Policy Briefs - Internet Society

Policy Brief: Age Restrictions and Online Safety

Pato Sine — Thu, 04 Dec 2025 12:01:00 +0000

While often well-intentioned, policies requiring age checks create risks for people’s privacy, security, and access to an open Internet.

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Policy Brief: Licensing Approaches for Community-Centered Connectivity

Internet Society — Fri, 28 Nov 2025 11:42:07 +0000

Discover how community-centered connectivity solutions empower underserved areas. Explore updated licensing options and principles for meaningful connectivity today.

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Policy Brief: Internet Governance

Internet Society — Wed, 26 Nov 2025 18:02:23 +0000

This policy brief explores the key considerations, challenges, and provides guiding principles of multistakeholder Internet governance of openness, inclusiveness, transparency, collaboration, shared responsibility, accountability, consensus-driven and pragmatic evidence-based approaches.

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Policy Brief: Enhancing the Resilience of Submarine Internet Infrastructure

Agustin Bianchi — Thu, 13 Nov 2025 19:13:09 +0000

This document presents a forward-looking and optimistic approach to enhancing Internet resilience through practical and policy-driven solutions.

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Policy Brief: Open Internet Standards

Agustin Bianchi — Wed, 29 Oct 2025 15:45:20 +0000

By actively promoting and formally recognizing open standards in public policy, we can protect the building blocks that enable interoperability, compatibility, and consistency across networks, countries and markets, to ensure the Internet remains a vibrant, interoperable, and open resource for the world.

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Policy Brief: Internet Shutdowns

Agustin Bianchi — Tue, 28 Oct 2025 19:12:48 +0000

This policy brief urges policymakers to adopt policies that eliminate shutdowns as a tool and to analyze and weigh the effects of restricting access when addressing policy and security issues, while also advocating for a free and open Internet.

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Policy Brief: Spectrum Policy

Agustin Bianchi — Tue, 07 Oct 2025 16:31:18 +0000

We need deliberate policy and regulatory measures to ensure spectrum availability for community-centered initiatives.

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Policy Brief: Perspectives on Internet Content Blocking

Internet Society — Thu, 04 Sep 2025 11:31:06 +0000

The Internet Society encourages policymakers to prioritize solutions that tackle harmful content at its source, rather than relying on blunt technical measures that may create negative externalities to the open and global nature of the Internet.

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Policy Brief: IoT Privacy for Policymakers

Ivana Trbovic — Thu, 19 Sep 2019 14:49:39 +0000

Introduction The Internet of Things, or IoT, is the latest wave of integration of technology into our lives and surroundings. This rapidly-spreading new generation of devices brings cameras, microphones, sensors, computing, and network access into non-computer products. It extends into the home, retail and public spaces, enabling new forms of interaction, entertainment, commerce, and communication. […]

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Policy Brief: Principles for Responsible Data Handling

Ivana Trbovic — Tue, 02 Jul 2019 13:14:09 +0000

Introduction More and more of our activities generate data which is collected and used in ways we don’t see and can’t control. While the data is used for analytics and targeted advertising that can potentially improve services enhance our experience as consumers or public service users, its use can also undermine privacy, autonomy, and trust […]

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IoT Security for Policymakers

Ivana Trbovic — Thu, 19 Apr 2018 10:48:32 +0000

“Cybersecurity will be the most pressing challenge of the next decade, and IoT will play a critical role in it.” Internet Society 2017 Global Internet Report Introduction The open nature of the Internet creates the ability to connect devices, applications and services on a scale that transforms the way we interact with our environment and […]

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Policy Brief: Internet Invariants

Internet Society — Tue, 18 Oct 2016 09:33:07 +0000

As the Internet becomes an increasingly more pervasive and critical piece of infrastructure, we need to understand both the network’s challenges and opportunities if we want it to continue to serve as a vehicle for social empowerment and economic growth. This means knowing why the Internet works the way it does and why we should not interfere with its fundamental properties, called Internet invariants—properties that do not change even as the Internet does. These consistent architectural principles and structural rules facilitate the Internet’s undisturbed evolution.

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Policy Brief: Zero-Rating

Internet Society — Fri, 07 Oct 2016 13:54:21 +0000

Recognizing that zero-rating has become a marketing tool for service providers and a policy issue for regulators, the Internet Society aims to provide a general framework for reviewing zero-rating offers.

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Policy Brief: The Internet of Things

Internet Society — Thu, 06 Oct 2016 13:57:58 +0000

Billions of smart devices are expected to come online in the coming decade, bringing with them the promise of global economic opportunities and new innovations that will transform the way we work, live, and play.

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Policy Brief: Encryption

Ivana Trbovic — Thu, 09 Jun 2016 15:07:59 +0000

Encryption technologies enable Internet users to protect the confidentiality of their data and communications from unwanted observation and intrusion.

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Policy Brief: Identity on the Internet

Ivana Trbovic — Thu, 09 Jun 2016 08:57:26 +0000

On the Internet, your digital identity is not just a name, it is who you are and your key to online interactions. Digital identities help users protect their privacy; segregate personal, social, and professional online presences; and engage in trusted transactions with storefronts, banks, medical providers, and governments. Identity-driven innovation can encourage a more secure banking sector, more trusted digital trade (e.g., electronic signatures and mobile payments), and a more efficient e-government sector (e.g., electronic tax returns and e-voting). For these reasons, digital identity is a key aspect of many Internet policy issues, including privacy, consumer protection goals, e-government services, digital trade, and trust in the digital economy. In short, a trusted digital-identity ecosystem is a critical component of a trusted Internet.

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Policy Brief: Adoption of IPv6

Ivana Trbovic — Wed, 20 Apr 2016 11:12:44 +0000

The IPv6 protocol standard is critical for supporting the Internet’s continued development. Network operators, content providers, software and hardware developers, and enterprises, among others, need to implement IPv6 in order to ensure efficiency, global connectivity, and long-term growth of the Internet.

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Policy Brief: Botnets

Internet Society — Fri, 30 Oct 2015 15:37:06 +0000

Botnets are a complex and continuously evolving challenge to user confidence and security on the Internet. Combating botnets requires cross-border and multidisciplinary collaboration, innovative technical approaches, and the widespread deployment of mitigation measures that respect the fundamental principles of the Internet.

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Policy Brief: The Challenge of Spam

Internet Society — Fri, 30 Oct 2015 12:11:10 +0000

The proliferation of spam email presents a harmful, costly, and evolving threat to Internet users. Governments can help reduce the impact of spam by deterring offenders via effective laws and enforcement measures, multistakeholder antispam efforts, the adoption of best practices, and citizen education about the dangers of spam.

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Policy Brief: Privacy

Internet Society — Fri, 30 Oct 2015 12:03:34 +0000

Privacy helps reinforce user trust of online services, yet online privacy is under constant pressure of being undermined. Promoting strong, technologyneutral data-privacy laws, privacy-by-design principles, and ethical data-collection and handling principles is a key approach to protecting and fostering online privacy.

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