ALL THAT YOU LEAVE BEHIND...

A colleague of mine recently wrote a column that got me thinking... It was about people calling from "unknown" cellphone numbers, and how he would never pick up such a call, since it is invariably some kind of telemarketeer telling you've won something (if you'll let them try and convince you into timesharing a holiday home that you don't need, and which may often non-existent). Personally, both Pete and I do the same almost by force of habit. Our parents, siblings and close friends don't have caller non-ID. Neither do our bosses. So we can pretty much safely assume that its not quite critical for the person on the other end to reach us. Most often, we're right in doing so. But the lengths to which some people go to ensure they don't leave their mark brings to mind how extensively, in this day and age, we actually do leave pretty clear footprints wherever we go, and often, don't think too much about it. When you unwittingly call someone's cellphone using your own, you leave your traceable number (which they can then use to hassle you). When you visit a blog, Blogger allows a tiny encrpyted device to capture your ISP, and convey to the blog owner a whole bunch of information, indicating who you are, where you're accessing it from, how often you visit and even which details of that person's life you pore over. When you take part in some random lucky draw or survey, you can be assured that you're going to make it to some database, and that it is more than likely to end up in the hands of the last person you intended. And there are companies out there who put together extensive profiles about who you are, what you do, where you shop, what you buy, how much you pay for it, and eventually, that profile - YOU, essentially- gets sold as a product to marketeers. It's pretty scary. At the risk of never actually winning anything, I shun lucky draws, and the same goes for surveys, unless I have a really clear idea of what its for, and trust the person tasked with having to do it. When I visit a blog or a website, I am usually extremely aware that what I do/say on that website is traceable. When I post to this one, I also bear in mind that it is not just friends and family that read it, and censor accordingly. I guess the next logical step would be to consider the "unknown" caller option. But that would mean Mr Kow, and Pete, for that matter, not taking my calls, so I think I'll just leave that as just something to think about, at least for now. :) Art