The internet was privatized in 1989, so the answer to your first question would be yes. As for public GPS, I don't think so... the system was in place from the late 1970s (necessarily much less precise then than now), but with the threat of the Soviet Union still there, I can't see the system being publicized, which is kinda ironic because the Soviet Union had been using the GPS system to guide its sub-launched missiles since the mid-1980s. And to your final question, I say yes. Better the devil you know than the one you do not.