The Internet, Identity, and I


I hope you appreciate the great risk that I am taking here to reach you. I am writing in this blog knowing that a random stranger with a particular skill could get my date of birth, take my password, send message to my boss “on my behalf”, declare I have deceased, take a peek into my bank account (to get a good snicker), and if they have evil intention, they could get me and do with what they please.

Nope. This is not a movie. This is the internet, and that is the way things going around here. We can't live a normal life without it, but we need to be smart about it. For a start, don't use that filthy Facebook (and WhatsApp, if you can).

This topic of course cannot pass without the mention of our lord of the internet: Google.

I liked their "don't do evil" code. If that code is kept visible, and consciously remembered, it will be a strong guiding principle that set it apart from the rest of the real crooks of the virtual world. What is 'evil', and what is 'moral', are gigantic gray topics, and we are not going to argue about it. What concerned me is the news that the code was removed in 2015. Does it mean that they will do more, including evil things, to rip us off? To pawn our soul to consumerism? To sell our identity to serial killers?

One fact that needs to be highlighted: Google is an advertising company. They may make an agile Android mobile OS, the best search engine ever seen, the smartest email system, brilliant online working apps, nice Nexus phone, but eventually they need money to make all that happen. Many instances have proven that traditional retail sales model does not work in internet world. Consumers would rather get something at an affordable rate (say for $25 or sometime free) and letting go some of their personal details (to be sold away, directly or indirectly, so that someone can sell you other things that you may need), instead of paying the full price of $125 and keep their (false assumption of) anonymity.

Two rules that we need to remember: "There is no free lunch," and "If you are not paying for it, you are probably the product."

Three food for thoughts:
  1. If people can use the internet to harm others, for sure we can use it to help others too (or harm the people who have harmful intention). If internet fuels consumerism, how can we use it to fight terrorism?
  2. Is your private data that valuable (not your ‘privacy’, it is a different thing altogether)? Why would they want to know so much about you? To sell you a bottle of sugared water? I like to answer that with author David Levithan of his famous statement, “The universe doesn't care about us.” Maybe you have a different answer.
  3. What other options do you have? You have freedom to choose what would you like to do.

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