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INTERNET TECHNOLOGY: LIBERATING OR CONTROLLING? Dr. Farid Farahmand War & Peace Series Fall 2013
INTERNET TECHNOLOGY: LIBERATING OR CONTROLLING? Dr. Farid Farahmand War & Peace Series Fall 2013
So!. •! Internet has opened a new dimension of communications •! Facilitated out lives •!Yet, it has become a tool of control!
•! governments and corporations continue to control flow, content, use, and infrastructure
Is the Internet technology giving us more control
OR taking us under control
?
Information Technology
Nano-Technology
Automotive & Robotics Semi-conductor
Manufacturing
Battery/Wind/Solar Energy
Food processing and Agriculture
Other! Other!Information Technology
Information Technology
Nano-Technology
Automotive & Robotics Semi-conductor
Manufacturing
Battery/Wind/Solar Energy
Food processing and Agriculture
Other! Other!Information Technology
Data Inform.
Information Processing Cycle IT technology allows us to perform information processing cycle
Information Technology
Nano-Technology
Automotive & Robotics Semi-conductor
Manufacturing
Battery/Wind/Solar Energy
Food processing and Agriculture
Other! Other!Information Technology
Data Inform.
Manipulate/Store
Information Processing Cycle
IT Impacting All Other Technologies – Digitizing the Information
Automotive Semi-conductor
Battery/Wind
Nano-Technology Manufacturing
Others
Information Technology
DIGITIZING THE DATA
Battery/Wind
Manufacturing
Semi-conductor Battery/Wind
Semi-conductor
Manufacturing
Information Technology
DIGITIZING THE DATA
Others
Automotive
Nano-Technology
Others
Automotive Semi-conductor Semi-conductor
Nano-Technology
Information Technology
DIGITIZING THE DATA
Others
Semi-conductor
Information Technology
DIGITIZING THE DATA
Others
Information
IT Impacting All Other Technologies - Utilized by all other technologies
Automotive Semi-conductor
Battery/Wind Semi-conductor
Nano-Technology Manufacturing
Others Others
Automotive
Nano-Technology Manufacturing
Information Technology
DIGITIZING THE DATA
Internet & IT Infrastructure •!The Internet is the enabling technology
Internet
Internet & WWW •!The World Wide Web is a technology that can provides many services over the Internet
!! Finding Directions !! Shopping !! Chatting !! Music !! News !! File Sharing
Finding Directions
WWW
Access to the Internet Services - Increasingly via Smartphones
Mainframes: Large machines, Limited access
PCs: Promising Individual Freedom
Laptops: Offering mobility
Smart Phones: Anytime, anywhere! (smaller & more powerful)
Today about half of Internet users in the U.S. use their smartphones to get online!
Smartphones: Integrated Part of Our Lives!
125 million iPhones in 2012 53 million iPads in 2012 748 million Androids in 2013
Smartphones: Anywhere, Anytime!
40 percent of people with iPhones said they'd rather give up brushing their teeth for a week than go without their phone! (Chicago Tribune, 2011 )
Text Blindfolded!
Have access to cell phones
Percent who said they could only go a few hours without their mobile phone: 34%
3.37 Billion worldwide email accounts
I Cannot Get on the Internet!
What Were the Early Expectations of the Internet?
Early Expectations – Early 70’s
•! Internet became the technology of liberation •! Techno-utopian dreamers were promising a cybernetic meadow •! Fred Turner coined the term Virtual Reality:
•! A technological paradise where people are linked together •! An unconstrained reality free from existing physical, social & political boundaries
•! The WWW brought the notion of Heavenly City – Promising liberation from rules and routines
The Reality of the Internet – Fast forward 40 years •! The Internet turned out to be an extremely powerful and a
mysterious technology •!Revolutionized our lives & empowered us in many ways
•! Education, Commerce, Healthcare, etc. •! It has also become an instrument of bureaucratic control
•! Created a conduit for profiting & monitoring
In ten minutes!
Getting Connected to the Internet
1.! Internet-enabled Device •! Each device has a unique hardware address
2.! Internet Service Provider (ISP) •! Examples: AT&T, Vertizon, Netzero, etc. •! They provide IP (Internet Protocol) address •! Also offer services such as email, web page, etc.
3.! Physical Connection •! Provided by the phone company or the ISP
18:87:00:bf:99:0 18:87:00:bf:99:0
16.34.23.101
IP: 168.34.23.101 18:87:00:bf:99:0
The Internet In Action Addressing
The Internet
IP: 168.34.23.101
HEADER------------- IP: 168.34.23.101 MAC: f0:f4:79:50:df:b6 ISP & Location
f0:f4:79:50:df:b6
Tracing A Simple Email From YAHOO!
HEADER------------- IP: 168.34.23.101 MAC: f0:f4:79:50:df:b6 ISP & Location
The Internet In Action – Message Blocking (Firewall)
The Internet
f0:f4:79:50:df:b6
IP: 168.34.23.101 flexnet.com
The Internet In Action – Message Content Monitoring
IP: 168.34.23.101 Email: Lunch?
Lunch? Server
The Internet In Action – Metadata Monitoring
IP: 168.34.23.101 To: Joe
From Data: Let’s Have Lunch To
Metadata – NOT Encrypted)
Data Content (Payload) – Maybe Encrypted
Metadata: What Does it Reveal? •! Putting subtle pattern out
of your data •! Are you pregnant? •! Are you Sick? •! Where are you going to
school? •! Are you moving out? •! Are you traveling soon?
•! Finding your connections •! Whom are you
communicating with
MIT MEDIA LAB: Immersion Software
Metadata is NOT encrypted! Does it mean we can collect
them?
Who is Running the Internet? Internet Traffic Drop by 40% When Google Goes down for 2 min.!
Server
OR OR
The Big Picture Each Click Generates Revenue!
Server
OR OR
!! Bulk data collection !! Out interests !! Purchasing patterns !! Impacting out
Actions Actions Actions
Smartphones: Becoming More Traceable
Reveal Our Connections
Digital Trail
Reveal Private Information
So!. •! Internet has opened a new dimension of communications •! Facilitated out lives •!Yet, it has become a tool of control!
•! governments and corporations continue to control flow, content, use, and infrastructure
Internet has changed our lives!
Yet, It is increasingly
becoming a tool to monitor & control!
Internet: Enabling Technology of Control !for very good reasons!
Corporate Control of
The Internet
Government Control of
The Internet
1-National Security •! Terrorism •! Preserve sovereignty 2-National Laws •! cyber crime •! child porn., •! Gambling, •! Intel. property rights, •! etc.)
Internet Liberation- A Common Perception
“Once the Internet reaches a country it is an unstoppable liberating force” • Color Revolutions of the former Soviet Union, it was mobile phones • Saffron Revolution in Burma, it was YouTube • Green Movement in Iran, it was Twitter
Internet Liberation – An Illusion?
•!Governments are becoming more powerful & capable to control their domestic Internet! •! Sophisticated filtering technology •! Subtle removal of Web requests •! Tracing emails •! Arresting bloggers
For States: Internet is not the Problem! The trouble is Uncontrolled Internet Use!
Controlling The Internet: Governments Asking to Censor the Internet •! In the second half of 2011 the total number of government
requests to Google jumped by 103 percent •! Google complied with 63 percent of the requests
1,811 (18,070)
2,285 (24,179)
Con
tent
Rem
oval
Req
uest
Time Period Ending
Google Transparency Report
Controlling The Internet: Governments Censoring The Internet – 2011 Examples
• Spain: requested removal of 270 search results that linked to improper blogs and sites
• Canada: ordered removal of a YouTube clip disfiguring a public document (a man urinating on his Canadian passport)
• Thailand: requested blocking local users from viewing more than 100 videos insulting the monarchy
• Turkey: ordered restricting access to videos insulting the founder of modern Turkey (Ataturk)
•! Saudi Arabia: The government filters any topics related to drugs, bombs, alcohol, gambling - authorities receive over 1,200 requests everyday to have web pages blocked
•! Kuwait: A 20 year old blogger gets 10 years in prison for defaming the Saudi & Bahraini government
•! Bahrain: Nabeel Rajab, president of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights was sentenced on July 10 to three months in prison for a tweet
•! Oman: Four young men received 3-6 months in prison for posting on social networks
•! U.K.: A 17 year old was detained after sending a malicious tweet to British Olympic Diver: “You let your dad down, I hope you know it”
•! Israel: "Facebook posts and Twitter feed” matter of state security – “We [the censors] try to operate within the internet only in terms of elements related to us.”
• Kuwait: A 20 year old blogger gets 10 years in prison for defaming the Saudi & Bahraini government
• Bahrain: Nabeel Rajab, president of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights was sentenced on July 10 to three months in prison for a tweet
• Oman: Four young men received 3-6 months in prison for posting on social networks
• U.K.: A 17 year old was detained after sending a malicious tweet to British Olympic Diver: “You let your dad down, I hope you know it”
• Israel: "Facebook posts and Twitter feed” matter of state security – “We [the censors] try to operate within the internet only in terms of elements related to us.”
June 2013: WhatsApp must establish a local server that allows officials to monitor user activity!
Controlling The Internet: Blocking/Filtering
Internet In the U.S. New Revelations
Early June of 2013 Former National Security Agent Contractor, Edward Snowden Revealed Secret Documents!
Massive Internet Surveillance Edward Snowden Documents •! Intelligent agencies including Government Communication
Headquarter & NSA working with high-tech companies were snooping on EVERYONE!
$250 million/year
1.! Conducting massive surveillance programs secretly
•!Bulk data collection on citizens (PRISM, 2007) •!Creating taps on transatlantic fiber optic cables
(TEMPORA) 2.! Spying on friendly foreign allies
•!Hacking into foreign targets’ computers, confiscating data and monitoring communiqué (TAO)
Massive Internet Surveillance Edward Snowden Documents (1)
3.! Defeating encryption programs •!Developing counter encryption program
(EDGEHILL & BULLRUN) 4.! Collecting and monitoring METADATA
•! Collecting social connections of U.S. citizens 5.! Compromising cyber security
•!Hardware backdoor: Encryption chips •!Software malwares: BSAFE software,
Massive Internet Surveillance Edward Snowden Documents (2)
The Big Leak! Server
OR OR
The Big Leak!
So!. •! Internet has opened a new dimension of communications •! Facilitated out lives •!Yet, it has become a tool of control!
•! governments and corporations continue to control flow, content, use, and infrastructure
Jay Leno: "I am glad the government is shut down”!
“For the first time in years
it's safe to talk on the phone and send emails without anybody listening in!"
Defending Internet Freedom or Conducting Internet Spying? • Welcoming the whistle blowers from Iran, Cuba, and China
• NSA has created a massive surveillance system capable of snooping on every individual, company, or foreign government! • “Internet is American!” • “Gmail is the preferred Internet service provider of
terrorists worldwide,” Hayden (Ex-NSA/CIA Chief)
Defending Internet Freedom or Conducting Internet Spying?
2008 2013
Internet Surveillance Hurting the Bottomlines!
2008 2013
Information Technology and
Innovation Foundation (ITIF): US
cloud providers stand to lose
$22-$35 billion over the next
three years!
Internet Surveillance Hurting the Bottomlines!
2008 2013
Potential Consequences “Anyway, I Have Nothing to Hide!”
•! In the modern communications age every thing we do leaves a digital trail!
•!Some valid questions:
•! Can we trust NSA Analysts to have so much power? “Agents illegally spied on love interests”
•! Does NSA really ensures the security of the gathered data? NSA still does not know the full extend of Snowden documents
•! Should there be a limit as to NSA’s blank surveillance? Sen. Feinstein's NSA 'reform' bill would expand snooping powers
$e 62%#
Future of the Internet? You Be the Judge! • In a recent hearing Senator Mark Udall asked :
• “Is it the goal of the NSA to collect the phone records of all Americans?”
• In response, NSA director Keith Alexander replied: • “Yes, I believe it is in the nation's best interest to put all the
phone records into a lockbox that we could search when the nation needs to do it. Yes,”
The new $1.5 billion NSA data center in Bluffdale, Utah, will be able to, by some estimates, store the equivalent of 250 trillion DVDs worth of data
Final Remarks….. • Any technology can only fit within the socio-economic
structure of the society • Technology in a country with oppressive government will turn into tool
of oppressor • Become more more aware and demand public monitoring
• Know what you are disclosing • Use privacy tools and filtering • Protect your network address • Promote Net Neutrality, Public Broadcasting, Internet Freedom
• Ask the right questions! • How is your privacy protected? • Who is monitoring? • What is being monitored?
