The government has been having a greater online presence lately. There are now many government services online such as online tax filing and WhiteHouse.gov. This increase in online government services has led to many questions about the privacy of citizens. Since so much information can be stored, how will this information be used and processed? Also, there will be less in person contact between government agencies and the citizens that they serve. How will the government use information stored from social media websites? What role will the government play in providing content and service in the development of e-commerce?
The issue that worries me the most is increased government regulation and censorship of the internet. With so many issues concerning piracy of copyrighted goods over the internet I wonder if the government will step up regulation of it. There was recently a bill proposed in the Senate called the "Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act" that would allow the government to block sites they believe are guilty of copyright infringement. For more on this bill visit here. I believe this is just the beginning of the government possibly trying to regulate and censor the internet. Youtube has been having problems as well with what is considered copyright infringement of music, films, and other entertainment posted on their website and shared for free. This or other bills could easily then regulate a site like Youtube where most people go to get and share free content much of which is copyrighted. My hope is that the internet stay as free as possible but overtime I believe it will be more of a "compliment to real life" and so it would only be a matter of time before the government starts to meddle more in it.
You make some valid points, however for many of these issues there is more than meets the eye. While utilizing online personal data may be a new trend for governments, it is nothing new for them to store this data in massive databases; for hundreds of years, governments have kept tabs on what citizens are up to. The newest trend is the fact that it's simply much easier for them to access new information, online.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your concerns on censoring online content; in many cases, videos on YouTube that can be considered to break copyright laws are often so popular that copyright holders can seek to monetize those videos. YouTube actually has a system whereby they can "scan" videos posted on the site for copyrighted content, and then inform the copyright holders who can either:
a)Do nothing, and leave the video as-is.
b)Have the video taken down.
c)Monetize the video, and work with the video creator to earn profits from the popularity of the video.