Both issues — censorship and privacy — have been accentuated by advances in information technology. Technological development has not only changed how business is conducted, but also has had a huge impact on personal and community identities.

When you are chatting or emailing on the Net, nobody knows who you are by anything other than the name you have given as your identity. Your physical characteristics — skin colour, height, physical features — are unknown. Your on-line characteristics are formed by your messages. What is known about you is only the image that you choose to give of yourself.

Identity: Anonymity can be liberating. Other users you come in contact with on the Net cannot look at your physical self or hear your accent and make assumptions about you. You are judged on the opinions and information you express.

Intrusion on Privacy: Personal information can be captured at certain sites through the information you have provided when you make an on-line transaction, or by tracking the user by using cookies. Data may be captured and analyzed without either the user's knowledge or consent. Their surfing patterns are collected and analyzed to classify them into marketing categories. Many companies now monitor employee e-mail, their argument being that any email leaving the company is the business of the company. Should anyone wish to contact an employee with urgent personal information there is a risk that this could become public knowledge.

Legislators, theologians, scientists, academics and business people are getting more interested in the impact of information technology on individuals, organizations and communities. The possible outcomes in the near future could be better — not necessarily stricter — legislation safeguarding user privacy, increased education in the proper use of the Internet, and more options for technological control that can be implemented based on user discretion. The alternative outcomes could be strict tracking of every user, together with numerous legislative bodies all imposing their own views on what information should be available.

The challenge ahead of us is to ensure that the benefits of the Internet far outweigh the real and serious threats brought about by the information revolution.