Needless exposures

 It is a matter of grave concern that people are increasingly exposing their personal data , more dangerously the individual photos in public forums. Of late, there are many posts in social networks stating "today is my or my daughter's birthday" and post their latest photos. Just out of curiosity and with academic interest,  I pried further into the profile of the author of the post. Though the person is not in my friend list I was still able to have a good look at important features of their whole profile including their location, their previous photos, siblings, family  and I could say to a fair extent I had enough data to re-build the person's profile to my liking. With some more hunting with the latest sophisticated tools, I am very sure the complete profile of the person who is unknown to the intruder could be built. 

In another post, I saw a senior person posting his photograph at an international airport stating that he will be away from the heat and dust of India for the next six months. I am concerned that how much of efforts will be required to trace the person's house in his native place, which was visible in the social network, and what a field day the miscreants would have should they chose to pay a visit to the locked house !

Recently, I was fortunate to attend a lecture by a leading cyber law advocate who precisely but  elaborately dealt on how photos in unprotected social platforms could be misused and with what  consequences. He detailed that such photos in public forums are picked up methodically every few minutes and then analyzed for their utility (?) values, with the single photo of young women fetching the maximum for obvious reasons and how they could be used to milk further from the hapless victims. 

I sincerely wish such people who keep on sharing their profiles and programmes 'to all' learn more about the 'Dark net' and their activities !! People who frequent social network and boast that they could never live without it should better remember that whatever is posted in such public places are like matters dropped in the ocean and even if it is deleted within minutes, they are already into the hands of those whom you would not like to encounter. Present day technologies offer so much of tools that it is almost possible to recover and bring back anything except lost souls !

Already people in other countries are reported to be avoiding sharing pictures of the children with so many cases of paedophiles in the news. 

So dear friends, please refrain from sharing any travel updates or making such begging for blessings and also avoid posting the pictures of children. Cyber world is far more dangerous than the world we are used to and assume to be .

Shared in the public interest of being forewarned than repenting in leisure !!

Pollution of a different Genre

People are aware of different kinds of pollutions viz, air, water, sound and so on. But, of late a different kind of pollution seem to be catching up and doing the rounds slowly.

With the opening up of  communications, television channels have started airing opinions freely , at times even deliberately airing questionable and skewed opinions which leave lasting  impressions in the minds of innocent viewers. The language of the land is cleverly (mis)used to portray villains as innocent victims and at times even as heroes. Channels are being used to air opinions which will not stand the scrutiny of law. But, then who cares as nobody is really bent on following up with the multitude of television channels.

Though the yellow side of the ink media has also mushroomed it is being sidelined by the Internet media whose speed and reach it can ill afford to compete with. But it is to be remembered that back in the villages and yet to develop areas , it is the newspaper media that is still ruling the roost.

A matter of concern of late is the developing negative aspects of online sources and social networking sites. In the absence of an effective controlling mechanism and authority, people are at will spreading rumours and opinions which will be hard to justify. Before one could protest the incorrectness, the matter would have been spread to millions and the damage already done.

I was rather shocked to read some articles and reviews which were strongly opinionated and when contacted clearly the author was at a loss to justify the matter. Similarly, there were some articles on why investing in Gold is not worthy and why one should not buy immovable properties, why college education is not preferred etc.,. No issues in expressing such thoughts and everyone has freedom to express one's , as I do now. But the opinions given there are so skewed and fail to stand even the next level of scrutiny proves the hollowness of the arguments advanced and makes one wonder whether such articles were written with different intentions other than economic or financial ! My only concern is whether such misconstrued opinions are being forced down the throats only to form contrived pressure groups thus giving a sociological angle to the issue.

We had once heard of child locks being employed in Televisions. While there is no realistic possibility of enforcing such controls, the authorities are also weary of stepping in as that would tantamount to trampling on the 'freedom of expression'. How to stem this rot  !! As this pollution can spread multiple times faster than others and is more likely to affect youth of impressionable age, there is a crying need for attention on this.