Discussion on the future shape of the Internet has been raging for some years now. Issues debated have included net neutrality, the “Internet of things”, trust and privacy in the online world, freedom of expression, government control, the right to be forgotten and governance of personal data, and the list does not stop there. In Europe legislation is in the works at Union and national levels addressing these issues with net neutrality and data protection proving highly contentious, and European courts have recently weighed in against industry on the right to be forgotten.The end of utopia?Many claim we have reached the end of the digital utopia, that the collaborative Internet is dead and that we can never return to the self-regulation of the happy Internet pioneer days. They ask why people have accepted to be locked up in social network environments that deprive them of any control over their most critical personal data. Pessimists see that our ability to protect ourselves from intrusions into our private lives is almost non-existent. They observe that we have become the cash cows of search engines and advertising agencies.
http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/mediapolicyproject/2014/06/04/the-future-of-the-internet-is-at-a-crossroads/