Social Media and Personal Privacy

Social Media has transformed our lives dramatically. With the help of Facebook we can remain connected with all our friends and even long lost acquaintances easily via a simple search. Twitter is so powerful that it can topple entire governments and usher in regime changes. But the use of social media comes with a hidden caveat, the data you publish on your profiles is permanent and can be misused.

Through your Facebook profile you offer a glimpse into your entire life. Any random person can piece together your lifestyle simply by looking at your profile page, for it contains information about where you work, your current city, your education, your friends and your family members. In today's data driven age this is a treasure trove of information for any "Social Engineer". Who is a Social Engineer? A person who is capable of misusing the information you furnish on social media for fraudulent purposes.

Information divulged on Facebook can also be easily misinterpreted by prospective employers who conduct an online search during the background verification process.

The photos you share of your family members and your loved ones can be saved to the harddrives of vicious nefarious entities called "stalkers". When looked at from this perspective, sharing is a daring and risky endeavour!

Twitter is an entirely different paradigm. In several countries you can be held accountable for vocally voicing your revolutionary tweets against any establishment. This has led to jail time for several Tweeple in many countries where free speech is repressed.

How to stay clear of trouble while maximally utilizing social media?

In Facebook, turn on profile picture guard and set the privacy category of all information you share to Friends only. Ensure that you approve only the friend requests of people you personally know.

In Twitter, refrain from sounding the bugle at all times and utilize the retweet feature with a disclaimer that the views are your own.

Social Media is veritably a two edged sword. Caution is the word when it comes to its use!

Supercomputers in your palms - Technological magic!

The unfathomable capabilities of the incredible wondrous automatons of the 21st century, Computers, is fascinating.

We are all now living in the age of information. This age can be boldly categorized as the most advanced age in the history of mankind and of the Earth itself. Communication has advanced to the extent where one can instantaneously initiate a video conversation with another halfway or even to the most extreme locations in the World using just a small device called the smartphone.

This advent of the information age is a boon for humanity. For a nominal price one can acquire a smartphone - a device which is a supercomputer when compared to the first satellite in space - Sputnik.

We are now in the age of robot assisted surgeries, bionic implants such as circuits embedded inside the human body which augment the senses, artificial computerized retinal implants which allow the blind to see, bionic legs which allow for paraplegics and quadriplegics to walk, robotic machines which assist soldiers in war, electronic cars which are touted to save the world from pollution, space exploration and colonization proposals which are going to open humanity's foray into space colonization and even nano robots which will perform targeted nano surgeries to alleviate ailments. The applications of technological advancements are poised to propel humanity into an age of singularity - the union between man and machine.

Futurists are claiming the advancements of scientific research will even enable humans to upload their consciousness into devices which will permit the attainment of immortality.

Such enormous transformation facilitated by the development of the wondrous automatons called computers! This is indeed magic. In the words of famous author Arthur C. Clarke - Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

Rant #1

Who said the Internet is virtual?

What happens on the internet affects the real world.

Since the Internet exists in our minds, which exist on the basis of synaptic connections, which are real, how can the Internet be virtual?

It is based on the physical interconnections between physical devices called computers, and we operate these machines with our synaptic connections, and so we manipulate reality by transforming it to the so called virtual domain which then reflects back on the reality we live in.