Skip to main content

Your private details aren't so private any more

Well, here's another post on security on the internet. Well, there is no security on the internet.

With most private details up on the internet, and with Google being as efficient as it is, there is an utter lack of privacy. Anyone can dig up information about anyone.

Even riskier are the SNS (Social Networking Services). Under the pretext of helping people connect, they are actually making people reveal the most intimate details about their lives to others. And like in the previous post, I shall go back to Facebook.

The recent hullabaloo about Mark Zuckerberg stating that all information on Facebook shall be private by default shows that some people are (at least not yet) agreeable to an open reality show based on their lives. Of course, many don't care.

The type of activities which take place on Facebook are worrying too. Now, my friends on Facebook spend hours on useless apps which claim to predict their future, their deaths, and their love. Some of the stupid apps also claim to find out your first interaction on Facebook. Well, has anyone given a thought about what kind of people make these apps? They could be stalkers, paedophiles, people selling pornography, or simply identity thieves. And such people get access to not just a person's profile information when he uses an app, but also to all the profile information of his/her friends. A wealth of information about current locations, which some people are stupid enough to update real-time via GPS phones, but also photos, relationship status, further information about DOB, parents, friends, interests etc.

The scary thing is that no one cares about privacy any more. There are only a few people with genuine concerns about privacy, and they are a declining lot. Our interactions with strangers on the net in exceeding interactions with our real friends and family. This in itself is a disturbing trend. There is a desire to be famous, to be heard, and to have people who like you and think you are cool.

There is a saying, You are lucky if, when you die, you can count your friends on the tips of your fingers. Go and find some real friends. It's time to give the internet the boot, and to be with people that matter.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

On Harry Potter and why I dislike the series

There could not be a better time for this post. There could not have been a worse time for this post. Now that the penultimate movie of the series is out, and my facebook wall filled with people who loved the movie. But this is something I really wanted to say, and I shall say it anyway. Harry Potter is pathetic literature. Now, you must be wondering why I say that. There are many reasons. Firstly, the storyline itself is flawed. When a writer sits down to write anything, he/she must set up some essential rules about what is happening. These rules must remain constant irrespective of how many times he/she changes his/her mind. This is so that the readers are allowed to have some sensibility in what they are reading. In the fourth book, Rowling goes ahead and kills Cedric. Then, at the end of the book, the horseless carriages are there again. Nothing special. We all knew that they are horseless. But then comes the fifth book, and BAM, the horses are actually winged beasts that only thos...

Elements of a Story: The Whispers

I'm compelled to begin each post with a meta. That way, my blog posts seem less like essays or dissertations, and more like diary entries, or web logs. So here goes... I started this blog a little over a year ago. The main purpose of this blog was to experiment with styles of writing, and find an effective outlet for all the subjects I wish to rant about; saving my classmates the agony of having to listen to them. As I wrote this blog, I've experimented with so many styles, and have received comments claiming that my work is a shameless copy greatly inspired by so-and-so author/work. Fact is that I simply chanced upon that style. I read, so obviously, my work shall reflect the styles of those I admire, but I've worked out so many styles without even knowing that they exist, only to be informed of them later. Recently, I've been struck with the seeming absence of whispers as an element of a story. The more I've thought of the subject, the more I've been convince...

The Inheritance Cycle

So, the much awaited inheritance cycle is here. I thought I liked the series, but the last instalment has brushed aside that misconception. Read this review if you were a fan of Inheritance, but are disappointed by the last book, titled "Inheritance." If not, you may read at your own risk. So, to give an overview of the storyline. Eragon is a farm boy who happens to find a dragon egg. The dragon hatches, making him the first of the next generation of the dragon riders, the first destroyed by Galbatorix, a rider who went mad and seized the throne. Since dragon riders are immortal, Galbatorix, the tyrant, has to be killed. The same story of black and white, where the underdog is pitted against the mighty tyrant. Oh, and romance is thrown in for good measure, as Eragon is, for the entire cycle smitten by the elf Arya. So, even before the book was released, I had guessed some aspects of the storyline. Eragon would kill Galbatorix, Arya would get a dragon and become dragon rider, ...