privacy? please...

Ahh the Interweb...

Access of information at your finger tips...

Knowledge at the push of a button...

Interweb, before you came along we were huddled masses, marching into libraries, hunched over periodicals and encyclopedias, desperate for wisdom...
But at least we were safe (relatively speaking of course).
At one time, our lives didn't revolved around jolts of electricity and glowing screens. The world of opportunity was just outside the door, and everything you knew and loved was safely nestled away somewhere in your home, hidden if you wanted it to be, from the world outside and prying eyes.

The Internet is an avenue, a two way street if you will, for information retreival. While you're searching for information on someone else, someone is searching for information on you. And there are people out there who make it their live's work to hack into your hard drive, steal your passwords, email addresses, banking information, addresses, etc. (It's so devilishly easy there are sites dedicated to hacking, like How to hack everything from PCMag.com)

And here's where I can speak from experience. Recently, after an explosive "break up" (which wasn't really a break up because we were never together but that's another story in itself) I woke up to find I couldn't gain access to any of my accounts - hotmail, messenger, gmail, facebook, *sigh to be admitting this* dating sites - all my passwords had been changed.

I'm one of those people who runs home and jumps online. My world revolves around the net... What can I say? I'm of this generation. Also, I'm living in a big country, far, far away from my family and childhood/lifelong friends - the net is the cheapest, easiest way for me to stay in touch with them.

It literally felt like I'd lost my whole world.

Remember having a diary? Remember hiding it where you thought your brat of a brother wouldn't get his hands on it, carefully concocting secret languages that only you could understand (or so you thought)... and how horrible you felt when you found out he deciphered it and told all his friends about your practicing french kissing with your stuffed doll? (I'm not speaking from experience, seriously...)

That's what it felt like for me when I realised this guy, who was trying to be malicious, had gotten hold of my passwords and turned on me. Thankfully, facebook and Microsoft are fabulous and keep your information on hand so they can help you retreive and change... but he went another step and deleted all of my contacts and photo albums (that's 29 albums people... 29!!!) and all of my email addresses and contacts from my hotmail. I had addresses on there I'll never be able to get back. And I'd been saving emails for at least two years. They meant something to me.

I don't think I could have felt worse if he came in and stole my address book.

The point of the matter - the Internet isn't safe; If you live on it like I do, your world and your life is basically an open book - privacy comes at a cost, and someone is always willing to pay more to get at what you're hiding than you are to hide it.

Sure, we've seen Chris Hansen on To Catch A Predator ; we've heard the reports on losing your identity through credit card theft; we've been warned to only use secure sites. But you never think it's going to happen to you.

We're still naieve in thinking that we are completely safe with what we have online. My suggestion? Back up everything... and I mean EVERYTHING you do - contact lists, important emails, pictures, everything. Have hard copies somewhere. Or you'll be suffering like me...

And if you're still keeping a diary, hard copy, do me a favour. Hide that too. Because if they can get into your email, they'll have no qualms about reading it. Trust me, I know.

RELATED ARTICLES AND WEB SITES

Internet identity theft bill introduced

Scambusters.org

Avoid web-based email password theft

PHOTOS PROVIDED BY CORBIS

citizen journalism at it's finest

oops!

somehow, in my infinite wisdom, i deleted the video that was here. so it has been reposted above.

thank you blogger. you have made me feel like a genius today.

your fad put me out of a job... or did it?

Do you use the Internet?

Have you ever written a comment about something online?

Maybe you took pictures of an event and posted it on your facebook, myspace, blah blah blah, that list is endless.

You're a citizen journalist.

You just took my job.

No, I'm kidding. But seriously. Maybe you didn't realise it, but going online and adding your opinions, pictures, thoughts, recipes, sexual fantasies, etc. got you involved in the act of bringing news to the people. Maybe it's not really important news (how many people care about what you did with your boyfriend last night? Maybe one or two... and they're probably faking anyway) and maybe it's not even the truth. But it's the basis of what journalism is. So without even knowing, you've become a journalist. Accidentally! Oops! Didn't see that one coming, did you?

Journalism is one of the only careers where it's totally acceptable to not have a degree and still practice. There are so many people out there passing themselves off as professionals when they just know alot about what they're talking about. Ask a journalist to explain journalism to you. I'm sure you'll get a weird look and then some excuse about a pending deadline that needs all of their attention right away. If we knew them, why would we divulge our secrets to make it easier for others to do what we do the way we do it?

There's still this huge debate on the existence of citizen journalism. But since journalism is already one of those broadly defined topics, I think there's a place for it. You're a journalist - you're just not getting paid. You know what we should call you? Interns. That's right - most journalism students actually fight for positions where they can write stories and not get paid for them. We have to scour the streets searching for the next big thing, bang on doors and talk to countless boring people in order to find those few interesting tidbits that consumers are going to want to read. You just happened to be waiting in line at the bank with your camera phone in hand when those belaclava-clad men pulled out their machine guns and started yelling at everyone to hit the deck. You're journalism-ing (I made that word up just now. If you're from Webster and you want to use it, you need to ask me first) from the comfort of your lumbar-supporting, obus form, swiveling computer chair at your leisure. You armchair journalist, you. Run out and tell your folks, I'm sure they'll be proud you accomplished something.

Ok, so there are places out there taking this phenomena and using it to their advantage, like nowpublic and orato, and that's great. Why not harness the power of the people... it's free... if Al Gore could, I bet he'd suggest we use human power to power the world. Wait... he does suggest that. Never mind...

And sometimes, citizen journalism can be great. In fact, I'm a huge proponent of it... although maybe you can't consider celebrity blogging to be citizen journalism... but as a quote unquote professional student journalist, it's my biggest guilty pleasure, and one I'm not afraid to hide.

So blog on citizen journalists, blog on... and more power to you. One day you'll all get bored of it anyway and jump on the next bandwagon that rolls by... it's how you jumped on this one anyway.