Practicing privacy on other networks: network structures, economic arrangements, and identity strategies before cookies

Abstract

Building on recent work revealing pre-web and alternative-internet networks, as well as legal research in comparative privacy, this article analyzes and compares identification protocols and practices on computer networks in Europe and the U.S. beyond the TCP/IP internet and contemporary web. These networks will include packet-switched networks, BBSs, videotex, online services, and early web browsers. In each, we describe privacy as practiced through network architecture, authentication and economic structures, and user anonymity and control. The article intends to contribute not only to our understanding of an older digital Europe but also present disputes and future policies.