Introduction of the Internet
“I don’t think we’ve even seen the tip of the iceberg. I think the potential of what the internet is going to do to society, both good and bad, is unimaginable. I think we’re actually on the cusp of something exhilarating and terrifying. It’s an alien life form. I’m talking about the actual context and the state of content is going to be so different to anything that we can really envisage at the moment, where the interplay between the user and the provider will be so in sympatico it’s going to crush our ideas of what mediums are all about. The idea that the piece of work is not finished until the audience come to it and add their own interpretation and what the piece of art is about is the grey space in the middle. That grey space in the middle is what the 21st century is going to be about.”
David Bowie, Newsnight, 1999.
From the early, screeching dial-up modems to today’s ultra-fast broadband connections, the introduction of the internet brought a world of information to our fingertips. It has revolutionised how we live our lives and the way we share and access our personal information.
Early web browsers had few or no privacy controls, reflecting the open and experimental nature of the early internet. As the digital landscape developed, so too did concerns about the security of any personal information shared online. Today, many conversations about internet privacy involve online tracking technologies, such as cookies, and how our digital footprint travels across the web.