Thursday, November 02, 2006

Post 10: Technology and Privacy

Have you ever experienced any kind of personal information theft by others in a real world? (For example, your credit card information is used by others or your other personal information is used by others) If so, please share your experieces. If not, what do you think about the access to your personal information on the internet or new technolgy?

2 comments:

Ko-Jung said...

It is very rampant in my country that personal information was theft by criminals who manipulate this theft information to set a fraud or plot cheating people of their money and property. Inevitably, I did have these similar experiences happened on me, my relatives and friends around me every day. For the most of time, it is common that people register on-line bank account and are requested to provide personal information, and the information technology sell this private information to criminals who create another new bank account or new credit card. Further, in the census register department of city government, some vicious officers cooperate with criminals by offering citizens’ personal information. However, there is a very widespread and “popular” fraud to deceive people offering their own information or money incautiously. As regards my personal experience, I often receive a phone call that someone crying for me and says that he or she is my friends needing money for emergency by wiring they money through transfer. Furthermore, my mother and father often receive a phone call that there is someone who called themselves as my mother of father’s son, which is me, and was kidnapped by gangsters. Fortunately
, however, I was stand beside my mother and father and see through this plot, but there are many parents would believe this scam and wire the money or provide their personal information to the criminals.
The reason that these frauds happen so frequently in nowadays is that the digitalization not only bring us more and more convenience but also bring more and more trouble. There is only saying that “The water that bears the boat is the same that swallows it.” So is the digitalization. The digitalization makes it possible that we can store and more and more information and data without limited of space and time, but it stills allows criminals to steal these information and data more easily. The government, in my opinion, totally fail to regulate or block or prevent these incidents occurred when face to the innovation of new technology. Therefore, I think the government should pay more attention and take more responsibilities and more actions not only on the incidents of theft personal information but also on the undesired consequences of technology innovation.

Av DG said...

This is a very interesting, albeit frightening idea. Fortunately, I have never had any of my online identitifications stolen. Maybe this is also because I put up very minimal digital information online. I put up photos (I can't make sure my photos have not been appropriated for other unintended purposes but that's beside the point) and very few blogs along with websites for the classes I taught back home.

However, since I have been here, I have had to buy stuff online and I can't be 100% sure that the credit card numbers and other private information will not be hacked and appropriated by someone else. It is a pretty scary idea. Come to think of it, it is no longer so far-fetched in this time and age compared to when movies like The Net hit the box.

I do not know what the consequences for an identity thief are, but I think that one measure that could be done is for these crimes to have really high stakes so people will at least think twice before doing it. Maybe the government can also put up more stringent policies for companies who have to solicit personal information and really hold these companies to their responsibilities instead of being won over by lawyer legalese (like in Soonok's readings).