The Privacy Net
Raka Majumdar says that self-monitoring is the only way to shelter yourself from cyber-bullies
Bangalore, March 24:
The words cyber privacy might sound like an oxymoron. When one chooses to post one’s profile including the most personal details on a virtual notice board for public consumption, does one have rights to claim privacy? Apparently not. Most netizens would argue that even though they voluntarily put up information in the virtual world it’s meant for a certain group of people. But often hackers and miscreants abuse the very right to privacy of a person causing harassment.
Hackers gain entry into accounts, usurp passwords and in some cases, steal information and blackmail people by morphing their pictures and misusing them.
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| Photo courtsey: Sreesha Shetty Gowda |
Nairta Dutta, a professional says, “I’m always apprehensive about my online profile, especially since my Orkut account got hacked and I had to delete it, lest my pictures got morphed.So now I’m more careful and I add only people I know on my Facebook account, it’s much safer than Orkut.”Even though India has a system to monitor and prevent cyber crime, cyber police often lack basic knowledge of computers and technical familiarity with software to track cyber criminals.
India does have a section on cyber laws pertaining to criminal activities in the cyber world but one wonders if cyber crime is taken seriously. While hacking may be harassment, ethical hacking guru Ankit Fadia changed the way hacking is carried out. By ethical hacking, a hacking expert will hack into the owners’ system with his permission.
Fadia rose to fame at the age of 14 for hacking into a magazine website and later owning up to it. Today he gives advice to IT professionals on how to safeguard their systems from being hacked. Facebook and Orkut have certain filters by which only a certain people can view, comment or even gain access to a person’s pictures and personal information. But be wary, professional hackers can get past it. Unlike Facebook and Orkut, Twitter - another popular site in the social networking circuit - does not have any way to regulate privacy. Twitter which is a website where users keep updating their status message or micro-blog, is now a rage among netizens.
With celebrities joining the bandwagon, it makes Twitter a hot spot. But the drawback is that everyone and anyone who has an account with Twitter can view another users tweets or updates. And there is hardly any way one can prevent them from being read. “I’m hooked on Twitter now. The best part is I’m following my favourite Shahid Kapoor,” says Soumi Dutta, an engineering student.Shashi Tharoor often finds himself in a soup with his tweets hitting the headline. While social networking sites is a public platform where people can voice their views and ideas, media has gotten hooked on to these sites and are generating stories based on the musings of a public figure. While cyber life has become essential to every net-savvy individual, cyber privacy is an increasing concern.
Presently there is software that can protect accounts from being hacked. Even the basic anti-virus package will provide you with security from malicious software. But there is no fool proof method. Most people believe that it’s better to be safe than sorry. One should be aware of not letting out personal details like bank account information or other personal details. Cyber-bullies are always lurking around and one never knows when they will attack. Self-monitoring is the only way to prevent violation of cyber privacy.
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