Jennifer Granick, director of civil liberties for the Stanford Center for Internet and Society, said that people aren't really understanding how the Internet is being enforced and legislated because it's become more complicated.
"The Federal Communications Commission have a difficult (job) because they want to protect consumers, they want to protect innovation, but also protect companies building the infrastructure for the Internet," she told Press:Here. "Regulation is dangerous because too much regulation can squelch innovation, but too little can also squelch it."
Previously, the Internet was something people used to receive and transmit with little interference. Now those ISPs have formed monopolies and can change policies, such as net neutrality.
"The business of ISPs has changed and we're seeing a downside of this monopoly," Granick said.
Although net neutrality ended up being decided on in February, the companies have vowed to take the FCC decision to court.
Press:Here host Scott McGrew asked, "People say they want privacy, but they sure don’t act like they want privacy. Should we be more outraged?"
"If you’re not outraged, then you should be more outraged than you are," Granick said. "What we really need is more information about what our government is doing and easier to use technology that helps protect us from not only suspicion-less government snooping, but also identity thieves and other kinds of spying."
U.S. & World
Granick said the hard part is for consumers to find both security and convenience, but now new companies are creating easy-to-use apps and services.
However, in the future, people still need to be aware that new devices are a danger to people's privacy and liberty, including drones and artificial intelligence -- especially predictive analysis where machines make decisions rather than humans.
