The Numbers Game
May 1, 2008 – 4:01 pmSomeday all your home appliances will be logging onto the Net — and keeping an eye on you
(A slightly different version of this story appeared in the May issue of US Airways magazine.)
by Dan Tynan
I have seen the future of the Internet, and it’s sitting on my desk inside a squishy leather pouch.
I’m talking about The Chumby, a clock-sized gadget that logs onto my home network and displays Web content. But what’s special isn’t the Chumby itself, it’s what comes next. We’re entering an era where virtually every device in your home and your pocket will live on the Internet.
You may already own a stereo receiver that plays Internet radio stations or a TV set that can display YouTube videos. One day soon your refrigerator, your washing machine, and even your commode may be connected to the Net. I’m not kidding. Japan’s Toto Corporation has developed an “Intelligence Toilet” that can monitor your health and send the results to your doctor. (Insert your own joke here.)
One of the things that will make this possible is a shift in how the Net manages addresses. Today when you type the name of a Web site into your browser, it gets converted into a 12-digit number called an Internet Protocol (IP) address. Type 207.46.232.182, for example, and you’ll still end up at www.microsoft.com. When you surf the Web, you’re also assigned a 12-digit number by your Internet service provider. It might be a static number or it might change from day to day, depending on your ISP.
Though there are 4.3 billion possible IP addresses, they’re already in short supply. So before we run out, the Brotherhood of Geeks who invent Internet protocols came up with a new numbering scheme that expands the number of potential addresses almost to infinity. (Actually 340,000,000,000, 000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, if you want to get technical.)
That means everyone and everything on the planet can have a unique IP address — no need to share. Among other things, this would make it easier to control every appliance in your home from the Web, or for repair techs to log onto your digital devices and fix them without coming to your house. Web sites will know exactly who you are, so you won’t have to deal with passwords, browser cookies, or other forms of authentication. It will be harder for fraudsters to pretend to be someone they’re not.
The bad news? As my teachers liked to say, everything you do goes on your permanent record. IP addresses are already used in civil and criminal prosecutions, but because addresses are often shared, identifying the actual culprit is an inexact science. With unique IPs it won’t be. Your ISP could capture all your laundry data and sell it to detergent companies. Your health insurer could serve a subpoena on your refrigerator. Uncle Sam’s insatiable appetite for data will continue to expand.
Worse, the ability to operate even quasi-anonymously on the Net could be threatened. That may not be a big deal to you; it’s definitely a big deal to human rights activists living under repressive regimes. That’s why the European Union is debating whether to treat IP addresses as personally identifiable information, similar to Social Security Numbers.
None of this is written in stone, of course. The conversion to the new protocol will take decades. As ISPs and other organizations get better at tracking you online, so do tools like encryption software and Web anonymizers that make it possible to cover your tracks.
But the rule of thumb is don’t do anything online you wouldn’t want your mom to know about, says Jonathan Ezor, assistant professor of law and technology at Touro Law Center in Central Islip, New York.
“People should assume that when they’re on the Net, their ISP or employer can see what they’re doing,” he says. “And anything you’ve done in the past is probably archived somewhere. It’s very difficult to keep one’s online behavior truly secret.”
Even from your toilet.
