Saturday, February 19, 2005

Stalking should be made illegal

Stalking in any form should be made illegal, for example, it should be made illegal on internet to search about a person's e-mail and private address. If you are smart enough, you will never leave any traces of your home address or telephone number on net. However, some people leave their details on because they want to attract stalkers. Doctors. Dentists. Pharmacists. There are also people who make up identities because I did a search on rugby players and found one. Of course his detail is not real.
Physically stalking someone is illegal but if you can't find the person, and he/she does not know you have been to his/her place, then your act is not illegal. Or is it? Can you be found out if that person is unaware of your presence? What about checking their mailboxes? New Zealand post has done something naughty recently. They send out posties to check other people's houses. If they need painting, then the posties will report back to the paint company to send ad to these houses. That should count as stalking. However, New Zealand Post has discovered this is a serious breach of privacy so stop doing that. Good on ya.
What about stalking using e-messenger, MSN, Yahoo, ICQ and AOL? As long as you don't get on line, you will not be stalked. E-mail, by the same analogy, should be save as well. You can always have a second e-mail handy.
Privacy, at this day and age, is sincerely dead. Your phone number is listed in the Yellow Pages. Your address is listed as well. Who knows when The Terminator will find your house and come to eliminate you? Who knows when The Borg will come to assimilate you into their race? It's scary, but it is so easy to find someone now it's not funny.
Can we actually have any peace?
Do a google search of yourself. Don't be too proud if you find yourself because somewhere, some time, someone is on the internet doing the same search as you. Delete it.
If you are paranoid about not being found, don't list your phone number and address in the telephone book. That does have its downs because like the Telecom ad states, if you don't list your mobile, when your car breaks down and has no petrol, there's no way your relatives can contact you. There's also no way of trying to tell you there's no parachute in your bag. Haha. Seriously, that's life threatening.
Also, don't leave your bank account number out anywhere on net. That's dangerous. This also applies to Visa and other credit card numbers, Eftpos numbers, your pin number, you password, and so on and so forth. You never know when your account is going to empty. That's why I always worry about people in movies who transfer their money into foreign accounts. Even though they are major crime heads or thugs most of the time, but what if, at the same time, someone hack into their computer and take all their money? Wouldn't that upset your master plan of transferring your money to Swiss Account? Haha. Gotcha!

No comments: