Discussions of user 'handles' on this site are one aspect of the world's new 'battleground'.

The U.S., Russian, European and Chinese governments are actively involved in internet espionage, both political and economic. All of these governments would have had a difficult time acquiring information about my father who never owned a cellphone or computer and who snail-mailed his banking. Eavesdropping on our analog Princess home phone for any length of time in the 1960s, as my Mom bitched to her sisters and my sisters whined to their beaus, would likely have caused any foreign agent to commit suicide.

Now EVERYTHING I write and speak and EVERY financial transaction I perform is accessible to any of a number of foreign governments.

Who benefits from this 'open access' to the information about the world's citizens?

ALL governments that want to accumulate power.

ALL corporations that want to target consumers.

All terrorists that want to overthrow the government.

Perverts of various stripes.

The 'new media' has certainly not increased personal freedom. Quite the contrary: it has savaged personal privacy and diminished freedom of speech.

Do not forget that now all nuclear weapons, all missiles, all armed drones, all satellites and all military aircraft are connected to the internet, accessible, as Donald would say, to that 400 pound teenager in Newark. And the one in Kursk. And Huludao.