IP: Standoff in Cyberspace Gulch

[Dave Farber <farber () central cis upenn edu>]

   The New York Times, January 2, 1996, Business, p. 14




   Viewpoint: J. Walker Smith


   Standoff in Cyberspace Gulch




   In the new frontier that is cyberspace, a showdown is
   shaping up as the law moves into town. On one side is a
   band of cybercitizens bent on protecting their privacy as
   they explore this unmapped territory. On the other are the
   lawmakers charged with safeguarding all cybercitizens from
   crime, even if it means forcing them to give up some of
   their privacy by, say, signing in as they enter town.


   This is how the public debate over cyberspace security has
   been framed. And on-line users are, indeed, worried about
   security. Yankelovich Partners surveyed 400 randomly
   selected on-line users, aged 16 and older, by telephone in
   mid-October and found that 90 percent agree that better
   Internet security is needed to insure that personal and
   financial information is not accessible to unauthorized
   people. Nearly 80 percent believe it is too easy for one's
   credit card number to be stolen if used on the Internet.
   And almost 70 percent agree that pornography on the
   Internet has gone far beyond reasonable bounds.


   Women even more than men (81 percent versus 55 percent)
   believe that more regulation is needed to police the
   Internet and that the kinds of information accessible on
   the Internet need to be more closely regulated (75 percent
   versus 49 percent).


   The concerns are not unjustified. Recent headlines tell of
   network security breaches and the growth of cyber-porn.
   Arrests of renegade hackers and crusades against indecent
   material have brought some comfort. But as outlaws are
   brought to justice and the momentum builds for laws to make
   the system secure, the risks to privacy have been loudly
   denounced.


   A cyberspace that offered privacy, security and decency
   would clearly be preferred. But recognizing that this
   simply may not be technologically achievable, most on-line
   users put security and decency ahead of absolute privacy.
   Fifty-three percent of cybercitizens agree that
   guaranteeing Internet security is more important than
   worrying about the privacy of each user.


   This is not really surprising. What is special about
   cyberspace is not that users can operate in anonymity, but
   that their online experiences are under their own control.
   In cyberspace, users choose their own combinations of
   information and entertainment from a new wealth of options,
   and are thrilled by the power to interact with other users.
   It is likely, in fact, that as software improves, on-line
   users will find it in their self-interest to reveal more
   and more about themselves so the interactive system can
   cater easily to their needs and preferences. The appeal in
   this is already being discovered. A broader Yankelovich
   survey of 600 adults (16 and older) in October showed the
   percentage of on-line users among American adults at a new
   high of 16 percent, up from 6 percent only a year ago. And
   in a similar survey of 414 cybercitizens by the firm last
   May, 71 percent of respondents found it highly desirable to
   be able to receive customized information, while only 35
   percent felt the same about a guarantee of anonymity.


   None of this, of course, implies that privacy should not be
   secured when possible. But in no way should it distract
   regulators from maintaining order and decency on this new
   frontier, nor should it be allowed to defeat the progress
   of commercial ventures. Special care should be taken to
   safeguard the power of individual users to navigate choices
   as they wish. The paramount consideration, in fact, should
   be increasing the resources available to make cybercitizens
   out of all people and to see that computer networks become
   an accessible, civilized public domain.


   But who should lead this regulation? Cybercitizens in
   general are unsure. A sizable majority, 63 percent, believe
   that it is only a matter of time before government will
   have to step in to regulate the Internet, but only a
   minority, 42 percent, think that would work. Self-policing
   is apparently not the answer either; 51 percent think that
   would fail.


   The quandary here -- that regulations are both thought to
   be needed, yet anticipated to fail -- is the biggest issue,
   and one that puts additional pressure on the limits of
   cyberspace privacy. This crisis of confidence, as much as
   lawlessness itself, could easily choke the growth of
   cyberspace.


   J. Walker Smith is a managing partner in Atlanta for
   Yankelovich Partners and author of the Cybercitizen Survey.


   [End]




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