America Losing Control Over The Internet

**JustDee** · 08-30-2008

Greetings and Felicitations,

I was reading Slashdot today and ran across this reference. Internet Traffic Begins to Bypass the U.S. An article published in the NY Times was talking about how internet traffic is increasingly being routed around the United States. While no country can actually control the Internet America has been a crucial nexus for traffic.

There are several reasons listed for the change.

1. The increasing surveillance from the implementation of the Patriot Act and the perception that US intelligence agencies are being given a free ride to pull information from Internet traffic.

2. The failure of US companies to upgrade their infrastructure. The industry has failed to put money into upgrades because it wasn't considered cost effective. We have failed to upgrade our power infrastructure, too.

3. The increasing technological sophistication of other countries. China, India, the Middle East and Russia are quickly overtaking the US in developing resources and ways to rout traffic around the United States.

The main crux of the article is that America is slowly losing access to information, technology and implementation. This is particularly dangerous when it comes to intelligence gathering.

Some relevant quotes from the article

Internet technologists say that the global data network that was once a competitive advantage for the United States is now increasingly outside the control of American companies. They decided not to invest in lower-cost optical fiber lines, which have rapidly become a commodity business.

While the United States carried 70 percent of the world’s Internet traffic a decade ago, he estimates that portion has fallen to about 25 percent.

In December 2005, The New York Times reported that the National Security Agency had established a program with the cooperation of American telecommunications firms that included the interception of foreign Internet communications.

“This is one of many dimensions on which we’ll have to adjust to a reduction in American ability to dictate terms of core interests of ours,” said Yochai Benkler, co-director of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard. “We are, by comparison, militarily weaker, economically poorer and technologically less unique than we were then. We are still a very big player, but not in control.”

Sincerely Yours,
C. David Neely

**erikvv** · 08-30-2008

Well people mostly use local internet services. It doesn't make sense to let all that traffic go through the USA, that would only increase the latency.

APTTech · 09-09-2008

For far too long our leaders have sat by while technological advances completely revamp the face of society today - both domestically and internationally. It is this failure to address these changes that has allowed other nations to overtake the US in terms of tech-saviness and in terms of access for the people. Our leaders need to stop ignoring the issue and step up to the challenge - provide funding for technological expansion, get rid of the gray areas in regulation, and ensure continued American competitiveness on the world technological stage.

TheHighForester · 09-09-2008

The reasons given for the change in US dominance of internet traffic are given as (1) increased surveillance by US intelligence agencies; (2) failure of US companies to upgrade; and (3) increasing technological sophistication of other countries.

I suggest that these were presented in their inverse order of importance. The overwhelming majority of internet users are not terribly concerned about US intelligence activities, principally because they are not engaged in activities which might have value to those agencies. They are conducting routine business, encoding anything that might be sensitive, and engaging in educational and recreational uses of the internet.

The failure of US companies to upgrade is more important, because it will place those companies at a substantial disadvantage in future commercial competition with overseas rivals. But a part of this problem is actually caused by US companies choosing to locate their internet services abroad, and they are investing their money in equipment and training in India and other nations. One bank where I have an account has its computer center in Mumbai, India, for example, and its telephone service center in Caracas, Venezuela. I think this unwise, because both faclities are in areas where they are subject to political controls which may not be in the best interests of US citizens who are shareholders and depositors.

The third point, increasing technological sophistication of other countries, is most important, because it speaks directly to our future ability to compete. This is a result of a continuing lack of foresight by American companies, who pursue short term profits to the detriment of both long term growth and security. But this too is part of a larger problem, which also involves unreasonable expectations, a hyperinflated stock market, and bloated executive ompensation. In order to fix things, we may have to reinvent the corporation and redefine corporate responsibility.

**Commodore** · 11-23-2009

As more users and lines are established between Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia, there is less reason to route traffic across two oceans.

**JDJarvis** · 11-24-2009

Why route thru the U.S. if you censored email isn't going there?

arielle.loon · 12-16-2009

Originally Posted by CDavidNeely

Greetings and Felicitations,

I was reading Slashdot today and ran across this reference.

...

Sincerely Yours,
C. David Neely

Do you just slap these observations up as posts and then disappear, without discussing the content?

If you have a good handle on these issues, I'd sure appreciate a mini-course on the ins-and-outs of the pros and cons,

otherwise, I'm just reading, wondering, and, because of ignorance, cruising on...