Internet Security

PRIVACY. PIRACY.
ARE WE SAFE? IS THE SITE SECURE?

WHAAAAAAT ?!?! THIRD-PARTY SITES?!?!

To tell the truth, I never really wondered about security online, especially about private information other than when I am doing online banking or shopping.

This is a huge issue now, and there are is a chance that privacy will have to be a paid privilege in future. This is a scary thought. If whatever we post, upload, view, watch or download from the internet is traceable and can be tracked by the conglomerations, hackers or the government, then our digital presence can bring us much harm.

 

For instance, I know of people who post their locations and their activities without restraint on the internet through social networking services as the likes of Twitter, Facebook and 4square which is available to everyone as long as they have the correct device to use it. As most people now have a mobile phone which can access the Internet, there are loads of stuff they can post online.

Facebook stalking is so easy nowadays. As long as one of your friends is a friend of someone you want to stalk, you can do it.

Once, I wanted to know more about my cousin Anna's boyfriend, I went to Facebook and check out his profile (which schools he attended, his interests), his photographs which is an amazing tool to learn a great deal about a person.
I found out he had a sister and even showed my aunt (Anna's mother). She had only seen him once and had not seen his family before, so she was also extremely interested. haha!

We have to be extremely aware of the way we present ourselves on the Internet, if not those who do not know us personally will conjure up an inaccurate impression about us. 



When I came to learn that the privacy settings that Facebook is altered. The users have to manually choose to not allow third parties to access their information and our preferences were disclosed for Facebook's advertising purposes. This was extremely disturbing. What if I was not aware of the change in settings, such as the less technologically savvy, or those who check their Facebook accounts not as often, they may not be alerted of this. There was no notification in the emails at all, and this caused a great deal of uproar.

There was also a case regarding the emails on Gmail. If I remembered correctly, a company's emails were let out due to a glitch and people were able to access their business deals information. This is extremely dangerous because in our hi-tech era, a great deal of negotiations and dealings take place through emails because it is instant, fast and reliable (or so we thought). In this information era, if confidential information are released, it can be detrimental for not only the individual but the company as well. Society is also at risk as we are all interdependent and connected in the global village.

Another thing I learnt about hacking was that hackers are extremely fast and their main aim is to get in and get out undetected. My computer may have been hacked a number of times but I would not know at all because I am but a mere user of the computer, with little to no knowledge on how to even go about checking or optimizing my privacy settings.

Beware.

E-learning

The advancement of technology and the greater use of the computer has brought about this phenomenon of e-learning. I was browsing through some websites in the past and came across advertisements that said that one can earn a degree through online universities. I was shocked! It seemed like such a hi-tech idea, but now we are doing exactly that in UB too!

For my NTR 110 module in UB, I had to download the lecture documents and the assignments. After reading through them and completing the assignment, i will upload the document to UBLearns, and my lecturer will mark it and post the results online. There were also article discussions I had to participate in as part of the assessment. I think that the pros of this is that I can do the assignments at my own pace and time as long as I hand it in within the stipulated time (Friday, 9am/ 5pm).

Personally, this is an extremely isolated form of learning as I still prefer the physical lectures like the ones we have on Monday and Thursday with Mr Abel Choy, and I can go to him to ask questions right away. Although E-learning allows this in the form of forums, discussion boards and emails, the lecturers and the students have to constantly check the portals or else they may miss something.

In addition, another downside of e-learning is that glitches can occur. For example, as i was trying to upload my completed assignment on UBLearns for my NTR 110 lab, there was an error, and my file was NOT uploaded! I was in so much panic because there was no way I can edit my submission and my lecturer previously mentioned that she would not accept the labs through email. I was literally feeling like the picture below:

I hurriedly emailed my lecturer and THANK GOD she accepted it. phew!

So this point of online assignment submissions is also dangerous in the sense that the technology "dies" on us, and cause distress which is uncalled for.

Social Media

The social media is wonderful!!

I did a mini survey and asked many of my friends how they learnt about the earthquake in Japan, and most of them said that they first heard it through Twitter or Facebook.

This may be due to the fact that the youths in Singapore are so technology savvy, reliant and absorbed that social media is more often than not the platform with which we use to communicate with our peers, family, organisations, institutions and probably even the government.

Personally, I was alerted of the earthquake via Twitter and then kept myself updated of the earthquake and tsunami through the CNN’s website, where live news stream of the calamity was broadcasted. I was actually very anxious in that period because my relative was in the States and I had to keep myself updated on the possibility that there may be a tsunami washing over the area he was in. The tsunami alert was up, but thankfully, there was adequate time for the people there to move to higher ground, so he is safe.

This is a print screen of the site, however, the video was already taken down, sorry about that!

I was vigilant for the better part of the night, and the trends on Twitter were flooded with #prayforJapan and #Earthquakes which made it easy for users to catch up on what the world was taking about and happening in Japan.

Rumours even sprung up, such as that of Yuko Yamaguchi (the Hello Kitty creator) and Satoshi Tajiri (the Pokemon creator) dying due to the disaster. They became twitter trends in no time as more and more people retweeted it. According to tweetbeat.com, a staggering number of 11,284 people tweeted about Satoshi Tajiri’s death in the tsunami within the time frame of 24 hours (Sunday Mar 13, 09:45 pm – Monday Mar 14, 09:45pm).

Yuko Yamaguchi (the Hello Kitty creator) 

Satoshi Tajiri (the Pokemon creator)

It was viral.

On the International Business Times website, it is said that the rumours stopped only when Satoshi Tajiri posted a status on his Facebook page that he was still very much alive and that his people are also safe.

Tajiri said, “"Dear Hummingbirds, what's this nonsense about me being dead?”.

No one really knew what happened but everyone just passed the information along because they trusted their source. However, at the same time, no one really knows the root source and if it is even reliable to begin with.

So, one still needs to double, triple and quadruple check the information before accepting them even if many are talking about it. It is just like gossips really, always check your sources.

References:

http://tweetbeat.com/events/13300-twitter-kills-creator-of-pokemon/replay

http://www.usatoptrends.net/4862/is-pokemon-creator-satoshi-tajiri-dead-on-earthquake.html

http://hken.ibtimes.com/articles/122160/20110314/pokemon-creator-satoshi-tajiri-is-still-alive-belies-earlier-reports-he-died-in-japan-quake-on-his-f.htm

My Online Shopping Addict

For this post, I am going to post some of my favourite shopping sites, as I feel that they have a great online business concept.

1. ASOS.com

This is an online clothing website that is based in UK.
They have a great variety of products ranging from female lingerie, clothes, cosmetics to male watches, bags and accessories. Their clothings range from sizes UK 6-28. So, people of all sizes can get a piece of their large collection.

Furthermore, many other brands also use them as a platform. They include Warehouse, Calvin Klein, Alexander McQueen, Dolce and Gabbana and U-Boat.
The cherry on the icing is that they are offering
free delivery worldwide!
So, you do not have to fret about postage and additional delivery costs!

 

They even have their own magazine, so that their customers can flip through their catalog as they would in the conventional manner instead of online.


2. eBay.com

Who can resist browsing through eBay which has EVERYTHING from TRASH TO TREASURE!
The best thing about it is its bidding system.
You enter the amount you are willing to pay for the product, and see if anyone else outbids yours. Then you decide if you want to continue bidding.

The confusing things about ebay which i encountered was its paypal system. What i learnt was that you buy paypal credits and then when you purchase an item, the seller receives your paypal credits and exchange it for cash.

Anyway, for ebay, one thing to look out for is if there are extra charges. Although many products are priced extremely low, the shipping is the one that KILLS!
Once i was browsing through for polaroid cameras, i saw a few that i liked which were pretty cheap, but they were all at US, and to ship them over, the shipping fee was about 4 times that of the camera.

OUTRAGEOUS!

3. Supre.com.au

This site is based in Australia, and it has extremely cute and bright clothes which are exactly what we need in tropical Singapore. As Australia is also large on beachwear, their clothes are good for Singapore’s hot and humid weather.

They sell a lot of basic wear as well, such as basic tanks, tops and dresses. However, their clientele is mainly the females so there aren’t much clothes for the guys.

E-business is definitely one aspect of trade that companies or people who are looking to start up their own business have to keep an eye on.

The elimination of rental and labour costs are definitely going to be huge savings for people with little capital.
However, these are replaced with time taken to design the website, edit the pictures, and most importantly set up the security required for payment.

If online shoppers do not feel safe giving their personal and private information to a site that they deem as insecure, it will be extremely difficult to sell your products (no matter how unique and exclusive) to them.

To keep your customer, your site has to have these criterias:
- design
- ease of use
- interactivity
- use of technology
- innovation
-content

Design
I think that there has to be a balance in the way the site is designed if not users will feel uneasy whilst browsing the site. Moreover, the site has to be appealing. I think that colors, pictures and the layout of the website is extremely important. Because that is what people are drawn to -- images.

Ease of Use
It has to be easy to use. If people find the website difficult to navigate, they will just close the window and go to another site. This will bring about a lost of customers and the business will not do so well. Thus, it is important that it is user-friendly, and everything is placed in an obvious location.

Interactivity
The website has to have some form of interaction with the users or else it will be like accessing an isolated or "dead" product. Many websites such as Topshop, Asos, Supre and Diesel are adding multimedia onto their websites. They use videos to show their products, and they have an interactive layout. For instance, Diesel even used their site to promote their campaign "Be Stupid", which was a really interesting video.

CLICK HERE TO WATCH IT.

Furthermore, another aspect is that there ALWAYS has to be some way a customer can contact the company. This can be in the form of email, telephone number or a mailing address.

Use of Technology and Innovation.
Since the business is going to be online, the company has to be aware of any innovative ways to present their products to their customers.

Content
Unlike shopping in retail stores, online businesses have to make sure they provide enough content for the customers to decide if they want to purchase their  products. This includes measurements of the item, materials used, colors available, handling advice, shipping information. The most important information is updating the customers of the shipping status. It shows that the company cares about the customers' purchase and it can help put their hearts' at ease of their purchase. (:

I've been watching loads of Youtube videos lately, so much so that it's become plastered onto my new tab page on Google Chrome and checking for updates every day.

I think it is one of the best things ever invented.

There is one video i chanced upon today that I want to share with you guys. (:
It has great depth of meaning and reopened my mind.

Plug into your earpiece as you watch it. ((: