Internet in developing countries

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Internet computer information system and its progress and problems, VOA Special English

The United Nations organized the World Summit on the Information Society to discuss Internet growth in developing nations. But the three-day meetings held in Tunisia also looked at the issue of struggle over who controls the Internet.

It is known that the Internet grew out of research paid for by the United States Defense Department in the nineteen sixties and seventies. As a result, the United States government still has some control over it. In nineteen ninety-eight, the Commerce Department set up a non-profit organization to supervise the domain name system of the Internet's World Wide Web. ICANN stands for the Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers.

For example, thanks to ICANN, a person in Cuba will see the same Website as someone in Belarus. ICANN also has some Internet policy powers. It can remove Web sites from the Internet. It also decides who can sell and list domain names.

The European Union, China, Brazil, India and other countries want the United States to release at least some control over the World Wide Web. They believe that the Internet is an international resource that should be supervised by the United Nations or some other independent organization. The US Administration disagrees. It says that ICANN is the best way to guarantee an open, secure and dependable online environment. Heavy governmental controls would suppress Internet growth and development.

Governments, businesses and organizations also want to discuss public policy issues, including Internet crime, junk mail and viruses. Most Internet communication is business-to-business as buying and selling goods and services over the Internet is growing around the world. However, there are risks involved with this e-commerce.

For example, it was estimated that more than fifty-two thousand million dollars in goods and services were purchased a year through identity theft. Identity thieves steal personal information from Americans. They collect Social Security numbers, banking records and telephone numbers. They use this information to request loans, or to get credit cards in the name of the victim.

Identity thieves often use computer viruses to collect a victim's personal information. They may also use spyware. These are programs that are loaded onto a computer without the owner's knowledge. Spyware follows the computer user's online activities. Identity thieves also use another method called Internet "phishing." These e-mail messages attempt to collect an Internet user's personal information, such as credit card numbers, by acting like a real business.

Advertisers interested in selling products over the Internet may use adware to identify possible buyers. Adware is a software program sent with free files or programs to a computer. Once loaded onto a computer, adware can collect information about a person's interests. Adware can use this information to provide targeted sales messages to the computer user.

Google has also started its own project. The company has put thousands of library books and documents on the Internet. Google gave three million dollars to help the United States Library of Congress create a World Digital Library on the Web. This will be a collection of rare books, documents, maps and other materials from America's library and other national libraries. The head of the Library of Congress says people will be able to learn about other cultures without traveling farther than the nearest computer.