Almost all businesses around the world have set up websites to trumpet their products and services. Numerous businesses have also set up Web-based mechanisms to sell or give away their products, including hard goods, downloadable multimedia data, or information. Government agencies have set up websites to disseminate information, and to allow many of the official forms and instructions to be downloaded and submitted electronically by people. Individuals have set up websites to advertise their backgrounds, their opinions, and results of their work.
Newspaper publishers offer digital versions of their newspapers on the Web, mostly free of charge.
State and city maps, restaurant guides, hotel guides, movie guides, yellow pages, etc. have been put on the Web. The hardware technology includes thin clients or Internet appliances, switches, routers, multimedia transmission devices, etc. But it is already very clear that they will bring about profound changes in the way people, businesses, educational institutions, governments, etc. live and do things. Fraudsters have set up Web sites to lure people into buying goods and services, and do not deliver the promised goods and services. Data collection firms have started selling or disseminating data gathered on the Internet about individuals to firms interested in understanding potential customer and purchase behavior profiles, giving rise to concerns about invasion of privacy.