Month: March 2018

Net Neutrality is the idea that internet providers will not block, slow down, or charge for certain websites or services.   Some people argue that net neutrality hinders the rights of ISP’s (Internet Service Providers).  It prevents them from charging sites that use more bandwidth, a.k.a the companies that are more popular and have more people visiting their sites everyday like Netflix and Facebook.  The other side of this argument is that, without net neutrality, we as Internet users are at the will of the ISP’s; they have control over what websites we can access.

Before examining the topic, I was all for net neutrality and really did not understand the other side of this issue.  In my research, I believe I have gained sympathy for this other side.  One of the articles I read was “Net Neutrality Is Anything But ‘Neutral'”.  While I found a lot of issues in this article, such as claiming that all bills ultimately do the opposite of what they claim to do, the analogy about toll roads made sense to me.  The analogy compared ISP charging more for websites that use more bandwidth to tollroads charging more for semi trucks because they cause more wear and tear on the road.  The laws enforcing net neutrality prevent ISPs from being able to charge more from these websites that use up more of their bandwidth.  They argue that these laws are unfair to these companies.

While I do understand the pleas of the ISP’s, there are some issues with their argument.  Along with being able to charge more for more bandwidth, this could lead to charging more for, or even preventing some websites for any number of reasons.  Those in favor of net neutrality worry that this gives the ISP’s too much control over which sites succeed and which ones fail.  The only argument against this is that these worries are “absurd”.  Given the current political climate, I really don’t think anyone is in a position to say that their concerns are absurd, since so many absurd things have actually happened.

The pro net neutrality side of this issue worries that without these laws enforcing net neutrality, we are at the mercy of the ISP’s.  We must trust that they will not prevent sites at their will.  Or allow sites to pay them more in order to get more bandwidth.  We as users have a certain expectation that we can access whatever sites we want to, regardless of which provider we are using.  And as entrepreneurs, we should expect that everyone should be able to access our sites at their will.  And we are now supposed to trust the ISP’s to ethically charge more only for more bandwidth.  When in reality, this opens many more possibilities.

I understand now the issues with all the regulations with net neutrality.  But I do not think that not regulating it at all is the solution.  If there was a way to allow the ISP’s to charge more only based on bandwidth, this might make more people happy.  But I do not know how to ensure that these increases in charges are solely for those reasons.

I do strongly believe that the Internet is a public service and fair access should be a basic right.  And I believe that most people, at their core, agree with that.  I do not trust a free market to not infringe upon this right.  I believe there do need to be some regulations that prevent this, but maybe not as many as there are currently.

“If you are not paying for it, you’re not the customer; you’re the product being sold”.  This is a very true statement in today’s world, and I think it is a reality that some of us choose to accept.  Others are feel uncomfortable with the idea, but feel that it is inevitable.

I do not think that it is unethical for companies to gather out information and sell it as a product.  It makes it possible for the companies that make our favorite free apps to make money and keep working on those apps.  I personally enjoy not paying for apps, so I have no problem with companies collecting my information in order to maintain this.  I realize that there are downsides to this as well as some upsides.  For example, I frequently get ads on my Instagram feed.  And a lot of times, they are things that I might not have otherwise found.  When I was searching for a birthday gift for my boyfriend, I got an ad for something called “Pup Socks”, which was where you could submit a picture of your dog and it would print the picture on a pair of socks.  I ended up getting my boyfriend two pairs (one with each of his dogs on it) and he freaked out and absolutely loved them.  I would have never thought to have get him this if I had never seen this ad.

The other side of this is that sometimes these ads can cause some issues.  Take the situation with Target and the pregnancy scandal.  They had figured out how to predict if a woman was in her second trimester, as well as certain products that women tended to purchase around this time in her pregnancy.  So, they decided to send ads in the mail to these women for these pregnancy-related products.  But, when a secretly pregnant high schooler’s father found these ads, a family secret was revealed too soon.  On the one side, I felt horrible for that family.  But in reality, the mathematician inside of me was amazed at how accurate they were able to be.  Most people might find some of these targeted ads creepy, but it makes me excited at the power of predictive analytics.  I would love for someone to suggest things for me to buy, even if its before I even knew I needed it myself!

I definitely find online advertising tolerable.  I even welcome and encourage it.  But, if you really want privacy, I do not think that it is impossible to achieve.  Ad blocking tools are available for download.  And, you could easily check your privacy settings on all of your social media accounts to see what information is being collected.  Anyone that cares that much about keeping their information private can take these extra measures, and I encourage them to.  I, on the other hand, will enjoy getting new gift ideas, finding new deals and sales, and maybe even new products that I had never even considered before.