Internet traffic cutting through the US to foreign shores
August 30, 2008
While the internet that we just can’t do without may have originated in the US, it looks like the home-country is now seriously concerned as internet traffic seems to be bypassing it. Reason?
Since passage of the Patriot Act, many companies based outside of the United States have been reluctant to store client information in the U.S.,” said Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington. There is particular sensitivity about access to financial information as well as communications and Internet traffic that goes through U.S. switches.” Sounds justified, isn’t it?
Countries of course have realised how depending on other countries for internet as an infrastructural requirement has several disadvantages and puts them in a rather vulnerable stand. This lack of trust and this shift is not happening in developing countries alone, but even in countries like Japan, who are building parralel routes in India and China, to reduce dependence on the US.
While the United States carried 70 percent of the world’s Internet traffic a decade ago, he estimates that portion has fallen to about 25 percent. That’s sad.
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