from Evaluation of Human-Computer Interaction Whilst Using the World Wide Web
by Nicolas J. Blaza · The Buckinghamshire College, a college of Brunel University · May 1996
7.1 A Worst-Case Scenario
[Drawing on Johnson (1995), "Info 'highway': a worst-case scenario", Electronic Engineering Times.]
It will treat us as consumers to be targeted rather than as citizens to be connected.
Most of what we do using the highway will be recorded and analysed for use against us later — for example, in targeting us for advertisements and sales calls, determining our insurance rates, or judging our eligibility for employment. The market for consumer data will grow significantly. Netscape has a facility called "cookies" which stores information about the user's visits on the Web and then downloads it (with the user's permission) to Netscape's corporation for use in statistics gathering.
The information highway won't be the Internet but the services available through set-top boxes (Johnson, 1995).
➤ Read the Alternative Edition of Chapter 7 ➤
(What past-me might have written if he'd known what was coming.)
© 1996 Nicolas J. Blaza. Reconstructed online edition, 2026.
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