Privacy and the Quantum Internet

Lloyd, Seth. "Privacy and the Quantum Internet." Scientific American 301, no. 4 (October 2009): 80-84.

This article discusses a new technology, which, in the future, could offer people true privacy while surfing the net. Currently, search engines such as Google can track individuals’ internet searches, and they do so as part of their business model to individually target advertising. Even when users’ searches are intended to be anonymous, there are ways that search engines can track the user’s behavior with identification numbers that reveal their on-line searches and behavior. The author, Seth Lloyd, introduces a new technology that promises a private version of the internet called the Quantum internet in this article.

This quote from the article explains how the technology works:

"The ability of quantum physics to supply complete privacy stems from a simple fact: systems in the quantum realm (which includes anything from elementary particles to molecules) can exist in multiple states. At any particular time, an atom can be in several different places; a particle of light, or photon, can be polarized both vertically and horizontally; an electron's magnetic moment can point up and down, and so on. As a consequence, whereas classical (as opposed to quantum) data bits register either the value 0 or the value 1, quantum bits can register 0 and 1 at the same time. Also, whenever a quantum bit takes on the values 0 and 1 simultaneously, you cannot make an exact copy of that quantum bit, and any attempt to do so will change the state of the bit. This rule, known as the no-cloning theorem, also applies to strings of quantum bits, which, for example, can represent words or sentences. As a consequence, someone eavesdropping on a quantum channel--typically an optical fiber carrying photons in multiple polarization states--will not be able to "listen" to the communication without disturbing it, thus revealing the intrusion." (Lloyd, 2009)

There are many challenges presented that face the developers of this technology, but they estimate a version of this type of network could potentially become available within five to ten years. Google has expressed some interest in it if they can modify their business model to accommodate this type of technology, allowing users to do private searches. Perhaps users seeking privacy may have to pay for their internet searches in contrast to the free version of the internet which is not private.

In conclusion, the technology has already been created and tested in a laboratory setting, so this could become a reality in the future – the technology has the potential to revolutionize the internet.

This is an interesting article geared towards engineers and programmers, yet written in language simple enough for the average techie to understand. There really hasn’t been any user testing done on this technology yet, as it is so new and still in the development phase. The article is written from the perspective of introducing and describing this new technology with its’ obstacles to overcome and potential future benefits to realize.

The article is somewhat relative to my research topic in two areas: the article offers some validation to the idea that the reason the internet is not private is because of the current business model it is built on, which specifically relies on the knowledge of peoples’ internet searches and behavior while using the internet/world wide web; it also offers evidence that technology could be developed that offers users privacy while they’re on-line, if developers and companies decide that investing in and developing this type of technology is worthwhile for them.