Colonization of the Internet

Abstract

The internet was introduced to connect computers and allow communication between these computers. It evolved to provide applications such as email, talk and file sharing with the associated system to search. The files were made available, freely, by users. However, the internet was out of the reach of most people since it required equipment and know-how as well as connection to a computer on the internet. One method of connection used an acoustic coupler and an analog phone. With the introduction of the personal computer and higher speed modems, accessing the internet became easier. The introduction of user-friendly graphical interfaces, as well as the convenience and portablility of laptops and smartphones made the internet much more widely accessible for a broad swath of users. A small number of newly established companies, supported by a large amount of venture capital and a lack of regulation have since established a stranglehold on the internet with billions of people using these applications. Their monopolistic practices and exploitation of the open nature of the internet has created a need in the ordinary person to replace the traditional way of communication with what they provide: in exchange for giving up personal information these persons have become dependent on the service provided. Due to the regulatory desert around privacy and ownership of personal electornic data, a handful of massive corporations have expropriated and exploited aggregated and disaggregated personal information. This amounts, we argue, to the colonization of the internet.