How trustworthy is the Internet Tracey Murray Access to HE

Can I trust what I find on the Internet? Aims To help you avoid being caught out by unreliable information on the Internet. To provide practical tips for judging which Internet sites are trustworthy

Not everything you read on the Internet is true or relevant There's so much material on the Internet that finding the right information can be like looking for a needle in a haystack. A lot of the information available will be irrelevant and not be of the calibre you require. Why does the quality and relevance of information vary so much? Think about it...

Not everything you read on the Internet is true or relevant anyone can put something on the Internet - an amateur or an expert a website can be hosted anywhere in the world but its information may only be relevant to a specific place - information concerning Brazil may not be of relevance to someone in Newcastle

Not everything you read on the Internet is true or relevant and leave it there as long as they like - even if it goes out of date or change it without warning - perhaps even remove it completely

Not everything you read on the Internet is true or relevant Think about how the Internet compares with a library A book on a library shelf has been checked at least three times by different people: the author checked their work, the editor has double-checked it

Not everything you read on the Internet is true or relevant the publisher decided it was good enough to publish it may have been reviewed a librarian selected the book for the library Information on the Internet has not always been checked It's up to you to judge what is trustworthy!

Not everything you read on the Internet is true or relevant Making judgements about the quality of information on the Internet can save you time and effort. Learn to make quick decisions about websites and whether they can help you. Remember, your Google search results might list:

Not everything you read on the Internet is true or relevant gossip on blogs next to official press releases! encyclopaedia entries next to spoof websites! quality newspapers next to gamers journals! The British Computer Society next to a School student on MySpace

Not everything you read on the Internet is true or relevant So how do you decide what to trust? Think like a judge! Examine the evidence Ask questions Consider the motives of people providing information Do not trust the information until you have found a good reason to do so

Not everything you read on the Internet is true or relevant Use the WWW technique! When looking at a website ask yourself the "three Ws": Who Where When

WHO Think about who is providing the information Remember, anyone can say anything they like on the Internet. Ask yourself: Who has written the information? Who has published it?

WHO Are they a trustworthy source of information? Are they trying to persuade me / sell me something / inform or misinform me? Useful Evidence You can get clues to help you answer these questions by exploring the site. Look out for:

WHO The author's name The name of the organisation publishing the information The About Us section The Contact Details (address / ) The URL

WHERE Think about where the information is coming from Remember, information on the Internet might be based on a computer anywhere in the world. Ask yourself:

WHERE Which country is the information coming from? Where is it held? Does the origin affect the slant of the information? Useful Evidence

WHERE You can get clues to help you answer these questions by exploring the website. Look out for: Any mention of the origin of the information The name and location of the organisation publishing the information The About Us section The Contact Details (address / ) The URL

WHEN Think about when the information was produced Remember, information on the Internet can be out of date, change without warning or disappear completely. Ask yourself: When was the information originally produced?

WHEN Is it still useful? Has it been updated? Is it going to be updated? Is it being preserved in its original form? Useful Evidence

WHEN You can get clues to help you answer these questions by exploring the website. Look out for: A publication date A last updated date at the foot of the home page The About Us section - does it say how often the site changes? Finding out "Who" and "Where" from the URL

URL URL stands for "Uniform Resource Locator" and is the Web address of the page you are accessing. You'll usually see one at the top of your browser when you have a Web page open. They look something like this:

URL What can a URL tell us? URLs may look tricky to unravel, but the best way to work out "who" and "where" is to break down the URL into its component parts. Let's look at the following Web address in detail:

URL Hand out sheet 1

URL You can often find out more about the nature of the organisation that owns the server from the organisation code. For example:.ac,.edu academic or educational servers.co,.com commercial servers.gov government servers.org non-governmental, non-profit making organisations

URL More clues: looking at country codes You can sometimes find out more information about the country in which the server is based from the country code. For example:.au Australia.ca Canada.de Germany.fr France.uk United kingdom Note however, that a country code will not always be included in a URL. Many American sites for example, will not have the country code (.us) in their URL.

Warning! URLs can sometimes mislead. For example, the URL: could plausibly be the address of an organisation promoting the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, i.e. the World Trade Organisation.

Warning!!! The site itself looks very much like the official site of the WTO, but in fact it is a satirical site by a group of activists, who simply bought the domain with a credit card. Hence URLs are useful as a guide, but they are not a definitive authority on the source of information.

Exercise Hand out sheet 2 Here are some websites for you to look at. Some of these sites are bogus and some of them are real. For each site you have to say whether or not it is bogus. Give a reason for each decision.