One of the founding fathers of the internet has said more must be done to ensure that people are protected from harm online while also warning of the threat of a “digital dark age” for humanity.
Vint Cerf, Google's "chief internet evangelist" and a man widely proclaimed as being one of the architects of the net for his role in developing TCP/IP protocol technology, was speaking ahead of Data Summit 2017, an event that takes part in Dublin over the next two days.
Mr Cerf, one of the keynote speakers at the event, said that while the internet is largely a force for good, there are those who have sought to spread harm.
“We have this challenge which I believe we must meet and that is to figure out how to preserve all of the very evident benefits of an online open environment and protect people from the abuses that some people insist on visiting on them,” he said.
“The challenge is both technical and legislative in the sense that the harm can occur inevitably crosses international boundaries and so victims can be in one jurisdiction and perpetrators in another so not only do we need to have technical cooperation to build tools that users can have to protect themselves...We also have to come to some agreements on an international scale that will assist in our ability to apprehend people who are causing all these problems,” Mr Cerf added.
Digital dark age
Mr Cerf also discussed the dangers of not preserving content for future generations, warning of the likelihood of a “digital dark age” unless urgent action is taken.
He said it was possible that important documentation could be lost to history because of a failure to ensure information is safeguarded.
“I worry about preserving digital content over literally hundreds of years. Digital information is not necessarily immortal. You are inclined to think it is because it is just bits and they don’t have a natural way of wearing out. However, the medium in which they are stored may not last or you might not be able to find a reader for that medium,” he said.
Mr Cerf indicated a need for a resource akin to the Svalbard global seed vault to ensure technology formats and media are preserved so that information will be easy to access in the future, He said it was “embarrassing” that where we once had media such as cuneiform tablets or vellum to preserve information for centuries, we had moved to considerably weaker media in the last century..
“We have this bizarre history of going from the most resilient media to the least resilient,” Mr Cerf said.
The 73-year-old also said he had no inclination to slow down and had been informed by Google’s executive chairman he isn’t allowed to retire until the whole of humanity is online.
“There are about 3.5 billion internet users globally but there is still a similar amount to go. Eric told me I’m only half done and that I have to convert the rest of the world to get online,” he said.
Data Summit
Newly-elected Taoiseach Leo Varadkar is opening the Data Summit, which takes place at the Convention Centre in Dublin. Other guest speakers at the event include Barbara Eggl, data protection officer at the European Central Bank (ECB) and Irish data protection commissioner Helen Dixon.
Thinktech award finalists will also be appearing to discuss how to use data for social good.
New research published on Thursday to coincide with the data summit conference shows a gap in data protection awareness among consumers.
The study shows almost half of consumers in Ireland make no regular attempt to read terms and conditions of data use online. In addition, 72 per cent have limited or no understanding of their data protection rights.
