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Privacy and the Future

Computer Science 01iIntroduction to the Internet

Neal Sample13 February 2001

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We will talk about...

HTML odds and ends: framesPrivacy on the InternetGlimpses of the Future

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Frames

Setting up framesets<frameset border=3 frameborder=1 cols="185,*">

<frame name="nav" src="nav.html">

<frame name="content" src="content.html">

</frameset>

Links inside frames<a href="content.html" target=content>Home</a>

Special Targets:<a href=”replacement.html" target=_new>Link</a>

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Privacy

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Privacy on the net

The net was designed for information sharing, not information hiding

Any machine on your local network can see any packet you send

You have no idea which route a packet takes through the network so you have no idea who can read your message

So don’t assume you’re anonymous on the net!

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Data gathering is easy

Easy to collect information about someone surfing on the net, even without eavesdropping

Techniques include: Cookies IP address lookups (DNS) Just giving it away

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Cookies

A web site can set a “cookie” that is stored on your machine

Cookies are only sent back to the server that created them, and to any it allows

Stores whatever information it wants there possibly username and password whether or not you voted in an online poll

Usually incomprehensible to humans

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Why cookies?

Imagine if Amazon had to store data about all of its customers at its server Expensive, hard to manage

Makes customizing webpages easy for the server

Many commerce sites manage your “shopping cart” this way

Convenient for users

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But cookies can be bad

A website can track your viewing habits How long you spend at each page What links you follow Whether you click through an ad

Can then focus direct marketing to you, or sell your information to someone else

Hard to tell what it is doingInsecure workstations

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What can you do?

Do you want a site to know all these things?

Do you care? Phone and credit card companies know quite

a bit about you But not in the same way

Setting cookies to off/confirmNot always a good solution, inconvenient

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The solution: Anonymity

www.anonymizer.comOther proxies that will disable

cookies and substitute their IP address for yours

Some are free:http://www.lne.com/ericm/cookie_jar/

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Anonymity

Who needs anonymity? We all do! Anonymity is a fundamental component

of a free society

Crime tips, abuse recovery, political statements, etc.

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Anonymous Remailers

What if you’re a normal person and want to send anonymous email?

You can do it if you’re a hackerEasier to just use an anonymous

remailerhttp://www.gilc.org/speech/anonymous/

remailer.html

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Anonymity can be abused

Slander“Spam” ThreatsHackersCriminals

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Security: the Experts

Most are pretty paranoid some good reasons to be but some good reasons not to be

Cyber crime is actually falling in relation to the size of the net

But makes the newsOn the other hand, why take

chances?

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Reasonable Rules for Security

Treat email as if it were a conversation in a crowded mall Likely, no eavesdroppers, but you’re not sure

Use a free email service like yahoo mail for public statements or transactions or online flirting use slightly different usernames and

passwords for everything they are easier to change or cancel

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Future

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Future Connections

Best current home connections? DSL

Peaks at about 1.5 megabitsAvailable in limited areasCan be expensive to install

CableTypically peaks at a few hundred kilobitsLimited areaFrequently congested

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Short Term

Internet over power lines http://technews.netscape.com/news/0-1004-200-

1564871-0.html?pt.netscape.fd.hl.ne

Over to 2.5 gigabitsIn every home that has powerProbably cheap and well-regulated,

like other utilitiesBetter latency? Not likely.

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Medium Term

Complete wireless networkingCurrent models:

Cellular modems 2 megabit microwave Interactive satellite television

The real barriers to wireless are cost and control

Compare wireless to cable modems...

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Long term

Completely thought-free Do you ever wonder if a house has light

switches?

Network interfaces everywhere You can browse the web on your cell phone.

Why not on everything else?

Everything will be wired Does my toaster NEED to be surfing the web? http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-201-342358-

0.html?st.ne.fd.gif.d

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How do we search?

Current best search engines can only be as successful as the user’s query allows

Result sets are usually very large, contain lots of irrelevant junk

Lack of information standards make it hard to form comparisons between products, services, etc.

Best? www.google.com www.altavista.com

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How will we search?

Internet “Agents” will find things for us, sometimes before we know we’re looking Microsoft Assistant (paperclip beast)

We ask the agent a question, then it gives us the right answer “What is the fastest computer under $1500”

Getting there: www.askjeeves.com - typing www.generalmagic.com - talking?!

Now my refrigerator can order more milk

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Internet education

Many universities doing it, for better or for worse CS245 at Stanford: homepage: www.stanford.edu/class/cs245/ lectures: stanford-online.stanford.edu/

courses/ interaction: you can phone in questions (or email TAs)

Probably only for higher education, at least for a while

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Internet and non-Internet?

What are the final distinctions?At what point is something “on”

the Internet?Example:

Are telephones part of the Internet? Better yet, will the Internet make

telephone service obsolete? www.dialpad.com - free long-distance

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Conclusions

Only one: The Internet is getting to be like electricity, ubiquitous and “essential”

The rest, we can only speculate on

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Your Internet Futures

Financial transactions will probably be done more and more electronically.

There will be fewer large internet sites.The allure of surfing the net is basically

over and that will make things difficult once people get settled into a few standard sites.

It will be tough for a new site to become established once a few major sites already have hold. I would predict a consolidation of sites within a particular area.

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Your Internet Futures

Working for start-ups will become more attractive because these companies will be based on better business models. The strong start-ups will survive, and we will see more of these start-ups as time goes on and more people learn to apply Old Economy management styles and business models to New Economy start-ups on the Web.

The internet has been the largest growing phenomena in the history of man, but nothing can continue to grow at the rate that it has in recent history. It will continue to grow (more users, more businesses, more web-sites etc.) but it will start to slow down.

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Your Internet Futures

Technology for the internet will only improve at an exponential rate in the near future. This will make things like video, television, radio, video conferencing etc. more common on the internet.

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Your Internet Futures

Public concern for security will also be addressed with better encryption technology to protect consumers when making purchases, important e-mails, confidential documents etc.

Perhaps to somewhat censor the internet and track the users on the internet, I think that in the future a license to put something on the internet will be required.

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Your Internet Futures

People will still want to use phones for communication, instead of doing all calls over the internet.

People may become more reclusive due to internet use.

fin!