From our childhood, we have been hearing about The Bogeymen. Mamma asked to keep away from unknown strangers, not take chocolates from a passerby. She made me promise not to even say hello to a stranger. I kept my promise, but always wondered why. How was I supposed to make new friends if I could not talk to strangers? There was no net during those days, no Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn where the number of likes improves our social standing. Media is no more an illusionary world. It is now our personal domain, where we make friends or develop such relationships that become so dear to us that we slowly merge our reality with our virtual world.
And then comes the Bogeyman.....
You get up one day and come to know that you have become the apple of the eye of few strange men. The knowledge leaves you naked, vulnerable and invaded. Where did I go wrong? Why did it happen to me? You shut down your FB and maybe vanish from the social media permanently. Sad - When our Zukie Babes had created this social platform, I am sure he had not considered the minds of the perverts.
But the perverts are there. They are stealing your identity and making profiles in your name. Vidya Balan in Dirty Picture or Sunny Leonie in well.. ahem... will look like a saint with the metamorphosis that takes place of you in that profile. Shocked? Don't be. Be angry. Furious and report it.
And then get a sweet love letter from the comrades of Zukie Babes...
Well the pic I had reported did wear some undergarments. So they must not have constituted as 'naked pictures.'
Now Why I am bothered?
It has hit close to home. Yes, I am like you all too. Unless it affects my friends and family, I generally follow the keep calm and love thy neighbor philosophy. This time the identities of my friends were stolen. They are lovely ladies with families. Kids, Husband, Parents and In-Laws. I can put up the list here to show you how the pictures are. But you won't be able to take it. They are ugly and humiliating. Not to the ladies. But to Mankind. This is the moment I forget my social standing and education and want to shout - Rakhi Sawant style.. ' Tere Ghar mein ma bahein nahi hai kya ..?" [don't you have mom and sis at home?]
Zukie Babes.. WAKE UP! STOP THE DOWNLOADS OF THE PICTURES FROM OUR PROFILES.
SUMANA KHAN takes it a notch up with all the details how to protect yourself in this virtual world. Check out her post HERE
NIKITA KAMATH tells us how to protect ourselves from Idiots of the first order who come to steal your profile pic. Click Here to learn visually.
Hats off to REKHA VIKESH for throwing a tight slap on the perpetrator's face. SLAP. Read on...
SUMANA KHAN takes it a notch up with all the details how to protect yourself in this virtual world. Check out her post HERE
NIKITA KAMATH tells us how to protect ourselves from Idiots of the first order who come to steal your profile pic. Click Here to learn visually.
Hats off to REKHA VIKESH for throwing a tight slap on the perpetrator's face. SLAP. Read on...
Zukie Babes doesn't understand the cultural divide, but he should know if the photos have been morphed !! Pathetic!!!
ReplyDeleteI think FB pic shoudnot be made downloadable. And if that is not possible at least show who all have done it,
DeleteOh! This is terrible. Recently, a blogger friend's profile pic was used by a woman who indulged in pervert chats and had some explicit pics on her profile page. When this blogger reported the same to Facebook, she got the same message!!
ReplyDeleteI think caution is the word for us and time to re-stratgise for Zukie baby!
The pic I had reported was of a girl in undergarments. It was in a profile of a friend and her account was duplicated. Rubbish pics were posted in her account of which she was not aware of. This is the ans I got!
DeleteGood one Rubi...Zuki hasn't specified what his community standards. It is degrading and insulting at the same time scary. Even one of my pics adorned some pervert's timeline. The only thing we can do is block the person. Reporting does not really work.
ReplyDeleteWe can do that. But the scariest part is we don't know who that pervert is. Ram tere kitne Naam. Unless FB stops the pic downloads from others profile this will not stop. We can share what we want. By allow downloads?
DeleteI've often read of how one must be careful of one's pics on FB. I did not take such sayings very seriously (though I myself prefer not to post too many pics or even tag them) but now suddenly the sleazy side of FB has come to the surface. Seeing the response from them, I think we'll need to even more careful about who we friend and what we post.
ReplyDeleteYou've raised all valid points, Rubina. Glad for it.
Thanks Sonia. I have removed all my kids pic and all. I used to be a proud mamma sharing all the pics with you all. After all, you all are my extended family and we just love sharing our bundle of joy. But this is becoming so scary. :(
DeleteThanks for writing this. After what we all saw - and the mountains we are moving to have these pages removed - it is quite a helpless and hopeless situation.
ReplyDeletelike everything , this will not go on for a long time. We all have to fight this together. One day this will notice.
DeleteThis is truly scary. Forget the perverts. The response from FB admin is worse :(
ReplyDeleteIt is Sundari. Very scary. But it makes me angry too.
DeleteYou said it. Why allow download to strangers. I hope FB gets the message with more such posts populating the web.
ReplyDeleteI hope so too Or one day it too might join Orkut in the grave.
DeleteSharing! FB has to action...increasing cases every day!
ReplyDeleteThank you Aditi. Appreciate it.
DeleteBut how do we find out if our pics have been misused by someone else???
ReplyDeleteYamini a post by another blogger is following this and she will tell all about how to protect your site etc. WIll ping you that time.
DeleteThis is so scary even with restricted settings it's a nightmare.
ReplyDeleteFB wake up
Isn't it Inderpreet? We are accused of not protecting ourselves. True I agree. I want to raise this awareness only. On how to protect your site and all. If people are thinking that since we are publicizing a book - well we must be good :D and as publicist then we have a good reach to spread the awareness. You game ?
DeleteThere are many security options in Facebook to hide your identities. People who "blog," or "write" will use Facebook differently from others. A normal person uses Facebook to connect with family and friends, but, a person seeking publicity should be ready to talk or connect with strangers to gain popularity. "Shares" come from people who talk with you. "Shares" are important than "likes" to gain publicity. Many people use Facebook to gain publicity, but, without the complete knowledge about Facebook. There are many books in the internet to learn Facebook marketing. Here are few examples,
ReplyDelete1. Facebook Marketing by Justin Levy.
2. Facebook for Dummies by John Haydon.
During early days, Sachin Tendulkar wasn't taught to get down to pitch and terrorize his opposition with his extravagant shots. He was taught to wear his helmet to save his head, and to defend to save his wicket. Same way, these books teach their readers to defend themselves from people who rejoice in seeing the world burn, before teaching them to gain popularity in the internet.
Even before starting to work on gaining popularity, we know about the existence of jealousy and perverted minds spread all over the internet. It is our duty to protect us from them. So, before working on popularity, we should build a fortress for our security. No army invades before securing its own territories.
I came here after seeing the link shared by "Ruchi Singh" on Facebook.
DeleteMy name's CR Barath Narayanan.
HI Barath,
DeleteThanks for gracing my space with your presence. The word 'publicity' can be associated with me - yes. I accept. Please pardon me and my friend's stupidity on not reading the books before starting on facebook. Of course, that makes every woman natural target to be demeaned. The ladies I have been talking about in my post, are not publicist or writers or bloggers. But just as you said- someone who wants to connect with family and friends. There is a book called Hacking for Dummies by Kevin Beaver. Very popular book and many youngsters enjoy experimenting with it. If I don't have a lock on my door am I inviting perpetuators in? Is that the syndrome? Many ladies are not well versed with the net. Why ladies, even all men are not smart asses. But they do want to connect with their loved ones on the net. Yes we HAVE TO USE security measures and in fact one of my friends is writing a post on that as we speak. Here we are not tying to gain any popularity. I don't need it. We are trying to raise the same awareness. Why don't you join us too? You seem to have a lot of knowledge on identity protection.
Well, I am proud to be a part of your mission. I don’t have “a lot” of knowledge in identity protection. I am 21, and I self-published my first book for fame. I wanted to use Facebook for spreading awareness about my book, so I read these two books to avoid doing anything wrong. Facebook marketing consumed more time, and after few days, unable to find time for writing my second book, I abandoned it. I can’t call myself as a “smart ass in social networking” just after reading two books. But, I can try my best to carry out the assignments you give me.
DeleteHacking for Dummies teaches ethical hacking, and it is harmless to the society. Hacking is an art. Movies and novels animated people to believe that all hackers are youngsters. In reality, no hacker will be a youngster. All professional hackers are wise old men – you need experience to be an expert. Hacking is a part of “social engineering.” Hacking for dummies is a book written for software engineers who aspire a job in the “software testing” field. Many high-profile software companies employ “ethical hackers” to measure the “degree of security” in their products. You can find many hackers working in Microsoft, Apple, Google and Facebook. These companies are successful (high degree of security and reliability) because of their hackers – we can say. Hacking for dummies is the stepping stone for a nerd who wants to be a professional “ethical hacker.” Correct passwords can only access Facebook, Google accounts, Yahoo accounts, and Hotmail accounts. No one can break through them with coding.
“If I don't have a lock on my door am I inviting perpetuators in? Is that the syndrome?” – A book written around 2414 years ago gives the answer. “The Mahabharata” by Veda Vyasa. Yudhistra – the eldest of Pandavas, and the King of Indraprasta, accepts to take part in the dice game, after getting an invitation from Dhuriyodhana. He sees the wicked Shakuni sitting against him to represent Dhuriyodhana in the game. He senses the evil smell in the air, but still rolls the dice. Shakuni – the expert gambler defeats Yudhistra using dark tricks. Yudhistra knew that it is dangerous to play dice with Shakuni, but, knowingly he played it. Later, he and his kin suffered as a result. Similarly, you are aware about the perpetuators, still if you don’t keep the door locked, no one can help you from the effects. People will just say, “Hey I warned you, you didn’t take my warning seriously. I can’t do anything now.” You can’t ask an Influenza virus, “If I don’t wear a sweater, am I inviting you?” it is your duty to protect yourself against bad cold and hypothermia.
Waiting for assignments with pleasure… :) :) :)
Thank God for Hackers! I was pointing toward the experimental, irreponsible kind. My fight is not against the infilterers also but FB for ignoring the reports. All the best for your book. Keep on writing!
DeleteBharath, I am following this discussion, and now I couldn't help but comment. Philosophies are good for face-to-face debates and I don’t believe in all kinds of old wisdom, and I will not go into what Krishna said later in Mahabharat. I think in long discussions we forget about the key issues.
Delete1) Privacy violation is NOT acceptable in any case and people for whom Rubina is batting for are not celebrities. Even if they were, it is wrong. We have to somehow make it right and support the victims.
2) Since you are from current generation and would be influencing people with your writing, it is necessary to understand the concept of 'consent'. If my friend is eating an ice-cream and I also have the ‘urge’ to eat and am greedily looking at her plate, should I snatch it or am I supposed to ask for it. And if the person says ‘no’, I should back-off. Same is for ALL ‘urges’.
3) Those who do not understand this they are 'violators', and need to be stopped. Today they have morphed the photos, tomorrow they would shoot MMS of somebody sister, mother, daughter and post it and tomorrow they might rape. Please remember we are not talking about ‘logical thinkers’, we are talking about ‘perverted minds’.
4) For any issue there is a ‘preventive’ action and there is a ‘corrective’ action. You are talking about ‘preventive action’ only. I would request you to think about corrective steps also. If someone’s sister is sexually abused on the road. Will I go and tell the brother that you should have taken better care of your sister. You should have given her a car, escorted her or cladded her in a burqah or kept her chained to the home.
Think about it. The issue is very deep and grave, I would request you to not ‘beat the victims’ with words.
Thank you Ruchi, Sorry I saw this comment so late. It had been frustrating battling this issue for some of us when the main issue was taken as something else. It is really frustrating when a man says - you should have known better.. Did the rape victims not know better? Did parents not know better before giving birth to a girl child? Old men talking like this- is still understandable if not acceptable. But when the younger gen talk like this I thank their lucky stars that they are NOT my son.
DeleteHi Rubina,
ReplyDeleteSome commentators here are out to garner their own publicity campaign it seems. I am a normal woman who like many others is on FB for connecting with my blog readers, class mates, friends and relatives. My knowledge of computers is restricted to MS Office. I don't know the H of hacking. Yet that download button disturbs me. Why should everyone be permitted to download my pics? Isn't it a lot like someone entering my home and stealing my passport? Shares are visible on our TLs. Downloads are not.
Yes I'm all for smartness. But gain how smart is being smart? Do we start looking at everyone with suspicion? Do we watch our every virtual step? And as for FB territories...Who decided that? the pervert who downloads my photos?
I'm sick of sleaze and over smart youth who remain stuck at "She asked for it". Wait for my post ..will you?
Thanks Sridevi for dropping by. My intention was never to belittle any profession. I am only against abusers of that profession. Thanks for understanding that. 'She asked for it' is going on for a long time now. Isn't that the same thing they said when Damini was raped. Isn't this cyber rape ?
Delete*again*
ReplyDeleteTechnology news and analysis I have read all the comments and suggestions posted by the visitors for this article are very fine,We will wait for your next article so only.Thanks!
ReplyDelete