"If we look at what has happened over the last two months, we see a drive in the U.S. and elsewhere to bring the Internet under increasing regulation for security purposes," he said. "There has been a lot of motivation for governments to act on privacy concerns, but those concerns appear to be receding as security concerns move forward."
Governments around the world are making their presence online felt in positive ways, most notably in the form of e-government programs. Canada, Singapore, the United States, Finland, and the United Kingdom continue to lead in providing government services online.
In the realm of broadband deployment, South Korea and Canada have the highest number of broadband subscribers per capita, followed closely by the United States, Austria, the Netherlands, and Belgium.
Mark Rhoads, the president of ITTA, said this year's report makes clear that economic and policy divisions in the offline world translate almost seamlessly into Internet space.
"We are realizing that as the Net becomes more a part of culture, the same fault lines that are out there in the economy and culture at large are going to manifest themselves on the Internet," he said.
See the full report on the Web site of the U.S. Internet Council.
Copyright 2001 The Washington Post Company
