INVENTOR of the internet Sir Tim Berners-Lee has given a downbeat assessment of his world-changing invention to mark its 30th birthday.

The man who started his illustrious career working for Plessey in Poole’s Sopers Lane, and who used to live in Corfe Mullen, wanted to help his colleagues at the CERN nuclear research laboratory in Geneva communicate better and submitted the paper: 'Information Management: A Proposal' in 1989.

Now, following the Cambridge Analytica Scandal he said people had realised how their data could be manipulated. "When the Cambridge Analytica thing went down [people] realised that elections had been manipulated using data that they contributed," he said.

He also voiced fears about behaviour on the internet, adding: "I'm very concerned about nastiness and misinformation spreading."

He has urged global action to halt the web's "downward plunge to a dysfunctional future" and in an letter published this week said he felt that people were beginning to better understand the risks they faced as web users.

"We need open web champions within government - civil servants and elected officials who will take action when private sector interests threaten the public good and who will stand up to protect the open web," he said.

Former colleague Rik Ravado later wrote in a blog post at HubPages: “He and his then wife Jane joined Plessey Telecommunications in Poole in 1976 and, despite a first from Oxford in Physics, Tim was refreshingly down-to-earth in manner and appearance.”

He recalled the pay being “modest” but Tim and Jane fitting in well in the “thriving Plessey social scene”.

Rik remains grateful that his wife held on to his Plessey leaving card, in which, among 50 or so signatures, is the message “Good luck! Tim and Jane Berners-Lee.”

He said: “It's a shame that even software superstars seem to struggle to find anything significant to write on a leaving card.”