Law of Secrecy

Posted by shush

August 7, 2013

What are the normal information everyday people expect to be confidentially withheld from others? In my country, nothing much. Why do I say this? If you want to get the confidential information of someone, just sit down beside them while they are trying to apply for something. A quick glance at the application form would enable you to view everything confidential about that person. From middle name, to home address, to mother’s maiden name, to contact numbers, to names of children, and even to birth dates. This happens because most of the places where these occur have only a table that can accommodate up to as many people standing in front of it as possible to peep into whatever paper is being placed on top of the table. We do not follow an “I’ll finish entertaining this customer first before I let another stand beside him/her” policy. Try this at a bank. Approach a table where another customer’s bank passbook is opened on it as a teller is addressing the customer. Take a glance at that passbook and you’ll find out how much money that customer has in his/her account. Then you can tell everyone else about it. It would then be easier to determine who is worth asking ransom from and who isn’t. Try this at a telecommunications service center. Approach a table where there is a new customer submitting an application form for a new cellular phone line account. Stand beside that new customer and take a glance at the application form. You can even get that person’s existing and new cellular phone number. Then you can bombard that person with SMS or MMS messages without that person knowing how you got that number. It would also be easier to send threats to that person to enable you to extort money from them or just stress them out for fun. The constant protection of the secrecy of someone’s personal information is what distinguishes other countries from ours. Because it is important in keeping people safe from any form of potential harm. It would be nice if we could be conscious about that too. We never know if it would be us who would need our personal information kept private from prying eyes.

Here’s an example. By using a phone, you can assume someone else’s identity by just giving the name, birthdate and even address of that someone. If you had the middle name and mother’s maiden name of that person, you can even change an ATM pin, have a SIM disabled or change a password to an online account.

What if that person whose identity was stolen was you?

What would you do to reverse the damage?

Keeping Safe

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