In the Web’s earliest years, browsers didn’t ask for camera, location, or notification access—because they couldn’t. This chapter traces how early HTTP and HTML interfaces quietly defined privacy expectations long before formal browser permissions APIs existed.
From CERN’s early Web servers to proxies, protocol gateways, and CGI entry points, the years 1990–1994 introduced the core idea behind API gateways: one place to route, observe, and control traffic headed to many backends.
In the Web’s earliest years, HTTP’s stateless design collided with real application needs: logins, carts, personalization, and workflow. This chapter traces how developers improvised sessions and how cookies began to emerge around 1994.