January 15, 2005
Internet Users' Problems and Trust
From the LA
Times: No More
Internet for Them. In this article, the author tells of several
long-time computer users who have become fed up with various forms of
malware and have decided just to turn off their computers.
It's rather amusing that the article refers to these users as being on the cutting edge!
Now the 50-year-old Seemayer is once again on the cutting edge: Sick of spam clogging his in-box and spyware and viruses crashing his system, Seemayer yanked out his high-speed connection.
It's interesting to read this article with the thought of "trust" in your mind. Indeed, the problems described all seem to be related to trust.
Here are some quick thoughts:
In certain circles, we hear smart people sing the praises of the end-to-end principle in the Internet. The end-to-end principle is simply this: The network itself is as simple as possible, while the endpoints -- that's the PCs and server machines -- are intelligent and complex. We compare that to the telephone network, where it's the network that has complexity and it's the endpoint devices -- the phones -- that are dumb. Certainly the problems this article describes would not be possible without the end-to-end principle.
If PC problems are too overwhelming, buy a Macintosh. I bet there are thousands of PC users who were fed up, but then switched to a Macintosh and found that they were free from PC malware. Linux is another alternative. (Disclaimers: I use a PC. I had a new Macintosh in 1988 which I used for about several years. I use Linux occasionally.)
It comes down to a matter of trust. Trust is a technology-neutral problem. Technology neither helps nor hinders trust.
Here's how this works: PCs, by design, run programs. Each user must decide what programs he will allow to run. If a user could know everything about a program, he could conceivably make a decision after weighing the program's benefits against its costs. The benefits of a program like Excel are very great. The costs of a virus are also very great. But most programs lie somewhere in the middle. And it's in the grey middle where technology and the law have difficulty. Besides, understanding clearly the benefits and costs of each program is beyond even the most advanced user's ability. So, in the end, it just comes down to a matter of trust. Do you trust the purveyor of the program? I allow Dell's support program to run on my laptop because I bought the laptop from Dell and I trust Dell. I don't run a screen saver downloaded from the Internet because I don't trust the company offering it.
If users are fed up with computer problems, it may be because they expect technology or the law to keep them safe. But as we know, the problems are in the grey middle, not in the black-and-white cases. Users must learn that it's a matter of trust. Whom should they trust? Even that question does not have an obvious answer, because it's not always clear whom one is being asked to trust. An email message with an attachment that claims to be from a friend may not be from that friend at all. A web page that claims to be from your bank may not be from your bank at all. So, every Internet user ought to have this banged into his head: Don't trust anyone or anything on the Internet unless you are absolutely certain, and even then think twice about it. In short, trust almost no one. And understand that identities can be forged. That's it in a nutshell.
Posted by Doug Sauder at January 15, 2005 10:47 AM