Who Owns the Internet?

The Internet.

The Internet is a cooperative, public and self-sustaining facility available to hundreds of millions of people worldwide. It tears down boundaries everywhere. For many Internet users, Internet or sometimes called simply "the Net" is the fastest and easiest way to gather information and communicate with others.

The Internet was first known as the ARPANet, conceived by the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) of the U.S. government in 1969. The initial aim was to create a network that would allow users of a research computer at one university to be able to "talk to" research computers at other universities. The internet is basicly a worlwide system of computer networks. It is a network of networks in which users at any accesssible computer can get information from any other computer.

Who's Regulates The Net?

Almost ANYTHING can be found on the Internet and all of this are available at our fingertips. So the question that most Internet users will ask is, WHO OWNS IT?

No one actually owns the Internet, and no single person or organization controls the Internet in its entirety. There are many governments, corporations, organizations, schools, private citizens and service providers that all own pieces of the infrastructure, but there is no one body that owns it all.

There are, however, organizations that standardize and regulates what happens on the Internet and assign IP addresses and domain names, such as the ICANN, InterNIC, the Internet Architecture Board, National Science Foundation and the Internet Engineering Task Force.

Internet Censorship? Yay or Nay?

Since the existence of the internet, there have been countless attempts to censor it. Most users believe that the Internet should be a place where all information is allowed to flow freely and available to everyone. However, most countries and governments do not share this belief. I, as an Internet user, support this, but not entirely. Why? These are the reasons.

Internet censorship falls into three categories; security, social norms and the most controversial, politics.

Out of all these categories, I do not support censorship for political reasons. This is always considered problematic in countries where rulers are trying to hold on to power in which they do not have free and fair elections. The censorship is usually to make sure that information that could be a threat to the ruling powers does not get seen by the people. This is really a burden to minority groups that are trying to free the people from government oppression.

The next category is to protect social norms. This type of censorship gets support from all over the world including me, like laws against child pornography or hate speech. For some countries, sites that are seen to promote homosexuality are often censored because they differ from the predominant religion.

The third category is for security reasons. Sites that belong to terrorist groups and extremists are blocked. Making sure that sensitive yet dangerous information is not made available to public. Clearly, this type of information can be a threat to national security and the safety of the people as well.

The Internet is an open sea and obviously that most forms of censorship can fall into more than one category. Let's hope that these censorships are not abused by the authorities.

Written by,
Muhammad Muzzammil Bin Jamaludin
1121115343

Privacy at Stake! Facebook Facial Recognition Features -- How far they can go?

Those who haven't heard of facebook, they probably been living under the rock this whole time. Facebook is, as most of the world population recognized it, the world's largest social network, with over 845 million monthly active users. Brought to us by its founder, Mark Zuckerberg in February 2004, initially as an exclusive network for Harvard students. Since then, it was a huge hit.

Facebook nowadays, is most commonly use as a way to connect with not just family and friends but with everyone from all over the world as well. It tears down boundaries everywhere. We can instantly communicate with people who have common interest with us around the world before we even know them, changing information and knowledge, sharing photos and videos, and all of this is available at our fingertips.

However, there are of course, serious privacy issues. One of them that we probably not knowing about, is its Facial Recognition Features. Facebook's facial-recognition software can sense who is in your photos and make tagging suggestions. Germany Investigation believes that Facebook has been illegally collecting face-recognition data about its members in order to populate its photo tag suggest feature. At this point, you are automatically opted into the feature, but you can opt-out.

I will admit that, at the moment, this issue concerns me just a little. It only works on people who you're already added as "friends", not just randomly identifying people in crowds, but will it keep on being like this in the future? I fear that one day, facebook users will quote, “Cool! Now I can take photos of cute girls anywhere, upload them on Facebook and it will tell me who they are!". I'm pretty sure that’s not how it works right now, but I’m sure it will get there.

Even now, some have raised issues about Facebook opening it up beyond just friends, or potentially exposing ID info in photos to others, and which possibly expose info that people originally thought was private.

My advice is, BE CAREFUL what you upload on Facebook, more importantly BE CAREFUL what you put on the INTERNET. Since there is no way to be 100% sure what Facebook or other users capable of doing to our uploaded photos eventhough our privacy settings is set according to our preferences. Most Facebook users probably don’t know that the 'extra' privacy setting is there. In short, the internet is an open sea, there will always be risks. Better safe than sorry.

Am I aware of this? YES. As I stated earlier, this issue does not concerns me that much, because I'm not the kind of Facebook user that upload thousands photos of me and my family members including embarassing photos that can destroy my reputation. What concerns me is that, I can't control OTHER people who can upload it.

Will I still stay on Facebook after knowing this? that's a YES too. Clearly I'm a Facebook user too, it is the best way to connect with my friends as well as making new ones, especially those who live in the distance. Facebook helps me to maintain my interaction with them, keeps me updated about their life-style, their activities, plans, getting to know their friends and families and that is just a taste of it.

Written By: Muhammad Muzzammil Bin Jamaludin - 1121115343

Stop Section 114A

Anyone who considers themselves as an internet user will come under the Section 114A. So, what is this Section 114A?

Section 114A is the newly introduced amendment made to Malaysia's Evidence Act 1950. It is a law that deals with harmful Internet content. It states that, owners, operators, hosts, editors, clients of a network or website, or owners of computers or portable devices, are deemed responsible for publishing or re-publishing contents available on networks, websites or on the devices involved.

Which means that anyone who is publishing seditious, defamatory or libellous content online and made it available to public can and will be swiftly hold by the law enforcement officials. The amendment is now operational since 31st July 2012.

Originally, the purpose of this amendment is to identify the individual responsible for the publication and dissemination of seditious material on the internet. However, due to the difficulties in the process of tracking and identifying the individuals involved, the amendment is now clearly assume the fault lies in the individual whose identity is used for the publication regardless of factors such as identity theft and computer hacking. Adding to that, the fault also lies in the parties providing the comments on blogs, forums and website operators even if the information is posted by others. Since most of the internet users are average users, it is an unacceptable burden to those who are wrongfully accused of publishing inappropriate content.

The internet is the place for sharing information without boundaries. It connects the whole world. Sharing information freely is one of the best way to ensures people are always supplied with accurate information. Therefore, people should use their freedom of expression does not matter in any form, including on the internet. Voice of the people must be heard. Therefore, if Section 114 is implemented, the principles of freedom of speech will be severely affected the people.

For a person who uses internet everyday and as a student, this is a very serious issue. In today’s world, “Information at Your Fingertips” is what makes the internet community alive and strong. Changing information and knowledge instantly is just the tip of the iceberg. Section 114A should be reconsidered and revised properly, it may or may not has the potential to be a good thing if it did not passed in haste and considers the public interest and participation.

Written By: Muhammad Muzzammil Bin Jamaludin