La fausse transparence du réseau

The development of new networks of telecommunications (telematics, cable, videocommunication, RNIS - digital network with services integration - network of cellular phones...) is greeted by speeches praising their value as communication and transparency tools. The truth is that, inside the frame of obvious technical and financial strains, the network is widely open to the needs and desires for information and self-expression of the users who sometimes invent even non-intented uses, as shown by the example of a certain kind of electronic mail, box based on the French « Minitel » : the « Messageries ». Those news tools, however, can't just be considered as remunerated facilities for communication. Like the Roman god Janus, the network has a double face : one is smooth, transparent, and known by the user, and the other, more secret, is not apparent and the user ignores its existence. Through precise examples, it is this dark face that one intends to reveal. For operators and media people, networks are means to accomplish, unknow from the user, a certain number of operations

Computer security · Face (sociological concept · Frame (networking · Janus · Sociology · Telecommunications · Telematics · The Internet · Transparency (behavior · World Wide Web · Business Strategy and Innovation · Computer Science