We increasingly rely on an open and free Internet but that could come under threat in the near future in a few ways, according to a report from the Pew Research Center.
Pew based its “Net Threats” research study on responses from thousands of “technology builders and analysts” and identified four primary threats in coming years:
-Nation-states cracking down on Internet freedom to maintain political control, introducing more blocking, filtering and Internet-borders, or “balkanization”;
-Loss of trust due to government and corporate surveillance and data harvesting;
-Corporate pressure to change fundamental aspects of the Internet to benefit commercial interests; and,
-Overcorrecting a problem with too much of our social lives being lived online, leading to less content sharing.
Report: http://www.pewinternet.org/2014/07/03/net-threats/