Internet.org Now Allows Third Party Applications With Some Restrictions Of Course

The Facebook led internet.org is now opened for third party developers. This was announced on the Facebook media site. In a short video which featured the social media giant’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg reiterated his support for net neutrality which was upheld recently by the American FCC (Federal Communications commission)

There were tough guidelines and restrictions among which is that in line with the scope of internet.org, heavy bandwidth applications like VoIP and videos will not be allowed. Internet.org will also approve and manage apps.

An Internet.org graphic describing the proxy setup

On the security side, HTTPS is ruled out for users connecting over web and this poses a bit of security threat according to pundits. HTTPS contradicts the core objectives ofinterne.org which is to provide internet service to people in rural and developing economies with little use of bandwidth. It also means providing this service with little stress as possible. So internet.org acts as a web proxy allowing standard traffic flow thereby complying with one of the aims of net neutrality which Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg support. According to Verge, in the meantime, web access to Internet.org will represent a real problem for secure services attempting to take root on the service. Any web-based traffic to Internet.org will be visible not just to the Internet.org proxy but to all the intermediaries betweenInternet.org and the remote server, a necessity of the current proxy setup.

Image source: Verge