Internet Cafés Disappear

Internet cafes, once being the communication hub in developing countries, are fast disappearing from our life. The reason is obvious – the rise in smartphones is making the need to go into a café largely redundant.

For example, in Rwanda one Internet café went from 200 daily customers to just 10. India is suffering as well – for instance, some businesses in the southern city of Mysore have opted to sell stationery or sweets instead of Internet access. In the meantime, Internet café owners have to diversify their offerings in order to include flight bookings, mobile phone top-up cards, and accessories for different gadgets. Even cafés in Myanmar, where mobile penetration is very low, are facing the same trend there.

However, more developed countries had seen cafés survive to cater for immersive Internet gaming. At the same time, the number of such cafes in South Korea dropped to 15,800 in 2012 from 19,000 in 2010. As for China, the number of online cafes there dropped 7% to 136,000 in 2012 from 2011.

The above mentioned statistics flies in the face of a 5-year study released by the University of Washington in July, which discovered that Internet users in developing countries still rely on such public venues as cafes and libraries for Internet access even when smartphones are available. The research insisted that one technology won’t replace the other and smartphones are not responsible for the current trend.

US Snoops May Blackmail Muslim Clerics

US spies seem to be tracking sort of porn Internet users were downloading in order to blackmail them later. Another Snowden leak revealed that the NSA has been collecting records of Internet sexual activity and evidence of visits to porn sites.

It looks like part of a plan to blackmail or harm the reputations of people who are radicalizing others via incendiary speeches. The idea is that a radical Muslim cleric won’t be taken seriously if his followers knew he spends the nights downloading porn.

NSA secret documents revealed that six Muslims became an example of how “personal vulnerabilities” could become known via electronic surveillance, and then used to undermine people’s credibility, reputation and authority.

For some reason, it fails to mention giving similar attention to born-again Christian priests who called for Obama to be assassinated – maybe because they are Americans and therefore immune from spying. However, the fact is that American presidents have always been killed by their own people.

NSA lists a number of vulnerabilities of its targets, including those who can effectively be exploited: for instance, “viewing sexually explicit content” or “using sexually explicit persuasive language when communicating with inexperienced young girls”.

According to the US Civil Liberties Union, the leaks led to serious concerns about abuse. The outfit explained that the NSA was collecting massive amounts of sensitive data about almost everyone, so it knows what you are downloading, too.

In should be noted that none of the 6 people targeted by the agency was accused of being involved in terror plots and all of them currently reside outside the US.

Europe Told US How It Can Handle Spying Crisis

The European Commission has provided the United States with a list of hoops it wants the country to follow before it starts trusting it. This is the result of revelations about National Security Agency and UK spying on everyone under its PRISM program.

The EC said that spying on its citizens, businesses and leaders was unacceptable and that people of European Union and the United States have to be reassured about protection of their personal information. In addition, the businesses also need to be reassured that the existing agreements between the two regions are both respected and policed.

The European Commission announced that it will set out actions supposed to help restore trust and strengthen information protection in transatlantic relations. They listed 6 areas that the European Union and the United States need to do to restore confidence.

The list includes swift adoption of EU's information protection reforms, improving the protection safeguards, and commitment from the United States for making use of a legal framework. The European Commission also wants to address its concerns in the on-going American reform process, as well as promoting privacy standards internationally.

The EC claims that everyone from the users to governments on both sides of the Atlantic want to gain from cooperation, based on strong legal safeguards and trust that they will be respected.