Stifled...

Monday, June 30, 2008

Privacy Is A Luxury...

A few weeks ago, I got a call from a Malay lady. She, a stranger, asked if I was interested in some spa offer. I was working when I answered the phone. I declined politely, saying that I was not interested and the lady slammed the phone on me.

What irritated me was not her rude slamming of the phone, but the fact that she called me. I was irritated, not puzzled, because I know how she got my number. You know all those online forms and lucky draw coupons you fill up with your personal information? Websites and shops keep those information and sell it to companies that do telemarketing or online marketing. How do I know? Because my modules taught me so. So the next time you fill something up some form, just know that it will haunt you will SMS advertisements, spam and anonymous calls.

Privacy, something we value so damn much these days, is slowly disappearing. You can use secure passwords, lock your credit card in a safe, leave your identification card at home, but those cannot change the fact that hundreds of people out there already knows your name, your identification number, your D.O.B., and your credit card number. Do you, for a moment, think that your cellphone company doesn't have your information?

With globalization, privacy has become a commodity of the large firms. With this commodification, privacy, to everyone else, has become a luxury and not a right anymore.

End...

Hanged @ 2:57 PM