Melanie Atwood, Year 12
We might take for the internet for granted and not take in consideration on how our personal information may be reviled. On the 11th of May 2016, I participated in a conference at the l’Organisation Métélogique Mondiale (OMM). Two speakers of the United Nations: Jovan Kurbalija and Michel Chevalier talked about their views on information systems and the internet.
Jovan Kurbalija, founding director of DiploFoundation, is head of the Geneva Internet Platform. Started talking about data mining and how it is important to study a correlation or and issue, and to not draw conclusions too fast. Data mining is the analysis step of the “knowledge discovery in databases”. He later explained how companies like Facebook or Google are able to earn money though advertisement. With more than $1 billion per quarter in advertising revenue and 1.2 billion monthly active users, few realize that Facebook is more than just a social networking site This process is called E commerce is a cycle. Internet intermediates (data personal) go to Internet user (goods, services and money) and go to vendors (users, customer profile advertising space and money). This shows that Google is adjusted to different profiles. For example trying to search something on Google’s search engine in a child/teenager results most likely to be different than an adult/elderly: “It would be more political” (Kurbalija). He warned that we must be extremely careful that our pictures are not misused. Net mirror of society looks innocent and it may lead to a turning point and therefore it is important to be prudent. We must also remember that even if you delete a post, there will always be traces.
Furthermore, something to be careful with is the deep webb also called the dark net. The majority of users can only access 1% of all the information the World Wide Web has to offer. The “dark web” is the encrypted network that exists between Tor servers and their clients, whereas the “deep web” is simply the content of databases and other web services that for one reason or conventional search engines cannot index another. This lack of accountability means that the deep web is now a hotbed for criminal activity. It has become a breeding ground for illicit drug use, violence, pedophilic behavior and now even poses a threat to our national security.
Moreover, Kurbalija take part of a non-profitable organization DiploFoundation that works to:
- Increase the power of small and developing states to influence their own futures and development
- Increase international accountability and inclusivity
- Increase the legitimacy of international policy-making
- Improve global governance and international policy development
Another speaker, Michel Chevalier, was a journalist for thirteen years and is worried about the capacity of cyberspace to protecting the population. He is concerned that everyone uses technology; even on November 13, 2015 terrorist attack in Paris, they were using text messages to communicate. The main goals for ICT for peace foundation are rights and security in cyberspace. An open, free and sustainable internet cannot be taken for granted and the new and positive role, that the internet and the web have been playing in recent years in developing and applying new tools to safe lives and protect human dignity might be put into question, if a resilient internet is not assured. All stakeholders, and in particular academia need to identify and analyze these new challenges and threats more thoroughly and describe possible solutions at national and global levels. It was observed, that the solutions to some of these new challenges will be generated as much by states (e.g. developing norms of state behavior and confidence building measures (CBM’s) as by non-state actors, by building for instance new cyber security standards with the help of the new intermediaries (e.g. ISPs), business companies and consumer organizations.
