NetWatch

The net has always been to big too police completely - that's never been achieved. Still, there are people out there who'd like a piece of it, who like sticking their noses in where they shouldn't. In Night City, the main corporate force with this aim is NetWatch, the forerunner in the new breed of "cyber-patrol" services.

Background

NetWatch was founded in 2010 as a small electronics research firm, specialising in cybernetic enhancements (cyberware for clued-up juves). They hoped to capitalise on the new breed of implants being accepted by the public. For a while, the firm was successful, riding on the increasing popularity of cyberware, reaching a peak in 2020. From then on, though, their fortune's suffered. As the cyberpunk movement failed, so did the company's market, and it became clear a new source of revenue must be found.

Around 2023, CEO and founder Eric Wu realised that the new cyberware was the net. It was in everyone's homes, on every street corner, accepted by all. But how do you make money out of it? There's no way you can muscle the telco's aside, and fee-charging sites had notoriously failed in the past. He saw, though, that families were ready to pay for one more thing - security.

There were, and are, plenty of corporate families out there in the suburbs. Working parents, comfortable income, two kids. Wu saw that there was a gap in the market for something to help these caring mothers look after their kids. He came up with NetWatch, a subsidiary of his original company, dedicated to providing net monitoring and security services to the home.

In a few short years, NetWatch has become the industry standard home net security system. It purposefully does not compete with corporate systems, instead having a well-marketed and focused package, affordable to ninety-five percent of concerned parents. They're willing to pay well if it means little Johnny can't get into those nasty adult v-sites (although, of course, parental access is a different matter).

The Old Firm

NetWatch employs around thirty workers at its Night City plant. It owns a complex on a site on the outskirts of town, which is where all services are hosted. The entire NetWatch network is joined here, linking downtown to the suburbs, and back. 2027 turnover was promising at $90 million, a 5% increase on the previous year. Profits ran to $12 million.

Its parent company, Oltel, is home to several moderately-sized corps in and around the Night City area. Since the cyberware market collapsed, it no longer trades directly; now, it invests in promising start-ups and takes a healthy slice of the profits. Oltel turnover is increasing steadily each year, the last public quote being $770 million, with profits of $110 million.

Networked

The NetWatch service has become so popular mainly due to its price. For $25 per month, a home can be linked to the network and enjoy the standard package of security services. For $40 per month, a home can join the premium package, and make use of added security tools and full monitoring systems. Currently, the network has around 190,000 subscribers, ten percent of those premium members.

The package offers many useful facilities for the average corpzone family with a few v-terms around the house. Access to sites can be restricted based on a comprehensive database of "unsuitable" content, maintained at the NetWatch plant. This is by far the most popular use of the service, with parents being able to limit their children's access, while leaving the net open for themselves. NetWatch also offers a useful directory of places around the net to visit.

It is easy to monitor net usage under the premium package. If they have been flagged as "to watch", a report is automatically generated after each user's session, detailing where they have been, how long spent online, who they met, if they used an avatar, what programs they ran, whether they accessed virtuality, and if so, what they said and who to. If it sounds scary, that's because it is. It's a sad old woman's dream.

How it Works

After signing up, a home is visited by a NetWatch technician, who installs a network router. This small piece of kit routes calls which previously went to the home's phone provider, to the NetWatch plant. In effect, all communications are first sent to the NetWatch network, before reaching the outside world. Most streets have a NetWatch line running through them - although the poorer areas will not. It's a simple case of joining the router to the line, choosing your services, and exploring the world.

Most users will notice a significant speed increase after switching to the NetWatch network. That's because it all runs on less than ten-year-old high-speed cabling, while most telco's lines are copper or fibre-optic shambles dating back to the twentieth century.

Each member of the family has their own unique username and password, which they use to log-in to the network. This prevents unauthorised access and allows monitoring of specific family members, rather than simply the house.

Story hooks

There are plenty of possible uses for NetWatch in a game, particularly a net-oreiented adventure. Imagine if over 100,000 people relied on one network for their net access - imagine what would happen if that network failed. If your players are more devious, think about changing the "bad sites" database, or changing a few things in the recommended listings.

More seriously, think of the information. This is one large, up-front, info-grabbing machine. Every time it's members log-in, they're telling NetWatch where they are, how much money they've got, what their interests are, who they meet, and more. Some people would pay a lot for this kind of thing. Others would object to it, and tear it down.

Players should be questioning NetWatch's real motives. Is it just a home security business, or an ISA pawn?