MANILA, Philippines — During its early days, the Internet, or Advanced Research Projects Agency Network or ARPANET as it was called then, was a much friendlier place.

Designed to keep scientists able to coordinate and share information in the likely loss of communications due to a thermonuclear attack, the Internet evolved into something much bigger and more complicated decades later. This evolution continues to this very day.

Today, however, the Internet is a virtual battle zone, with various combatants ranging from legitimate users, such as government agencies, companies, and consumers, to scammers, hackers, and a wide range of species of trolls.

The Internet has played a leading role in creating wealth, previously via the so-called electronic economy, and more lately through what industry observers have dubbed the Web 2.0 and social media.

All these hacking and scamming, however, might put everything online and virtual at risk of being obliterated.

Google’s No-Evil Claims

Faced with a huge PR backlash over its revision of its privacy policy, Google seeks to make known what it calls as “the real story” of its system for gathering and managing user information. A week ago, the online search giant has announced that it collects and keeps data on what users do on its Web sites, including Gmail and YouTube, as well as on Android smartphones and tablets.

Google claims, however, that the brouhaha has been more about users misunderstanding the policy. The company hopes that by baring the system for all to see, users might realize that Google has enhanced users’ privacy, and that there is no need for alarm.

Timeline Your Accounts

Last week, Facebook made Timeline compulsory for all its users; unless, of course, the Mayan calendar ended 10 months earlier than what the stone carvings say. So, by now, even the most ardent and vocal of holdovers have Timeline-reformatted FB walls.

And the world did not end as we thought it would. Timeline, it seems, is not as bad as we feared. In fact, there are at least two features that make activating (or being forced upon, as the case might be) Timeline worth the time spent doing so — the cover photo, which makes the FB wall look like a favorite blog, and the ease of calling up one’s earliest posts, even those made during the very day he or she joined FB.

Not bad at all.

Feds Delete Megaupload Data

After U.S. law enforcement agencies’ operations against online storage firm Megaupload for alleged copyright infringement, millions of users are likely to lose data they have entrusted with the company. Apparently, Megaupload has hired third-party service providers to store customers’ data.

The feds have frozen Megaupload’s money, which in turn makes the alleged piracy-promoting site unable to pay the subcontractors.

Indeed, some of Megaupload’s users might have committed digital piracy, and the company profiting from their nefarious activities. Unfortunately, even the law-abiding users who stored their personal data, such as photos and work-related files, in Megaupload’s leased storage cannot access these.

That’s all for the meantime, folks. Join me again next time as we keep on watching IT.