such potential for abuse.

Google is another information offender – a multi-billion dollar corporation, supported by the backbone of arguably the world’s most powerful search engine. Google’s spindly talons are sunk deep into the core of the word wide web, and you can find just about anything by inputting it into the little white box – deceivingly simple, but insidious in its reach. While the average human of unremarkable qualities would probably yield little in the way of privy results, how long before Google tightens its grip around society? Already there has been precedent – search engines, in the past, have released internal search habit data to marketing companies. Harmless? Yes, but so is any malpractice in its infancy.

Thus, it is up to every human being, as a member of the newfangled Web-civilization, to remain every watchful and vigilant – and keep our fingers firmly on the pulse of this creature called the Internet.