Americans are deeply worried about criminal activity online, and these concerns may be a factor in the public’s support of the right of the FBI and other law enforcement agencies to intercept criminal suspects’ email.
During the second half of 2000, when much attention was focused on the struggles of dot-com firms, the overall Internet population continued to grow at a healthy clip as women, minorities, and others flocked online.
Online Americans have great concerns about breaches of privacy. At the same time, they do a striking number of intimate and trusting things on the Internet, and the overwhelming majority has never had a seriously harmful thing happen to them online.
The “Love Bug” virus, which interrupted online life in many places around the world in the first week of May 2000, afflicted a surprisingly small number of American Internet users.