Bollocks

I hate articles like this one.

"This illusion of privacy leads people to be a little freer in their disclosure," Symantec Corp. security researcher Nick Sullivan wrote in a post to the company's security response weblog on Friday.

Of course, no where in the article does it mention that Symantec is arguably the largest purveyor of computer security software (a little program you may have heard of called Norton AntiVirus), and that it is in their best interest, financially, to spread FUD about identity theft and computer crime. It's like writing an article about a study some guy did complaining how long it takes to walk between places, and then you find out he works for a car company.

The concerns he lists about Facebook are blown out of proportion -- he says the danger comes from Facebook sending e-mails including links for users to click on. His argument is that identity thieves could send e-mails with fake links and try to steal information from people. Well then the problem isn't with Facebook, it's with idiots who don't pay attention to what links they're following. This isn't a danger specifically with Facebook, but rather with the ENTIRE INTERNET. People should know by now that just blindly clicking the 'Yes' button and not paying attention to what you're doing on the Internet can lead to spyware and fraud. He only brings up Facebook because it's a popular site and will get people's attention.

This frustrates me on another level because it panders to the consumerist mindset. People feel like they shouldn't actually have to think for themselves, and that everything should be safe and easy from the get go. And while I agree with making laws to curb illegal schemes and the dangers of using the Internet, I also think people who don't exercise caution on the Internet deserve what they get. After all, just because we have lanes painted on our roads and light signals hanging above them doesn't mean I should expect to be able to cross the street with my eyes closed and end up still in one piece. We still need to take basic precautions to protect our own well-being. It almost seems to me as if people today, more and more, feel the 'entitlement' to ignorance. Like they have the right to not be bothered with details. Well, if one can't traverse a regular highway blind, then I don't see why the information highway should be any different. But I think that the general populace would rather have an easy, cookie-cutter solution (like, oh say, I don't know, purchasing & installing a computer security software program) than actually taking the time to pay attention to what they're doing. This doesn't just go for computers and the Internet, but many aspects of Western living. Like rather than hanging out with the poor and getting to the bottom of the problem of poverty, people would rather just write a cheque and then walk away and think about something nicer, but I digress...

At any rate, back to the original point, I would expect shill articles like this from American media companies, but I have a higher standard for the CBC....disappointing.