DISADVANTAGES — CONSUMER/INTERNET — KILLS THE INTERNET 433

AFFIRMATIVE ANSWERS

INTERNET EXPANSION PLAGUED BY INEQUITIES OF THE DIGITAL DIVIDE

The Economist, February 26, 2000 , TITLE: First America, then the world // acs-EE2001

What should perhaps be a bigger concern is inequality, or what is often called "the digital divide". Electronic commerce holds out the promise of greater efficiency and transparency, and of lower prices, all of which would be as welcome in Europe and Japan as in America (and, indeed, poorer countries). Yet Internet usage is skewed towards the upper end of the income scale, so the first to reap these benefits will be the better-off. Some way needs to be found to spread them to people on lower incomes -- for instance, by putting terminals in public libraries and schools, and by teaching every schoolchild how to use a computer -- and also to poorer countries. Inequality within and between countries is certainly not the fault of the Internet. And the web is by its nature democratic, open and transparent; if its benefits are spread wide enough, it might, in the long run, actually help to reduce rather than increase inequality.

THE BENEFITS OF PRIVACY OUTWEIGH THE BENEFITS OF THE COMPUTER

The Straits Times (Singapore) January 11, 2000 SECTION: Commentary Analysis; Pg. 40 TITLE: Confiding in the computer // acs-EE2001

The need for privacy, the prerogative of personality, must outweigh even the need for power created by the machine.