Vogel Internet, Information Technology and e-Discovery Blog : Texas Internet, Information Technology, eCommerce & E-Discovery Lawyer & Attorney Peter S. Vogel : Gardere Wynne Sewell Law Firm : Dallas TX

In a recent interview Mark Zukerberg “told a live audience …that if he were to create Facebook again today, user information would by default be public, not private as it was for years until the company changed dramatically in December.” Without question Facebook and social networking have changed Internet users’ perceptions of what should be private and not.

Google CEO Schmidt Comments about Privacy
 

The Electronic Frontier Foundation recently reported:
 

When asked during an interview for CNBC's recent "Inside the Mind of Google" special about whether users should be sharing information with Google as if it were a "trusted friend," Schmidt responded, "If you have something that you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place."
 

Schmidt went to say that under the US Patriot Act the US government may obtain information from Google which they routinely retain. Many Google users are unaware that Google retains each and every search for 18 months. So I guess his advice should make people stop and think.

Privacy – What Do Law Students Think?

When I first started teaching the Law of e Commerce at SMU Dedman School of Law in 2000 privacy was a very important and hot topic. A few years ago the CyberProf listserv did an informal survey of those of us who teach the Law of eCommerce and/or the Internet regarding how our students felt about privacy in 2000 and in 2008. Not much of a surprise that law students in 2008 seemed to care a lot less about privacy. My guess is that social networking, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, texting, et al have been the big drivers of this change in attitude regarding privacy.

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After teaching the Law of eCommerce since 2000 I have established my own perspective of 5 Big Bangs which propelled the Internet, three of which were described in a recent blog:

1st Big Bang- Invention of the punch card for the 1890 census by Dr. Herman Holerith (which led to the IBM);

2nd Big Bang- World War II invention of the first modern day computer for monitoring the tides to help with the June 6, 1944 D-Day invasion of Normandy;

3rd Big Bang- Launch of the IBM Personal Computer in August 1981;

4th Big Bang- Distribution of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer in July 1995 with Windows 95; and,

5th Big Bang- Web 2.0 with the advent of social networking as predicted by Tim O’Reilly in 2002.

Where is the Internet Going?

It’s very difficult to tell, but when Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone in 1876, no one could have predicted that I would use my cell phone to make a phone call atop the Great Wall of China in 2005. So where the Internet is going is not easy to predict, but as we observe changes it’s clear that the direction is not entirely what we may expect. In 1998 when Google launched no one could have predicted its success and that would account for more than 63% of all Internet searches, have vast wealth, and that Google would provide an Operating System among many accomplishments.

Web 2.0: FaceBook at its 200 Million User, Doubles Membership in 8 Months!

Big celebrations in August 2008 FaceBook when it registered its 100 million user, now about 8 months later about to register its 200 million user. Web 2.0 (my 5th Big Bang of the Internet) must be for real, but why has FaceBook been so successful? It must be fulfilling a social need. Without question when FaceBook when started in February 2004 it was aimed at college students, but today the fastest growing segment of its membership is the 35 year and older category. As social networking evolves other Internet activities might replace FaceBook, but for the time being the growth is mind-boggling. Please stay tuned for the 6th Big Bang!
 

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