Technology: Breaking And Entering In Cyberspace

As recently as 1999, about 80% of newspaper and magazine articles on the Internet dealt with its ability to disseminate knowledge, and nearly every news story referred to the World Wide Web as the “information superhighway.” In those not-so-long-ago days, the politicos and media mavens inferred that this technology was going to make us smarter and more knowledgeable than we’d ever before been. The entire wealth of human knowledge would be only a few keystrokes away, making this the best thing to come along since the library at Alexandria.

By 2000, only a year later, the tables had been reversed a full 180 degrees. Articles about the Internet continued to proliferate like flies around a hog farm, but there was now barely any mention of the educational, civilizing or life enriching potential of the electronic community. In newspapers, magazines and on television, the “information superhighway” had been replaced by “ecommerce.” In the new millennium, the Internet was not so much about learning and bettering oneself, but about consumerism.

Anybody who didn’t see this coming either had never paid any attention to popular culture or had spent the last forty years living in a remote hut in a third world country. Most of us, however, were completely unprepared for how completely the marketing folks have taken over. As anybody who spends much time online can attest, these days you can spend days surfing the net without going to a single site that isn’t trying to sell you something.

This wouldn’t be so bad if the web merchants were content only to erect their cyber storefronts, display their wares and take your credit card orders. Unfortunately, though, the high rollers on the Internet resemble the Las Vegas Mafia of old, and they act as though they think that anything goes so long as it puts coins in their coffers. They brazenly put cookies and spyware on your computer without your knowledge to track the sites you visit, and even turn your computer into a Judas, having it contact them with information about your whereabouts. While you’re visiting one site, another site is probing your ports and retrieving information about your computer habits. In another era, such behavior would be considered breaking and entering, or wiretapping. Now it’s just considered business as usual.

If you think this is about as bad as it can get, you’re wrong. These actions, it seems, have only been the signposts to warn us of the twilight zone that lies ahead. Consider, if you will, the case of Juno Online Services.

Juno is one of the free, ad based, Internet service providers that has come upon hard times since the dot com bubble burst earlier last year, knocking the bottom out of the Internet advertising market. To stay in business, they’ve developed a scheme that almost defines the word “draconian.” Beginning on January 18th, when Juno subscribers agree to the company’s terms of service, they agree to allow Juno to download software that will let the company use their computer to perform tasks unrelated to their Internet connection. This software replaces the screensaver, and is configured so that the computer owner can not uninstall or otherwise tamper with it. In addition, they agree to leave their computer running continuously if asked, and to allow Juno the right to “initiate a telephone connection from your computer to Juno’s central computers.”

This is the “supercomputer project,” wherein Juno is planning to tie the unused processing capabilities on it’s member’s computers together to form a supercomputer, and then to sell that processing power to third parties. Not surprisingly, privacy and consumer rights advocates are expressing concern over this development. Ari Schwartz, with the Center for Democracy and Technology, says that this might even eventually make it easier for the government to violate unreasonable search and seizure rules. “Individuals are in some ways signing over their Fourth Amendment rights by opening up their computers,” he said.

In addition to all of the usual privacy concerns, this new twist on corporate intrusion into the personal PC also raises some interesting questions about personal ethics. For example, under this plan it would be possible that a devout pacifist might unwittingly let his or her computer be used by a defense contractor. Or a vegetarian might help the marketing efforts of a meat packer. Juno spokesperson Gary Baker doesn’t see what all the fuss is about, however. “This is a tremendous resource that is being wasted by people when they leave their computers off,” he said.

The idea to create a supercomputer by utilizing many computers over the Internet is not new. Currently, over 18 million people let the SETI Institute (the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) use their dormant processors. People have also given computer time to scientists for cancer and aids research. However, in these cases people have entered agreements with their eyes open. Juno seems to be betting that their users will have eyes wide shut.

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