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

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