Internet is a system of computer networks that links together billions of computers, mobile phones, and other electronic devices around the world. People using such devices have rapid access to vast stores of information. They can also quickly communicate with one another. More than half of the world’s population has access to the internet. In developed countries, many people use the internet every day. In less developed countries, most cities have internet cafes or kiosks. At such places, people can pay to use a computer with internet access.
The amount of information stored on the internet dwarfs that in the world’s largest libraries. This information can take the form of text, sounds, images, videos, or interactive computer programs. Interactive programs enable the user to take part in and help guide the action.
Much of the internet’s information is organized into the World Wide Web. The web is the part of the internet that contains—and links together—millions of websites. But the internet does not just store information. It also enables people to work, shop, play games, form online communities, and share their artwork and ideas. A tremendous amount and variety of activity takes place online (on the internet).
The internet works through a combination of hardware and software. The internet’s hardware includes all of the computers, wires, and other physical structures and devices that make up the network. The software includes sets of rules called protocols. Protocols determine how the hardware sends, receives, and displays information. The web and its contents are another layer of software.
The internet originated in the United States in the 1960’s. At first, only the armed forces and computer experts used it. The World Wide Web developed during the 1990’s, making the internet much easier to use. By the 2000’s, ordinary people could easily find information, communicate, and publish content on the internet.
Widespread use of the internet has reshaped society. Since the web developed, new industries have sprung up to take advantage of the internet’s capabilities. Other industries have struggled to adapt. Ideas have spread quickly through the internet. The internet enables marketers, politicians, and ordinary people to send messages far and wide. People have used the internet to organize political movements and even revolutions.
Uses
For hundreds of millions of people around the world, internet use is part of daily life. Computers, mobile phones, video game consoles, televisions, and even some automobiles can connect to the internet. Each of these devices thus serves as a gateway to a huge store of information. The internet makes possible many forms of communication. Any internet-connected device can link individuals, businesses, and other organizations across the globe.
Information and media.
Computers have an enormous capacity to store information. In a computer, information exists in digital format. This means that the information is encoded in patterns of numbers. Virtually any kind of media can be stored as a digital computer file. Media include text, sounds, images, and videos. Software programs, such as electronic games and word processors, are also stored in digital files.
It is difficult to state how much information exists on the internet. New information is constantly uploaded or added to the internet. In 2019, for example, people uploaded an average of about 500 hours of video to the video-sharing website YouTube every minute.
Some of the internet’s information primarily serves local communities. For example, people might use the internet to look up their local school’s cafeteria menu. But much of the internet’s information links people and cultures separated by vast distances. For example, internet users can easily listen to music from performers living across the world.
File sharing.
Before the internet, people had extremely limited access to files not stored on their own computers. By linking the world’s computers, the internet created a global storage space for digital files.
Much of the internet’s information is available on the web. Nearly any internet user can access most websites. Some sites require people to log in or to pay for access to certain content. Internet users can also share digital files on their computers directly with one another. Such sharing is called peer-to-peer (P2P) networking.
Search engines.
Without some system for organizing and finding information, the vast amount of data on the web would be largely useless. It would be much like a library full of unshelved books. Some web pages, called portals, attempt to collect and organize information available on the internet. They provide lists of links to other related web pages, such as news articles or entertainment sites.
However, web users chiefly find information using a search engine, such as Google or Bing. Most search engines feature a box in which the user types keywords. The search engine then displays a list of web pages related to those keywords.
Search engines determine and rank the web pages they return in a number of ways. For example, a search engine may return a list of web pages with the keyword in their text or title. Search engines often count the links that lead to a certain web page. If many other places link to that page, the search engine may assume that the page is more desirable to the searcher. It may thus rank the site higher in the list. Many search engines can also help users narrow their search to images, news articles, shopping sites, or other types of content. They can also suggest similar keywords that the user might not have considered. 
Communication
is a major use of the internet. Some forms of internet communication work much like older forms. For example, emails can take the place of written letters delivered by the post office. Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) enables people to make calls through their internet connection instead of over a telephone. People can also videochat using computers or phones equipped with special cameras. Videochatters can see each other while having a conversation.
Entirely new forms of communication have also emerged through the internet. Listservs are electronic mailing lists. They make it easy to send emails to long lists of people. A listserv enables an organization to quickly send announcements to a large group. The people on the listserv can also form a discussion group to talk about various topics with one another. With instant messaging, or IM, people can quickly exchange typed messages in a back-and-forth conversation. Blogs are journallike websites that take advantage of the ease of publishing on the internet. Blog is short for web log. Blog authors can easily post (publish) written entries, photographs, or other media. Readers can also post comments on blog entries.
Online communities.
People with similar interests often participate in online communities. Some online communities are organized around sports, celebrity gossip, health information, or other topics. In many online communities, people can create discussions on a virtual message board and post replies. Other communities are virtual spaces in which people play games together. In multi-user domains (MUD’s), people can organize and play text-based role-playing games. A role-playing game involves taking on the role of an imaginary character, often in a fantasy setting. are more elaborate online fantasy worlds. They include complex graphics (visual elements) and sound.
Social networking websites
are a special type of online community. People on social media can connect with other people on the network by friending or following them—that is, by asking them to become friends or followers. Friends can see each other’s profiles. A profile could include personal information, blogs and comments, photos, videos, and music. Users can thus share personal information and photos with all their friends or followers at once. They can also post short messages called status updates. Facebook, Tumblr, and X (formerly called Twitter) are popular social networks. They have millions of active users. Another social network, LinkedIn, serves mostly for business dealings or job searches.
Commerce.
Almost all businesses have websites. Many such commercial sites function as online stores. Some large companies—notably Amazon.com, Inc.—exist primarily as online retailers. Other sites connect sellers with potential buyers. For example, eBay is a popular auction website. Craigslist is a nonprofit site that enables people to post classified advertisements for free.
Internet users can typically purchase items online with a credit card. Some services, such as PayPal, enable people to make payments from online accounts. Traditional banks also run websites on which people can pay bills and manage their accounts. Many businesses, such as utility services and credit card companies, offer an option called online bill pay. With online bill pay, customers can arrange to pay their bills electronically.
Advertising
is a common feature on many websites. Banner ads run above or beside a web page’s main content. They often include video or interactive elements. Pop-up ads generate a new window to attract attention. Many advertisers buy small, text-based ads that run alongside search results for certain key words. These ads are called contextual ads. For example, someone who searches for baseball statistics might see a contextual ad for a sporting goods store. Advertising games or advergames take advantage of the internet’s interactivity. They encourage internet users to play product-related games or to spread messages about products.
By 2008, advertising companies spent more money on internet advertising than on such traditional media as newspapers, radio, and television. Many internet ads, like traditional ads, simply encourage people to buy something. But internet advertisers have more power to target potential buyers. Some companies use cookies—files stored on internet users’ computers—to track people’s purchases and online behavior. By collecting such data, advertisers can more effectively target customers.
Cloud computing
enables people to store data and use software programs on the internet, rather than on their own computers. For example, people might use a word processor on a website instead of a word processing program installed on their own computer. People can also store music, photo collections, and other large files on an internet account. They can then access such files and programs from any computer. The term cloud computing refers to the diffuse manner in which computing tasks and resources on the internet are spread among various computers. Multiple people can easily collaborate on a single document stored on “the cloud.”
How the internet works
The internet is a global network of computers and other devices. At a basic level, the internet consists of hardware. Hardware includes every computer, phone, and other device on the internet. It also includes the cables, wires, and wireless broadcasting equipment that enable electronic signals to travel from device to device.
The internet’s hardware would be useless without a set of rules that control how electronic signals are sent and received. These rules are the internet’s software protocols. Every device on the network has an Internet Protocol (IP) address. The IP address is a number somewhat like a home address. The software protocols enable IP addresses to efficiently send data to one another.
The internet’s hardware, together with its software protocols, determines how information moves through the network. But there is yet another layer of organization to the internet, the World Wide Web. The web has its own set of protocols. Before the web existed, people found it difficult to access and view information on the internet. The web provides a meaningfully connected structure for the internet’s information.
Hardware.
The internet’s hardware includes all the physical structures that send and process electronic data. The data travel in the form of electronic signals. Such signals can move over copper telephone lines. Fiber optic cables, which consist of tiny glass fibers, can carry large amounts of data. Radio waves can also transmit the signals through the air and from satellites orbiting Earth.
People typically purchase access to the internet’s wires and transmitting equipment through an internet service provider (ISP). Many ISP’s are telecommunication companies. Universities and national governments also provide internet access.
The internet was originally built to use the lines and connections of the telephone network. Dial-up connections use this type of technology. Broadband connections transfer data much faster than do dial-up connections. Broadband became increasingly popular during the 1990’s. One type of broadband, called a digital subscriber line (DSL), increases the amount of data copper telephone wires can carry. Cable companies also sell broadband connections through high-capacity wires or fiber-optic lines.
Mobile phones and some portable computers access the internet through radio waves. Such wireless connections use a number of technologies, including 3G (third generation), 4G (fourth generation), 5G (fifth generation), and LTE (Long Term Evolution) networks. The later technologies (4G, LTE, and 5G) can surpass the speeds of broadband.
The internet’s “net” connects all the IP addresses together. Any personal computer, mobile phone, or other device with an IP address can typically send data to any other device on the internet. But certain computers, called servers, are specialized for sending data to a large number of other devices. The data that make up websites are usually stored on servers. Data centers are compounds that house large numbers of server computers. Large internet and technology companies own and operate most data centers. Such companies may offer space on their servers to host (store and distribute) other people’s data or websites.
Software.
The internet’s hardware operates according to a software protocol—that is, a set of rules called Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP, or IP for short). The rules determine how data move from one IP address to another.
TCP/IP employs a concept called packet switching. This concept makes the internet work much differently from the telephone network. When two people talk on the telephone, the two phones must maintain a constant, direct connection. But when a computer sends a file to another computer over the internet, the file does not have to travel directly, or in one piece. Instead, the file’s digital code is split up into smaller chunks, called packets. Each packet contains a numerical code for its source IP address, its destination IP address, and information about how it fits together with other packets.
Packets do not have to travel through the network on the same path—or in their original order. If parts of the network become overloaded, damaged, or blocked, the packets switch to another route. When the packets all arrive at their destination, they are reassembled into the complete file.
TCP/IP makes the internet a stable, efficient means of transmitting information. It ensures that information can always flow over the network, even if parts of the network are not working properly. Splitting and reassembling files takes a fraction of a second. However, users sometimes notice the delay as a lag in instant messaging conversations and other applications.
Other software protocols operate on top of TCP/IP. For example, email works through either of two protocols—Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) or Post Office Protocol (POP). These protocols control how emails are sent, accessed, and displayed on people’s computers. File Transfer Protocol (FTP) governs how files are downloaded from, or uploaded to, servers.
The World Wide Web
is perhaps the most recognizable portion of the internet. The web is not the same as the internet. If the web did not exist, people could still use the internet to email each other and exchange files. However, the web makes a huge amount of information easily accessible to internet users. Websites can also make use of other software protocols. For example, many people use the web to email each other and to transfer files.
People use programs called web browsers to access and interact with web pages. Popular web browsers include Chrome, Firefox, and Safari. Many computers, smartphones, and other devices come with browsers already installed. Smartphones are devices that combine the features of a cellular phone and a handheld computer. Other programs—for example, certain applications or “apps” on smartphones—can also access and display web content in a more limited fashion.
HTTP.
The web works through a set of rules called HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP). HyperText refers to the linking of words or images among web pages. The visual image of a “web” is based on this system of links between web pages. But unlike the internet’s “net” of physical hardware devices, the web exists entirely as electronic code.
Web pages are simply digital files. They are typically stored on server computers. Each web page has a unique address, called a URL (Uniform Resource Locator). For example, the URL for The Encyclopedia Hub‘s home page is https://www.encyclopediahub.com/. The URL tells the web browser how to locate the web page on the internet.
Websites are collections of individual web pages. A site is organized under a certain domain name—for example, the term “worldbookonline” in the above URL. A domain name is somewhat like a street name. Each house on the street corresponds to a URL address. World Book‘s website has a home page along with thousands of other web pages for individual encyclopedia articles and other features.
The “.com” in a typical URL is called a top-level domain. The letters in this case stand for commercial. Other top level domains include “.gov” for the United States government; “.ca” for Canadian websites; “.au” for Australian sites; and “.edu” for universities.
HTML.
Web page files are written in a special technical language called HTML. The letters stand for HyperText Markup Language. HTML tells a web browser how to display a web page on the screen.
Before the web, information on the internet was largely limited to simple text displays. People could transfer images and other files, but they had to use special programs to view the files. HTML, on the other hand, provides web pages with rich, interactive designs. HTML files can contain text, image, and video files, and display them on a user’s web browser. HTML can also make use of certain programming languages, such as JavaScript. A programming language is an artificial language used to write instructions for computers. By using such languages, web pages can act like word processors, spreadsheets, electronic games, and other software programs.
ICANN,
the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, helps administer many of the internet’s software protocols. It serves as a registry for IP addresses and website domain names. Thus, the organization sees to it that no two devices share the same IP address. ICANN also ensures that no two organizations or individuals control the same website domain. ICANN is an international nonprofit organization formed in 1998.
The internet and society
Like earlier revolutionary technologies, such as the printing press and the steam engine, the internet has transformed human society. Nearly all businesses, governments, universities, and other organizations maintain websites. Hundreds of millions of people also have their own social networking pages or websites. Mobile phones with video cameras and internet access enable ordinary people to publish information about events as they unfold. Such events would once have required professional journalists and camera crews to document.
Every day, the internet transfers more data than all of the voiced phone calls and post office mail combined. In the United States, online books and news sources have become more popular than traditional printed versions.
The internet has spread throughout the world. English was the primary language of the early internet. But websites now exist in almost every language.
The internet economy.
Many businesses established themselves online during the 1990’s. At that time, the internet first became widely available to the public. Many such companies failed. But others survived to become major economic powers. The successful companies capitalized on the internet’s ability to easily—and cheaply—connect buyers and sellers around the world.
Connected customers.
Online stores, marketplaces, and auction sites reach beyond the geographic limitations of traditional stores. Before the internet, people typically purchased largely from local stores. Such stores, in turn, stocked mostly items that were broadly popular. Many obscure or specialty items—known as niche products—could not attract enough buyers in a particular region to be sold at a profit. The internet, however, easily connects niche product sellers to a vast pool of potential buyers. This fact enabled such online retailers as Amazon.com to make great profits by selling a wide range of niche products.
Internet users can also review and comment on products and services. This process makes it easier for other customers to find and evaluate new items. Websites that sell digital media, such as music, can offer free samples of content. Such samples make it easier for customers to discover niche works.
Changing industries.
Some traditional stores and media companies have declined during the internet era. In some cases, online start-ups have drawn away their business. For example, the online movie-streaming service Netflix outcompeted traditional video rental stores. Craigslist displaced many classified advertisement sections. Such sections had served as a mainstay of revenue for traditional local newspapers.
The internet’s very nature has also challenged traditional companies. The internet enables people to easily—and freely—share media. People can easily electronically copy and exchange newspaper articles, books, songs, movies, and electronic games. Such items were once much more difficult to copy. They often required multiple users to buy individual copies. Many individuals now illegally copy and distribute such copyrighted media to thousands of other people through P2P networking. However, companies must charge money for these products to stay in business.
The free sharing of copyrighted digital media is often called software piracy. Companies take various steps to protect their copyrighted media from piracy. One approach is called digital rights management. It involves encoding additional software into a copyrighted file. The extra programming limits how the file can be distributed. Governments also prohibit piracy. They have shut down websites that make copyrighted material freely available.
The internet culture.
The internet serves as a great cultural library. By shaping the way millions of people around the world interact, it has also helped generate and spread new cultures.
Communication without limits.
The internet has erased traditional communication barriers between people who are far apart. Traditional letters, for example, often take days to reach their destination. Emails and IM’s, on the other hand, appear almost instantly. VoIP calls are often much cheaper than long-distance or international telephone calls. In a videochat, people on opposite sides of the world can see and speak to one another as if only a window separated them. Online communities can easily connect people beyond national borders.
Some forms of internet communication are real time or synchronous. Synchronous communication takes place in a live, often back-and-forth exchange. It is much like a face-to-face conversation. However, the internet also enables asynchronous communication. In asynchronous communication, participants receive and respond to messages at their leisure. For example, people often leave posts on social networks and other online communities. They then wait for others to read and respond. The result is a “conversation” spread over a longer time.
Businesses and news media can publish information about events live on the internet as they unfold. But unlike television audiences, internet users can easily go back and view the published information later.
Many of these types of communication are possible using traditional means. But the internet makes them widely available and easy to use and combine, contributing to a culture of communication.
Spreading ideas.
The word meme is often used to describe ideas that spread quickly on the internet. The term meme comes from the British biologist Richard Dawkins. He coined it before widespread use of the internet to describe the way ideas spread among cultures. Internet memes include jokes and videos. They also include more serious ideas, such as political attacks. Memes typically spread through emails, social networks, blogs, and other websites. The way memes spread somewhat resembles the spread of viruses among human hosts. If enough people pass on a meme to others, the message is said to “go viral.”
In marketing, memes are related to the idea of word of mouth, sometimes called “buzz.” Some marketers create viral marketing campaigns to promote products by spreading memes. In some cases, people may not even realize they are taking part in viral marketing.
Identity and privacy.
The internet has fundamentally changed how many people express themselves and relate to one another. Social networks and online communities can extend the reach of real-world groups. But people can also form communities and close friendships with people they have never met in person.
The internet also enables people to communicate using avatars (online images or characters), without revealing their true identity. Many people on the internet choose to remain anonymous or use a false name.
On the other hand, some people post significant amounts of personal information about themselves online. Search engines, social networks, and other technologies make it easy to find such information. Even when people use false names, ISP’s can typically trace their online activity to a home address.
Search engines, online stores, and other websites also collect information about their users. Spyware is special software that gathers information about people’s internet habits. Some spyware is illegally secreted onto people’s computers. Other kinds of spyware are legally installed without the user’s knowledge.
Internet crime.
Ideas and information are not the only things that spread quickly over the internet. Malware—harmful software programs—can quickly infect thousands of connected computers. Such harmful programs include computer programs called viruses and worms. Some malware programs can access a person’s email and social networking accounts. They can thus send copies of themselves to the victim’s friends and contacts.
Under certain circumstances, criminals can remotely control computers infected by malware. Wrongdoers sometimes hijack entire networks of infected computers, called botnets, for criminal purposes. Botnets can send out countless unsolicited spam emails advertising questionable products or linking to malware.
Filters and antivirus software can protect against malware to some extent. Modern web browsers have built-in security settings as well. People can also protect their computers by not opening or downloading suspicious-looking files.
Phishing is a criminal technique used to gain personal information about internet users. Phishers “fish” for such information as passwords, social security numbers, and bank account numbers. Often, they pose as a bank or other legitimate institution requesting such information from customers. Criminals can use this information to assume the victim’s identity for illegal purposes. This crime is called identity theft.
People can protect their online privacy to some extent by managing privacy settings in their web browsers. Social networks also typically enable people to control how much information is made publicly available.
The internet and politics.
National governments and political campaigns often have sophisticated websites and presences on social networking sites. People have also used such social networks as Facebook and X (formerly called Twitter) as staging grounds for political revolutions. In 2011, for example, young people in Egypt and Tunisia used social networks to organize mass demonstrations against their countries’ governments. Both governments eventually fell.
Censorship.
Some governments, fearing such disruption, force ISP’s to block access to social networks and other internet services. In China, for example, the government blocks access to websites that it considers dangerous or inappropriate.
In the United States, information on the internet is not typically censored. But nearly every government regulates the internet to some degree. For example, many countries prohibit access to child pornography or terrorism sites.
Net neutrality
is the idea that all pieces of data that move through the internet should be treated equally. Most people access the internet through a telecommunications company. Such companies may charge a flat rate for internet access. But they can potentially increase their profits by controlling the amount of data they allow people to download.
Supporters of net neutrality worry that telecommunications companies will also seek to control the type of data people can access. For example, an ISP might limit access to data from a rival company. Or, it might limit data from a source critical of the ISP. Supporters argue that net neutrality is needed to safeguard the internet’s unique position as an open communications medium. Opponents of net neutrality charge that upholding the idea would require intrusive government regulation and hamper technological innovation.
History
The internet’s history began during the Cold War, a period of intense rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union following World War II (1939-1945). The internet was originally designed for military and academic use. It rapidly expanded as personal computers became widespread. The internet’s capabilities evolved alongside those of the personal computer and, in the early 2000’s, those of the mobile phone.
The early internet.
The internet’s development began in the United States during the 1960’s. The U.S. Department of Defense worried that a Soviet attack or a nuclear war could cripple the country’s communication network. The department’s Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) began working with computer science departments in research universities. They sought to create a system that could transmit information from one place to another through multiple paths, if necessary. The internet’s packet switching protocol resulted from this research. Throughout the 1970’s, the system—called ARPANet—tested a number of improvements in computer interaction.
By 1981, over 200 computers were linked to ARPANet. Then the U.S. military split the network into two parts. One part was dedicated for military use. The National Science Foundation (NSF), an independent agency of the U.S. government, absorbed the other part. The NSF incorporated its part of ARPANet into a network called the National Science Foundation Network (NSFNET). The NSF’s system eventually became known as the internet.
The web forms.
In 1991, the British computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee developed the two fundamental technological components of the web—HTML and HTTP. At the time, Berners-Lee was working at the European Organization for Nuclear Research in Switzerland (CERN). By 1993, web browsers became widely available on personal computers. Before this time, the internet was so difficult to use that most of its users were computer experts. The development of the World Wide Web and web browsers enabled the average person to easily use the internet.
Throughout the 1980’s and 1990’s, personal computers became cheaper and more powerful. Businesses, schools, and other institutions increasingly relied on the machines. In addition, many people purchased computers for their homes. Businesses recognized that they could reach many customers through internet-connected home computers. Three especially successful websites launched in 1995: Amazon, Craigslist, and eBay. These sites helped establish online consumption as an alternative to purchasing products in physical stores.
Other websites sought to organize the sprawling information on the web. Yahoo!, a popular online portal, launched in 1994. Google launched its search engine in 1998. Google featured a clean design, high-quality search results, and money-making ads displayed alongside the list of results. Both Yahoo! and Google later offered other services, such as email and instant messaging accounts and online maps.
The number of businesses active on the internet skyrocketed during the late 1990’s. Many internet businesses drew much attention and economic investment. But few actually made profits. This rapid expansion of internet businesses, unsupported by profits, came to be known as the “dot-com bubble.” By 2000, the bubble had burst, and many businesses failed.
The evolving internet.
During the first decade of the 2000’s, broadband connections became more widespread in a number of countries. Internet connectivity gradually shifted from a luxury to a near necessity, like electric power. New video game consoles enabled users to play together over the internet. Laptop computers gained popularity, rivaling larger desktop computers in power and usability. Many coffee shops, libraries, and other public places began offering Wi-Fi (short-range wireless internet) connections for laptop computers. Computerlike phones, called smartphones, also became popular. Mobile phone companies developed wireless technologies to bring mobile phones online at faster and faster rates.
The internet’s hardware evolution coincided with a virtual reinvention of the web. During the 1990’s, websites functioned largely as storage places for information. It was easy for people to access such sites. But it was technically difficult to create them. During the early 2000’s, more sites enabled ordinary people to easily create and post content. This model of increased interactivity became known as Web 2.0.
Blogs were a prominent feature of Web 2.0. Two popular blogging services, Blogger and LiveJournal, launched in 1999. Wikis also helped ordinary people contribute to the web. Wikis are websites that enable multiple people to quickly and easily edit their content. Wikipedia, a wiki-based encyclopedia, started in 2001. It quickly became one of the internet’s most popular sites.
New social networking websites made it especially easy to create and share content. They included Friendster (launched in 2003), MySpace (launched in 2003 and now spelled Myspace), and Facebook (launched in 2004). At first, Facebook was only available to students at Harvard University. But Facebook soon opened itself to people around the world and became the most popular social network. Twitter (now called X), which streamlined the social networking experience by limiting the length of a post, launched in 2006. Instagram, a photo and video sharing service, was introduced in 2010.
With faster connections, the diversity of the web’s content blossomed. But so did the file sizes. People posted increasingly large photo collections on special photo-sharing sites and social networks. Streaming technology enabled people to listen to music or watch videos on their web browsers as the files downloaded, rather than waiting to receive the whole files. The video-sharing website YouTube launched in 2005. YouTube expanded to become a central location distributing videos on the web. Television and film companies also began offering streaming videos of their content on sites. In addition, Google and a number of other companies began offering cloud computing applications. These applications included online word processors, spreadsheets, and digital storage spaces.
Ongoing controversies.
By about 2020, the internet had connected more than half of the world’s population. As the technology’s reach extended to nearly every aspect of modern life, many people welcomed the flood of freely available information. But controversies emerged over the internet’s erosion of privacy.
For example, such companies as Google and Facebook, Inc. (now called Meta Platforms, Inc.), often employed opt-out privacy policies. Such policies meant that unless people specified that their information be kept private, the companies made it public. Google also published photographs of people’s houses and streets on its Google Maps service. Such policies prompted government oversight and fines in some countries.
In 2013, a series of leaks revealed the vast internet surveillance powers of the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) and its counterpart in Great Britain, the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ). Tasked with monitoring potential terrorist communications, the agencies cast a wide net, collecting huge troves of emails, social networking posts, and other online communications from internet users around the world. In some cases, the agencies acquired data from such internet-based companies as Google, Yahoo, and Meta Platforms, Inc., which store users’ communications and personal information. In other cases, the agencies tapped the internet’s backbone of fiber-optic cables and sifted through the flow of data directly. Supporters of the NSA and GCHQ argued that widespread internet surveillance programs are essential to disrupt terrorist plans. Critics characterized the programs as unaccountable and abusive dragnets.
In 2015, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted to regulate high-speed internet as a telecommunications service. This decision upheld net neutrality in the United States. However, in late 2017, the FCC voted to repeal net neutrality regulations, allowing internet service providers control over customers’ ability to access certain content. The decision also ended federal regulation of high-speed internet as a utility.
