On March 13, 1989 in Geneva, British researcher Timothy John Berners-Lee set up the project on data transfer via the ‘hypertext.’ This is the rather complex system that now appears in a simplified form of the dual-link clicks. Berners-Lee was given the green light to the project intended to change society, history, and method of communicating. The following year, Berners-Lee created the World Wide Web along with Robert Cailliau. The first ever website in the world still exists at http://info.cern.ch.

In its early years, the web has been an almost exclusive reserve of scientists, professors and researchers. But as we know today, it is the most common receptacle in which to find information, as well as the fastest method of communication with any part of the world at low cost.

Today, it is estimated that there are more than 80 million Web sites linked to over a billion Internet users. The benefits that the network has brought are obvious and acknowledged by all. Progress, though, has also introduced new problems and risks. For one, new technologies allow anyone to track the pages visited and the activities of users on the network so that enterprising parties can easily send targeted advertising based on the tastes of people. This is one of the simpler risks in security. For Berners-Lee, these are unacceptable invasion of privacy.

Berners-Lee has cautioned on the risks to the integrity of the Internet. He said that the privacy of citizens will continue to be compromised if governments will not intervene with laws that restrict the access of third parties (private and government) to digital data on the activities of citizens. Berners-Lee asserts that there is tremendous need for laws to safeguard privacy.

Image

Via cnet news