‘Kevin is getting treatment that’s outside the law.’ ibid.
Every day in Britain 100 people become a victim of fraud shopping online. Organised crime is now targeting the world’s biggest site. The eBay Scammers, ITV 2017
‘This criminal gang are offering cars, vans for sale on eBay that don’t exist … it’s a copy-paste using eBay’s logo.’ ibid. rozzer
Detectives from the London Regional Fraud Team are about to arrest a Romanian gang involved in a multi-million-pound eBay fraud. ibid.
That age began with a vicious power struggle to decide who would control the future of the just emerging web. A struggle that would end with an epic courtroom battle. Download: The True Story of the Internet, Science 2008
Invented in 1989 by an English scientist Tim Berners-Lee. ibid.
In the Fall of 1993 the Illinois geeks posted Mosaic online and made a freely downloadable gift to humanity. And what a gift it turned out to be. ibid.
Gates of course was the co-founder and CEO of Microsoft, the most important and fantastically profitable hi-tech company of them all. Over the course of two decades Microsoft had established a near monopoly over PC operating systems. ibid.
On 13th October 1994 after months of feverish non-stop coding Netscape’s new web browser Navigator finally hit the streets. ibid.
By the middle of the 1990s Moore’s Law and Metcalfe’s Law were working hand in hand fuelling an upward spiral: faster, cheaper more powerful PCs were increasingly connected together. ibid.
With a near-monopoly over Windows operating system, Microsoft controlled the ultimate platform. ibid.
The problem for Netscape was that Bill Gates and his company now viewed Netscape as its primary threat to their continued dominance. ibid.
But Microsoft had billions of dollars in the bank which let it do something extraordinary: rather than charging money for its web browser as Netscape had to, Microsoft was able to give Internet Explorer away for free, bundled and seamlessly integrated into Windows operating system. ibid.
It was all downhill for Netscape. A year later, its market share now in single figures and dwindling, the company that ushered in the internet age was acquired by a bigger but much un-cooler company AOL. ibid.
Its 1998 and the United States Department of Justice ... launched an anti-trust lawsuit against Bill Gates’ company. ibid.
While Jerry [Yang] and David [Filo] were goofing around they hit on an idea that would become the basis for one of America’s best known businesses. And turn them into billionaires. Today their company is called Yahoo. ibid.
Advertising split the early web community. ibid.
For the first time Yahoo had shown it was possible to make money on the Web. It was a crucial moment in the story. And it meant one thing: the Web boom had begun. ibid.
It was nice guy Larry [Page] that had the genius and insight that turned Search into something magical, and launched Google. ibid.
To find the most relevant sites what you had to do was count the Links. ibid.
Googlemania has gradually started to give way to creeping Googlephobia. ibid.
Google has come further and faster than any company ever before. ibid.
The age of e-commerce ... The early success of Amazon and ebay didn’t go unnoticed on Wall Street. ibid.
ebay stocks soared that first day. At the end of it the company was now valued at more than two billion dollars. ibid.
MP3 provided a way of compressing the data to a much smaller digital package. ibid.
The furore over the Napster/Metallica war boosted Napster’s popularity even more. Its user base was exploding. ibid.
Tonight: exclusive footage revealing the secret world of online shopping. The home deliveries driving us to distraction. How some rogue delivery drivers are giving the good ones a bad name. And does this ten billion pound delivery industry need a shake up? Tonight: Secrets of Your Online Shop, ITV 2018
Parcels neither signed, sealed or delivered. ibid.
Online shopping and delivery disputes are on the increase. ibid.
Tonight: Google and Facebook: just how much do they know? The tools they use to identify you even without your personal details. The terms and conditions we’re signing up for. And how other companies can harvest your information without you even knowing it. Tonight: Google, Facebook and You: What They Know, ITV 2018
Facebook’s success relies on the fact that we do give the social media platform a lot of our personal information. ibid.
Tonight: Old and offline and out of pocket. But can we bridge the digital divide? And does being online improve your life? Tonight: Priced Out? Old & Offline, ITV 2019
Nearly a fifth of the population are offline or lacking the digital skills. ibid.
Online sales are up by almost 60% in the UK … In the UK online sales have increased over 400% in the past decade. The biggest retailer here is Amazon. Tonight: Secrets of Your Online Christmas, ITV 2020
Buyers beware: Christmas cons revealed. The real cost of shopping online if you don’t play it safe. The imitation Christmas presents with dangerous consequences. And are we fighting a losing battle against the scammers? … The Christmas season is particularly lucrative for fraudsters. Tonight: Buyer Beware, ITV 2020
Hot tubs: it seemed the perfect early Christmas present for Jo and her family … They went to pick up their online purchase at the address they were given … ibid.
Requests to pay by bank transfer can be a sign of a scam. ibid.
A spokesperson for Paypal said, ‘Sellers need to be very wary if buyers ask them to change delivery address.’ ibid.
How technology is a power-tool in the hands of stalkers. How some smart home gadgets are making it easier than ever. But do we fully understand this growing threat and how to protect ourselves. Tonight: Tech Abuse: Stopping the Stalkers, ITV 2020
Do we rely too much on apps and smartphones? How do you navigate daily life without internet access? The phasing out of landlines? And who’s being left behind? Tonight: Online Britain: Who’s Getting Left Behind? ITV 2024
Fourteen years ago after it launched, Facebook is arguably the most powerful company in the world. But a series of recent scandals has exposed problems at the heart of the social network. Inside Facebook: Secrets of the Social Network, Channel 4 2018
We reveal how Facebook deals with extreme content … Far right groups getting special protection. Is Facebook putting profits before safety? ibid.
Unless they are streamed live, videos of physical child abuse are not usually reported to the police. ibid.
Facebook’s rules state that no-one under 13 can have an account. ibid.
The US Supreme Court on Thursday refused to consider overturning the conviction and life sentence of Ross Ulbricht, the accused mastermind behind the Silk Road website for the sale of illegal drugs to customers worldwide that was shut down in 2013.
The justices turned down Ulbricht’s appeal in which he claimed that federal agents unlawfully monitored his internet activity to try to connect him to Silk Road’s operation, leading to his arrest and conviction. Ulbricht also argued that his sentence of life in prison with no possibility of parole was unreasonable. Reuters online report 28 June 2018, ‘US Supreme Court turns away Silk Road website founder’s appeal’
Deep Dark Web: Anything that’s not indexed by search engines … an inaccessibly data dump filled by banks, governments, corporations and then there’s the invisible corner of it … ‘You can find ways to launder money, hire a hitman …’ Down the Deep Dark Web, Anonymous 2016
‘You install software that essentially hides your identity.’ ibid.
It was the Cypherpunks who have been responsible for the very first instance of the Dark Net. ibid.
Silk Road had been synonymous with the Dark Net; until the US government shut it down it had been the largest market of its kind. ibid.
The Dark Net has always existed in one form or another. ibid.
It’s a representation of a basic need we all have. ibid.
Hacktivist: A person who uses technology to effect social change. The Hacker Wars, Anonymous caption, 2014
Anonymous is a collective known for recent attacks on government and corporate websites. ibid. news report