What a new Internet might look like is still widely debated, but one alternative would, in effect, create a a€oegated communitya€A where users would give up their anonymity and certain freedoms in return for safety. Today that is already the case for many corporate and government Internet users. As a new and more secure network becomes widely adopted, the current Internet might end up as the bad neighborhood of cyberspace. You would enter at your own risk and keep an eye over your shoulder while you were there.

Sounds awful.

John Markoff writes for the New York Times last week on the current state of the internet, and suggests that in order to ensure security and privacy we should ‘start over’. The solution he supports? A ‘gated community’ where you lose anonimity [read: privacy, fool] and freedom in order to protect your credit card numbers.

Sounds like a government scam to recreate the internet in a way that allows for closer scrutiny of the actions of individuals - trampling our rights. Not only is the idea that you can be ‘safe’ online hilarious [hackers, or whoever, will still get your information on a government run/controlled internet], but the idea that the government would do this for the sake of the common citizen is a joke. Say goodbye to torrents and filesharing, as well as any sites the government [or whoever ‘they’ put in charge] deem malicious / unsavory.

.:Do We Need a New Internet?->NY Times