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34
Privacy, Access and Equity, Democracy, and Networked Interactive
Media
Michael D. Greenbaum, Bell Atlantic
David Ticoll, Alliance for Converging Technologies
Networked interactive media have already wrought irreversible
changes in the way we live, work, and educate ourselves in America.
This transformative set of technologies, like others before it, is
the focus of broad hopes and boundless anxiety. For some, it is a
singular force for good—empowering the individual, unlocking
human potential, and ushering in a new era for wealth creation in a
networked economy. For others, it raises dark suspicions—as a
tool for control or an enabler of fringe elements in our
society.
At the very least, the new interactive media raise serious
issues relating to individual privacy, access and equity for the
underprivileged, and, ultimately, the impact of these media on the
evolution of democracy.
The creation of a new interactive media infrastructure
represents yet another ''westward migration" for pioneering
Americans. Like all frontier environments, the boundaries and
structures of the interactive information and communications
frontier are still very fluid. As such, efforts to "civilize" it
through the force of regulation should be tempered with caution.
Past lessons of success and failure argue that we embrace the
inevitability of change with our eyes wide open.
The development of too many regulations at this nascent stage of
development would dramatically slow innovation and deployment of
this new public infrastructure in the United States.
The challenge ahead is threefold: (1) to deliver the promise of
these emerging communications and information products and services
to the consumer with an element of individual control over the
collection, distribution, and use of personal information; (2) to
achieve reasonably broad public access to new media and information
content, particularly with regard to education and training
opportunities; and (3) to develop this infrastructure to its
fullest as a force for individual development and expression and
the public welfare.
We recommended a coalition of consumer, business, and government
interests to engage in a constructive dialogue and work toward the
development of guiding principles for privacy, access and equity,
and democracy. As a disciplined, self-regulating body we will see
an interactive information and communications infrastructure evolve
as a major force for economic development and individual
opportunity within this generation.
General Context—The Electronic
Frontier
Harold Innis, an early critical voice in the electronic media
age and teacher of Marshall McLuhan, pointed out that new media
have precipitated political change throughout history, shifting
power toward the citizenry. "Monopolies or oligopolies of knowledge
have been built up … [to support] forces chiefly on the
defensive but improved technology has strengthened the position of
forces on the offensive and compelled realignments favoring the
Vernacular."
NOTE: The ideas expressed in this paper are
those of the authors and not necessarily those of their
employers.
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Libraries based on clay documents enabled priests to monopolize
knowledge in ancient Babylon. Papyrus scrolls supported the limited
democracy of Greek city-states, and the rule of law in ancient
Rome. Paper and the printing press, used to reproduce texts in the
language of the common people, precipitated the Reformation, the
end of feudalism, and the emergence of parliamentary democracy,
capitalism, and the Industrial Revolution.
Technology continues to transform our lives and forward the
aspirations of people around the world. Who can forget, for
example, the student dissidents in Beijing who used computers and
facsimile communications to make their case before the world and
launch communist China's first democratic uprising?
Individual technologies like the fax machine can make a
difference in our lives and even influence events. The convergence
of interactive multimedia and the information highway marks a truly
disorienting, potentially liberating step ahead for humankind. This
phenomenon, like that of the affordable mass-produced automobile
and the interstate highway system, can change the economy, the
physical landscape, and the very nature of community in
America.
TV, video, computers, networked communications, and a host of
new digital, microprocessor-based applications are all, it turns
out, pieces of a puzzle that is only now coming into view.
This dynamism of convergence is extraordinary. As people explore
its possibilities into the future, the interactive frontier will
unfold in ways that its pioneers today can't possibly imagine. In
fact, any presumption today about how convergence will ultimately
change the lives of our children and grandchildren is not likely to
be a sound basis for public policy. Though Vice President Albert
Gore (as a U.S. Senator) predicted an explosion of activity and
innovation on the "Information Superhighway" 6 years ago, few
others gave much credence to the Internet or the then emerging
phenomenon of the World Wide Web.
The data are finally catching up with Gore's optimism. A
Newsweek poll published in February 1995 found that 13 percent
of adult Americans said they had gone online, 4 percent had perused
the Web, and 2 percent had logged on for an hour or more each day.
As interest among consumer and business computer users climbs,
online activity accelerates exponentially. Growth of commercial
online services (e.g., Prodigy, America Online, and CompuServe)
remains in the double digits. Products promising easy World Wide
Web navigation, such as Mosaic and Netscape Navigator, are
proliferating, and modem ownership doubled in the second half of
1994.
Interactive television, video teleconferencing, work group
computing, and other important interactive media are also gaining
footholds as the so-called "killer" applications that will catapult
them into the mainstream begin to emerge. Together, these
applications will justify a national information infrastructure
(NII) analogous to basic telephone or cable television service.
Today's Context: Which Way to the
Future?
Today's convergence of interactive electronic media is unique in
more ways than one. In addition to the novelty of the new
interactive media and their intriguing capabilities, we have
witnessed unprecedented public input and participation in their
development. In large part these new media are closely linked to
the ascent of the personal computer. Unlike other communications
infrastructures, most recently cable TV, the new media owe as much
to the individual PC developer, engineer, and enthusiast as they do
to any corporate, institutional, or government initiative.
This, in part, explains the popularity of new interactive media
among educated, middle- and upper-income American families. These
are people who use computers and online services at work and at
home for both serious tasks and leisure. There is an enthusiasm for
interactive media among this group akin to the frontier spirit that
propelled individuals and families westward in search of
opportunity and adventure.
The new interactive frontier, however, is a "virtual" one,
defined by the fact that it is always changing and not limited by
traditional constructs of geographic proximity, time, or
self-actualization. It is at once infinite in scope and capable of
redefining one's sense of community. It provides a forum in which
individuals, organizations, and social groups are empowered to
create, collect, exchange, and distribute information in previously
unimaginable ways.
This virtual frontier is predictably confounding many existing
standards and ideas about legal jurisdiction. It is also dredging
up new versions of old questions about what constitutes social
equality. And
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democracy itself is being reexamined. Speaker of the U.S. House
of Representatives Newt Gingrich is perhaps the most vocal
proponent of an interactive democracy, featuring virtual town halls
with direct online, even video teleconferenced connections to local
representatives. The key issue is, will such access improve our
system, or will it deliver a new tyranny of the majority?
Privacy, access and equity, and the function of democracy are
all issues on the table for discussion and debate. As we approach a
more pervasive virtual frontier we are well advised to raise the
level of public discourse on these issues. Soon, this frontier
population, perhaps more diverse and complex than our own, will
demand new standards for justice, law, and order that make sense in
a world without boundaries.
Privacy
The U.S. Constitution provides no explicit help in determining
what privacy means. On the other hand, everyone seems to have a
strong notion of what it should mean. For the purpose of this
discussion, privacy includes an individual's desire to be left
alone, the ability to restrict the disclosure of personal
information, and the ability to restrict the way such information
is used.
On the virtual frontier, privacy issues abound. Individual
privacy claims are running headlong into the administrative
requirements of government agencies, the competitive concerns of
business, and, increasingly, the best efforts of law enforcement. A
carefully considered balance will be required to ensure that
reasonable standards of privacy survive the information age.
The Right to be Left Alone
The right to be left alone would seem straightforward enough in
cyberspace, but individuals increasingly find themselves vulnerable
to assault. Some of these uninvited assaults are as innocuous as
unsolicited advertising messages distributed throughout the net.
Others are more serious. In 1992, the FBI arrested a Sherman Oaks,
Calif., man for terrorizing women on the Internet. A man in
Cupertino and another in Boston were arrested for pursuing young
boys over the Net.
Though it may be in decline at the office, sexual harassment is
alive and well online. The experience might have an unreal quality
for the harasser hidden behind an anonymous online identity, but
the threat or uncomfortable approach comes across as anything but
virtual for the victim.
Another disturbing development online is the breakdown of the
noble "hacker" ethic idealized in Steven Levy's 1984 book
Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution. A culture coveting
access to secure environments for the sake of it is giving way to a
more destructive ethos. The new rogue hacker unleashes viruses
causing millions of dollars in software and file damage, steals
phone and credit card numbers, and uses network access to terrorize
individuals.
The Ability to Restrict Disclosure and
Use of Personal Information
Perhaps the most chilling privacy issue is the degree to which
we can manage or contain the digital trail we leave behind. Large
databases that piece together life histories and personal
preferences have been a fact of life for more than 20 years. The
sophistication with which that information is applied to marketing
programs, human resource department analysis, surveys, and
investigations is more recent.
As David Chaum, a leading cryptography expert, writes,
Every time you make a telephone call, purchase
goods using a credit card,subscribe to a magazine orpay your taxes,
that information goes into a database somewhere. Furthermore,all of
these records canbe linked so that they constitute, in effect, a
single dossier of yourlife—not only your medical andfinancial
history but also what you buy, where you travel, and whom
youcommunicate with.
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The new interactive media will provide many more opportunities
for the collection of personal history and preference information,
from the TV shows we watch to the groceries we buy. Without
knowledge of these records, the ability to verify information
contained within them, or control over their disposition and use,
consumers are at a distinct disadvantage.
These sophisticated systems, however, also offer many benefits.
Information can improve the service that consumers receive in
retail environments. It may mean less time is spent filling out
forms with redundant information. And it helps marketers trim
databases to include only those who are predisposed to their
message in their direct mailings.
The danger, of course, is that information shared among
companies, nonprofit organizations, banks, credit organizations,
and government agencies is inaccurate or used for a purpose that
defies a reasonable standard of privacy. In addition, different
consumers will have varying standards as this issue becomes
increasingly apparent.
The NII's Privacy Working Group has taken on the task of
developing guidelines for privacy in the information age. These
guidelines, though still in development, are an attempt to update
the Code of Fair Information Practices established by the
Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development.
The essence of these principles is quite simple:
•
Limit collection of information (only collect what
you need);
•
Where possible, collect information directly from
the individual to whom it pertains;
•
Inform subjects of the purpose of the collection
(tell them why you need it);
•
Only use the information for the purpose intended
and for which the subject was informed; and
•
Give subjects the opportunity to access their
personal information and the right to seek its correction.
As a minimum, information about a transaction should be strictly
between the end customer and the information user (product/service
provider). The network service provider, for example, should not be
privy to the content of a transaction.
An important element in the new NII guidelines is the emphasis
on information user responsibility. It stresses the need for
information users to "educate themselves, their employees, and the
public about how personal information is obtained, sent, stored and
protected, and how these activities affect others." However, to the
extent that the NII places the onus of responsibility on individual
consumers, it may be assuming too much. This is an increasingly
sensitive area in light of recent highly publicized abuses of
personal databased information by federal and state government
employees:
•
In 1992, Operation Rescue members used connections
at the California Department of Motor Vehicles to get the addresses
of abortion clinic escorts so they could harass them at home.
•
The IRS says the agency has investigated 1,300 of
its own employees for browsing through the tax files of family,
friends, neighbors, and celebrities since 1989; of these, 400 have
been disciplined.
Abuses of personal information have also surfaced in the private
sector with rogue employees misusing access to private records
including personal and financial information, occasionally leading
to further criminal acts. In such instances, responsibility for the
security of personal information should be clear. Decentralized,
interactive, digital communications vastly complicate the issues of
privacy and security.
Privacy and the Law
Privacy issues have always loomed large for local carriers in
the telecommunications industry. Regional carriers are held to the
highest standards for privacy and security of any industry. As the
national network infrastructure shifts from analog to digital with
an increasing ratio of data to voice traffic, these standards must
be reviewed and amended to consider a host of new players and
technologies.
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The Internet, for example, presents a whole new ball game when
it comes to privacy and security. A critical element of the new
network infrastructure is that it be a level playing field where
both transport and content providers are equally accountable and
operate under a common set of rules.
If a comprehensive, equitable framework for privacy and security
is not established, a frontier vigilante ethic will take hold among
consumers of the new interactive media. We are already seeing this
tawdry trend emerge on the Internet.
A defensive reaction to invasive information collection and the
perceived threat to privacy posed by government-specified "Clipper
chip" technology is the widespread use of privacy tools in the
online community. Sophisticated encryption techniques, accessible
through shareware on the Internet, allow users to protect
conversations, electronic messages, even databases from
unauthorized view. This move toward self-protection should put
service providers and information users on notice. The continued
use and proliferation of privacy tools will have a destabilizing
effect.
What happens, for instance, when law enforcement officials face
kidnappers, child molesters, and terrorists who use encryption
shareware to protect their communications?
Shortly after the tragic bombing of the Oklahoma federal
building, law enforcement officials learned of incriminating
bulletin board and e-mail messages that had been posted on an
online service by a suspect and others with possible knowledge of
his plans before the act occurred. Such evidence is invaluable and
should be accessible to law enforcement.
Regional telecom carriers have shown that accommodation of
wiretaps and other court-ordered law enforcement efforts targeting
telephone customers can be achieved without compromising other
constitutionally protected communications. Bell Atlantic, for
example, has instituted a privacy policy that calls for full
cooperation with any government or consumer group to help resolve
privacy issues. Volunteer joint-industry consumer panels should
develop model standards for joint collaboration to assist with
dispute resolution.
Networked interactive media present broad legal, ethical, and
technical challenges. For example, there is no physical wiretap
capability online. Service providers are required either to grab
information real-time from bulletin board conversations or drill
down through massive data repositories, which include primarily
protected conversations. Cooperative efforts and careful compromise
are needed to safeguard privacy and security in these emerging
areas in the face of serious public safety demands.
The right of privacy and free speech will always be weighed
against the public demand for law and order and for community
standards of decency. Although many of the specific technology and
jurisdictional issues are different or somehow transformed in
today's virtual environment, the act of balancing competing
concerns remains the same.
The management at Prodigy Services, for example, has made a
number of controversial decisions regarding extreme behavior
online—from a suicide threat to a racist hate group forum in
which other subscribers were verbally attacked. The decision to
pull the plug on free discussion and provide authorities with
personal information that saves lives is not always easy. Many such
cases will likely end up in court.
In another case, threats issued by one individual subscriber to
another on Prodigy led to an investigation in which three federal
agencies, three states, and seven municipalities made similar
jurisdictional requests for information. This is another issue
demanding guidelines as the networked interactive infrastructure
expands. If all legal jurisdictions are to be honored, how are
transport and content providers to comply with contradictory
requests, or even foreign legal inquiries? What if, for example, a
transport provider receives a legal requests for private
information from a rogue police state within the virtual boundaries
of the network? This raises the potential for causing not only a
violation of privacy or human rights but also of sovereignty and
national security.
In the absence of exacting legal precedents, service providers
have established tough but pragmatic standards for privacy. Such
individual voluntary efforts are needed as broader privacy
guidelines are tested and cooperation among consumer, business, and
government representatives brings a workable consensus.
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Access and Equity
As the networked interactive media revolution ramps up in this
country of 250 million people, some of us are inevitably better
positioned to leverage it for our own development and prosperity
than are others. It is the obligation of business, educational
institutions, and government to plan for the broadest possible
inclusion of people, bringing diversity of perspective and ideas to
the virtual frontier.
The widening fissure between the haves and the have-nots in the
United States and around the world is one of the most serious
challenges to modern society. Though the issue of poverty defies
direct assault, efforts to include, educate, and learn from the
economically underprivileged among us will chip away at the core
problems and improve the quality of discourse in America.
Interactive product and service providers investing in or
supporting the development of a networked interactive media
infrastructure must find ways to leverage their limited efforts so
that the broadest possible inclusion can be achieved. The two major
obstacles are access and the capacity to use.
Access to Networked Interactive
Media
The issue of access is perhaps more varied and complex than
privacy within the context of networked interactive media. It is
certainly more demanding of the available resources and requires
that tough choices be made on an ongoing basis toward some ideal of
universality. In general, women, children, old people, poor people,
those who are legally blind and those who are illiterate, and
nearly the entire continent of Africa are disproportionately absent
from the virtual frontier.
In the United States we have to determine who among the
underrepresented are least likely to get there without direct
action on their behalf.
In computer ownership—a characteristic considered most
likely to precede active interest in networked interactive
services—income, education, and race are the statistically
significant factors.
According to a 1995 U.S. Census Bureau report, households headed
by people with a college degree are nearly eleven times more likely
to own a computer than households headed by those who did not
complete high school. White households with incomes above $75,000
are three times more likely to own a computer than white households
with incomes of $25,000 to $30,000. Among blacks, higher earners
were four times more likely to own a computer, while the likelihood
was five times among Hispanics.
These discrepancies are not likely to improve as the digital
revolution progresses. The costs of going online at home are not at
all insignificant. At least several thousand dollars must be spent
on computer and communications equipment before a consumer can hook
up to one of the popular online services. These services charge an
average $10 per month plus up to $150 or more for 30 hours of
connect time and content delivery.
Giving people tax credits to buy PCs, as Newt Gingrich has
suggested, may be impractical, but something must be done to
provide disadvantaged people with the tools needed to succeed in a
knowledge economy.
In the future, direct access to networked interactive services
will be an integral feature of commonplace consumer electronic
equipment. In the interim, schools, libraries, and other public
facilities will likely serve as the point of entry to the virtual
frontier for many Americans. Interactive product and service
providers are well advised to work with these institutions to
determine what facilities and related services will produce the
best results for those without access.
The Capacity to Use Networked
Interactive Media
A significant finding in recent years has been the correlation
between poor and illiterate segments of our population and the lack
of both interest in and access to the new online media. This
correlation is dangerous in that this group is one of the most
likely to benefit from the eventual mainstreaming of interactive
media.
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Networked interactive media will serve to fill in gaps left by
economic disparity. They could help, for example, address the
current lack of affordable training in literacy, work, and
communications skills that prevents people from getting and keeping
employment. And as networked interactive media become less text
intensive and more verbal, visual, and highly intuitive, they will
be more easily accessible to those who are less educated or able.
The opportunity is upon us to deliver everything from comfort food
for couch potatoes to information services for learning and
empowerment, particularly with the development of Web-based and
interactive television (ITV) services.
Access to these services for people with a limited capacity to
pay for or utilize them will hinge on ease of use and basic
economics. Unfortunately, delivering such slick applications
directly into millions of homes in underprivileged communities
during the early stages of commercialization is not realistic. The
cost could not reasonably be passed on to the remainder of the
customer base or the taxpayer, and the investment community would
have no incentive to participate without expectation of
returns.
As early test markets prove successful, the cost of rolling out
network infrastructure drops, and interest in interactive media
increases among low-income people, a solid economic motivation to
wire these communities will emerge.
In the short term, cost-sensitive alternative solutions can be
considered as a means to boost the online population. Again, the
schools and other public facilities will be a critical point of
access.
ITV trials and high-bandwidth trials are in the early stages of
planning and implementation, so it is premature to draw any
conclusions regarding deployment of these technologies.
Concerns have been raised about equitable deployment and, in
some cases, charges of "economic red-lining" have been raised. Many
content and transport providers appear to be seriously addressing
the "red-lining" issue. Bell Atlantic, for example, in its initial
deployment plans, specifically addresses this concern. Its
currently targeted "hot sites'' slated for field trials have a
population composed of 36 percent of the cited minority categories
in comparison with a 24 percent minority population in the total
region. Most LECs and RBOCs also have state educational initiatives
in place to address access and equity issues.
In addition, service providers, government agencies, and other
organizations might consider limited interactive service into homes
or public areas that can be delivered at lower, less costly
bandwidths than ITV. Many valuable, albeit streamlined, interactive
products could be offered at 14.4 or 28.8 kbps or via ISDN.
New York City's United Community Organization, for example, has
installed 200 PCs with ISDN connections to the Internet. The new
facilities, paid for with $1.4 million in federal grants and
private donations, are used by UCO staff and neighborhood
residents.
Realizing Access and Equity
Information technology is becoming part of the popular
vernacular. The networked interactive information media will
further this evolution. They will bring good (learning,
communication, self-help, and entrepreneurialism) and evil (crime,
propaganda, and stultifying mass culture). But ultimately, they
must deliver substantial inclusion if they are to transcend the
vernacular and serve the larger goals of individual and economic
development in a free democratic society.
Larry Irving, assistant secretary of the U.S. Department of
Commerce and director of the National Telecommunications
Information Administration, says, "It is going to require a
concentrated effort not to be left behind.… We have to get
the technologies deployed in minority communities, make sure our
children are technologically literate, and seize the
entrepreneurial opportunities."
Vice President Gore said, "This is not a matter of guaranteeing
the right to play video games; this is a matter of guaranteeing
access to essential services. We cannot tolerate, nor in the long
run can this country afford, a society in which some children
become fully educated and others do not."
The networked interactive media infrastructure, described by
Vice President Gore as the "Information Superhighway," can evolve
into an infrastructure as fundamental as the interstate telephone
or electrical power systems, enabling individuals of limited means
and capacities to meet their own needs. And like these momentous
projects, universality will take time and careful allocation of
limited investment resources.
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Democracy
Networked interactive media have many potential implications for
democracy. The extent to which formal and informal aspects of the
democratic process in the United States will be transformed is
impossible to gauge.
If the Internet's early impact is any indication, it will not be
insignificant. The following are a few examples:
•
A loose confederation of angry online activists is
credited as a key catalyst in the downfall of ex-House Speaker Tom
Foley.
•
Online constituent service and information are
provided by Senator Ted Kennedy and more than a dozen other members
of the House and Senate.
•
World Wide Web sites are maintained by powerhouse
political action groups including the Christian Coalition and the
NRA.
•
Online participatory government, from town
meetings to national referendums, has been proposed by opinion
leaders including Newt Gingrich and Ross Perot.
In the Third World, information and communications technologies
have already transformed the process of political dissent and even
revolution. In Mexico, rebels have waged a public relations war via
laptop computer, modem, and fax from the remote state of Chiapas.
Their assaults via the news media have captured public sympathy and
reversed repeated government offensives. Information is replacing
the standard weapons of war.
According to Howard Rheingold, online services are making less
dramatic, but no less remarkable, transformations possible in
American society. These services, he claims, enable the creation of
badly needed "virtual communities" based on shared interests, which
hearken back to the world before radio and television, both of
which diminished social discourse as a pursuit distinct from work
and obligation.
At their best, the networked interactive media will give
cohesion and community to underrepresented realms of opinion. At
their worst, they will enable terrorists and hate groups to reach
wider audiences under cover of anonymity. In all likelihood, they
will add yet more dimension and subtlety to the social and
political landscapes.
Information and Community Are
Power
Unlike other media that have been co-opted and at times
successfully manipulated by political leaders, the Internet is too
diffuse and decentralized. It is better suited to affinity-based
constituency building than to mass communication.
The Internet and other online services enable the formation of
virtual communities built on shared interests. In a fast-paced
information age during in it is increasingly difficult for people
to assemble and share ideas face to face, the ground for virtual
communities is fertile. With thousands of forums and news groups
proliferating, cyberspace is host to many of these virtual
communities. Some of these have come to function as special
interest groups. Whether they facilitate constructive dialogue,
involve a greater number of people in the democratic process, or
just further derail the deliberative aspect of representative
government is a matter of personal perspective.
The intimate "back fence" feel of the virtual community is
perhaps its greatest attribute as a forum for political
communication. Republican presidential candidate Lamar Alexander,
for example, followed his first television appearance as candidate
with an extended public question-and-answer session online. He
became the first candidate to do so.
Both campaigns and special interests turn to the Internet for
information. In addition to news and countless databases, the
Internet provides an efficient way to collect competitive
intelligence. Speeches, position papers, voting records, and a host
of other information can be collected through myriad Web sites. Any
forum
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open to supporters is also open to the opposition. It is even
possible to listen in on discussion groups hosted by opposing
candidates or interest groups—a new twist on focus group
research.
Teledemocracy and Control
In the 1992 election campaign, Ross Perot proposed the use of
technology to support electronic town meetings at the national
level, with instant plebiscites on a multitude of issues. This
concept of the virtual town hall of "teledemocracy" did not die
with Perot's presidential hopes. Similar ideas of varying degree
have recently been endorsed by opinion leaders, most notably
representative Gingrich. But the impact of a virtual polity may go
too far, according to many critics who fear that such immediacy
will overwhelm the point and purpose of representative
government.
For some, the control of the networked interactive media
infrastructure is an important issue for democracy. Where there is
control of distribution, there is control of content and therefore
opinion that is represented. The openness of the Internet has
quashed early fears about freedom of speech and access in the new
media. But as major content and transport providers begin to
position themselves as major players in networked interactive
media, concern swells.
However, the interactivity of the new media, the proliferation
of competitive service providers, and consumer demand for diversity
of content will limit the influence or manipulative power of any
one service provider. Competition for consumer attention, in fact,
should intensity efforts to identify and cater to specific
audiences. In such an environment, content can more easily reflect
the views of participating consumers than in the past.
Recommendations
On regulation and enforcement, we recommend the following: Pure
voluntary self-regulation by information collectors and users is a
good start, but it can and should be supplemented by government
standards to ensure that "bad actors" are dealt with appropriately
and that privacy, access, and democratic standards are defined and
protected. Consumers face a confusing patchwork of
self-administered approaches that vary by state, industry, and
company or service provider. Many examples of abuse have already
surfaced. Legislation should set minimum standards along the lines
suggested here. A joint industry-consumer panel should enforce the
standards, educate and consult, and provide dispute resolution
services. Disputes that cannot be resolved through this voluntary
mechanism should be referred to the courts.
Representative terms from entire chapter:
networked interactive
