Some years ago, in discussing future prospects of telecommunication, personal privacy popped up. The prompt was technology's ability to track individuals' movements and fine-tune advertising in ways that had hitherto been restricted to sci-fi movies. By know, the pervasive targeting pursues us everywhere. Online searches for the most trivial results in a host of pop up promotions that get you thinking how did they know? The future at the time is now. It is possible for one's cell-phone to track your location, even while one is window shopping and shortly options of what you're browsing will appear.
It all gets mixed up for the non-tech savvy. Refrigerators that will automatically re-order groceries, motion sensors have been in vogue to switch lights on and off and automated, driverless cars are being perfected. It all happens because data, yours and mine are available, pinched from the firsts in to the world of ether. It shouldn't be a surprise that Facebook now estimates it could be a figure as high as 87 million persons, whose data has been compromised and shared. Cambridge Analytica was initially probed for parting with subscriber data that may or not have been used to influence the US elections. It would now appear, there's more to it than meets the eye, not that it should come as a surprise.
Much before all of this open discussion, such data was and is used by intelligence and defence forces. It seems so convenient just swiping a passport at the immigration desk or a credit or debit card at point of sale (POS). That a lot of data is transferred doesn't figure top of the mind. Hence, online applications allowing for most details to come filed in. Knowingly or otherwise Bangladeshis have submitted their personal data for the National Identity or Smartcard, biometric registration for cell phones and the Know Your Customer (KYC) information submitted to banks. Given the more sophisticated systems overseas, one wonders why it takes so much time and effort to crackdown on terrorists and suspects. Perhaps someone may deign to inform us, the general public, how after the biometric system, SIM cards continue to be used for illegal VOIP. Some 1.5 million cards were disconnected. One direct recall the same number of people being arrested.
Identity theft is another red-flag in the world of data availability. Most online providers require email addresses with the assurance 'we will never disclose your personal information'. That in itself, is a laugh. Particularly, the innocuous statement that 'if you agree we will share your contacts with advertisers of products you use'. That's ironical. Without knowing one's preference how do they know? Those better-versed will have logical explanations but the trail goes cold for the individual once that happens. Digital marketing has become so invasive that it's quite a task to read an online article for the clutter. The growing junk messages on email takes time to delete and woe betide if there is a slight deviation from 'delete' to 'read'.
The concept of cloning cards, defrauded use of credit cards especially with online payments and as recently seen, shopping at grocery mini-market stores comes with dangers of being fleeced. The more prevalent crime of robbing persons leaving banks continues but hasn't conflagrated. That's partly due to a digitisation of crime. The law enforcing agencies have beefed up cyber-crime detection capabilities. Militancy was exacerbated by unbridled misuse of cell phone SIMs, or so we were told. Crimes such as extortion were to have gone down. Unfortunately the before-after stats aren't readily available. We, who no longer have anything personal left of our identities are as much in the dark as we were. Somewhere, someone made a lot of money in getting such systems pit in place. It's time for an evaluation of spend.
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