I was in the middle of a discussion with a friend on Skype about this whole nonsense about privacy online when I realized I need to rant.

Your SmartPhone is smarter than you think

So, Apple.com is tracking your last locations over the past 10 months on your phone and keeping the information in an unsecured file on your phone.

I get why this could be worrisome for people – the “unsecured file” part of this news is definitely something worth worrying over. It means that a malicious person with the right tools can track your movement over the last few months with a view to learning your routines and catching you off-guard to be mischievous. I get that and I am appalled that the information is indeed unsecured. I also have no doubt that now that it’s all over the web, Apple.com will issue an update very soon that will plug that hole.

However, this brings up a whole ‘nother dispute about whether your location information should be accessible by Apple.com in the first place.

And this is where I get really frustrated.

It can’t be private if its accessible in a public place.

As my post title says, privacy online is an oxymoron. It’s akin to standing on your front curb, naked and screaming at the neighbours and passers-by to stop looking at you.

If you want to keep your business private, on the internet is the last place for you to be posting it.

The discussion my friend and I were having was that we liked when social networks work together to keep you connected with your “friends” and followers. For instance, we love that Ping goes out and looks for our Twitter friends and suggests them as followers. It makes sense that if you’re following someone on one social network, there is a small chance you might be interested in following them on another.

This doesn’t strike me as a violation of privacy – because I never had the expectation of privacy regarding who I follow.  It seems rather counterproductive since Twitter screams my followers out to whoever wants to look. So why should that information not be accessible by other networks? Especially if they ask for permission first.

What are you saying online is essentially being said over a high-tech loudspeaker

I once installed Ethereal on my work laptop to see just how much information about me was being passed over the local area network. I opened up a Yahoo chat window and fired up an instant message session with a good friend. It was interesting to see that every single word we said to each other was being trapped and reported by Ethereal in perfectly understandable language. It was like having my IM conversation read back to me by someone who wasn’t part of the conversation in the first place.

It was literally like sitting in the middle of a parking lot and having a conversation with someone over a public address system.

Privacy? Over any kind of network? Impossible unless you have the money and time to invest in an advanced encryption process – and even then, unless the intended destination has the same tools to decrypt your messages, it’s pointless. That would be like talking to me in Aramaic when not only is the language obsolete, but I have no knowledge of the syntax anyway.

I really wish people would stop talking about their privacy online … those 2 words don’t belong in the same phrase.

If you don’t want me knowing that you and your best friend had a fight over who’s boyfriend Mark is, then stop writing it on a poster and placing it on your house front wall – because that is exactly what your Facebook wall is to me.

Ok – rant over.

( Thanks Ang. )

Edit: There is some talk of a semi-official response to this uproar over the “consolidated.db” file.

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Sometime last week was, apparently, the Miss Universe 2010 pageant. Twitter was a-buzz with it and to some extent so was my Facebook friends list. I have to admit that my interest in beauty contests remains limited to a brief stint back in 1993 when an old high school and music classmate of mine not only secured the Miss Jamaica World title, but went on to win the Miss World title as well.

I have never been a fan of beauty contests. They have always seemed to me to be more along the lines of “noise”.

Let me explain:

There are 2 types of people, those who must have enough noise around them so as to not hear to the silence within themselves, and those who revel in the silence within themselves. There is a smattering of the judgmental in me when I talk about those people who must have noise … and I abashedly admit to being a little judgmental – these are the people who must always have a conversation going at full speed, must always have an agenda of fun-filled activities to fill each day, who don’t know what it is to spend days in the pages of a good book and who despair at quiet candle-lit nights filled with nothing more than staring up at the stars for hours on end.

It is within that circle of persons that I place the whole concept of beauty contests. It’s all “pomp and circumstance” …

it is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing. ~ (Macbeth)

As usual, this year’s Miss Jamaica Universe contest was filled with debate about whether the undeniably beautiful Yendi Phillips was a true representation of the wider female population of our country. It is a debate that never fails to heat up and in some situations boil over (some of you might remember the ink blots of the Kimberly Mais reign, for example).

And each and every year, the debate incenses me because for the life of me I canNOT imagine why it is that Jamaicans must focus their attention and time and effort on a senseless debate. Beauty contests were not made for you and me. Beauty is subjective, and there is no place on this human-inhabited earth where all opinions are going to coincide. Yendi may be beautiful to you and I, but not to the next person in line. It’s a futile pursuit.

Imagine, instead, all the passion of this particular debate poured into bolstering and assisting the fight against crime and indiscipline in the Jamaican society.

Heady images, aren’t they?

Ha! Pity that is not likely to happen within our lifetimes or those of our children.

I really wish we spent more time and energy on the debate of the efforts for the improvement of ourselves and our society. I wish that all the passion spent in offering up opinions about who is beautiful, and who is represented and what the actual motives of such events and their planners and organizers was better applied in areas that we can actually make a difference.

I’d like to hear more about how people intend to solve the problem of corrupt law enforcement and the fear among civilians to actually do what is right due to an untenable amount of pressure by a criminal element that reigns supreme. I’d like to hear more about how we can stop heavy vehicles from driving through residential and quiet zones. I’d like to hear more about utility price regulation debates.

Who on the world’s stage REALLY cares how many people in the world, or even Jamaica itself, think Yendi is only representative of a small section of the Jamaican society? Don’t you think they care more about the title of one of the most dangerous tourist destinations – true or not, I think that’s a cause better debated – don’t you?

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I never intended this blog to be an outlet for military commentary. It really was supposed to be my internal mind. Guess what, though? The army has become an integral part of my internal mind. So bear with me whilst I get something off my chest today.

The army has released it’s report on the analysis of the ever-increasing suicide rate. I saw the tweet from FamilyMWR (Family Moral, Welfare and Recreation) this morning. I read over the post and was instantly horrified.

Of the 250 suggestions, one was for prescriptions that “run out” after a specified period of time. I cringed, and cringed some more. With the track record of mediocre, half-hearted medical attention to soldiers in some instances, I can just see some poor young soldier, ill-prepared as they now are for today’s military reality, being prescribed some kind of anti-depressant that runs out in 6 months while he’s in some desert or mountain hellhole with no possibility of re-evaluation before he ships out or even while he’s out there … I wonder if they’ve even considered what kind of ticking bomb that is?

I am no medical professional, I have no training in the mind or psyche … but I have struggled with feelings of inadequacy and despondency. I can’t even begin to imagine what these kids have to deal with. But somehow, common sense tells me this had better be at the BOTTOM of the suggestion list in that report … because unless there are FAR more safeguards put in place, I see this is as making a bad situation a whole lot worse.

Of course, I haven’t seen the whole report. It’s encouraging that there ARE 249 other suggestions. And I seriously am hoping that at LEAST one of those suggestions has a modicum of common sense. Say … focus on better preparing young soldiers for today’s military reality instead of putting a band-aid on the issue.

But that’s just me and my 0.02c.

Don’t get me wrong … that the report is out at ALL is a GOOD thing. My point is that reports and suggestions are all well and good … but the solution needs to be thorough and effective. Band aids have never been thorough or effective for the long run.

Ever taken off a band-aid off a cut on your finger after a day in water? Does it hurt more or less? Hmm?

Please, PLEASE, let there be some sensible people in charge of this decision. Please.

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Bitterness, not the one who abandoned but the one who was abandoned – not once but twice.

Anger, at having my life broadcast to those unknown to me in such a way that they could feel justified in making an attack on me.

Fear, that I will not be able to do this and that while I am not alone, I am very alone.

Despair, that at this point I don’t think I’ve done enough to be ready for this.

/sigh

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Once, I removed a friend from my twitter list. They had tweeted once when they joined and then never again in over a year. I figured they wouldn’t be back. Well, I was wrong – soon as I did that, they tweeted again. Of course, I added them again. They are still there, tho I don’t know that I’ve seen another tweet from them since. That was one of the times I removed someone from a friends list.

The one other time was after a falling out that (a) came out of nowhere and (b) seemed final and permanent from where I stood at the time. That person has since been re-added as well. So colour me completely flabbergasted when I find I have been removed and the reason given is “haven’t interacted with you in a couple of weeks or months”.  Hmm. Still trying to figure that one out.

Based on reactions to my outburst on Facebook, I am thinking most people are thinking “hell with ‘em” and maybe I should think the same.

Looky here (Kentucky-ism),  I call many people friends – some are as close as siblings, some not so close and many in between the 2 extremes.  ALL of you are my friends tho. I may not be able to interact with you on a daily basis, I may even seem to withdraw completely and get completely engrossed in my own world. I apologize for that – it’s an unfortunate side-effect of (a) my chronic introverted-ness (a Camille-ism) and (b) my status as a newly-wed. It is in no way malicious and certainly not intentionally selfish. And most of you can and will admit that when it counts, I come out of my little virtual cave long enough to “interact”.

I am thankful that I have some TRUE friends who have realized this about me – that I tend to be a hermit. And they all love me anyway. I don’t know what I would do without these friends and those of you who know yourselves, I am eternally grateful to count you among my siblings.

The rest of you who feel left out and forgotten and sit and sulk at the fact that Camille is a fair-weather friend? …. it was nice meeting you.

Harsh? Yes. Quite possibly. But I am going to stop killing myself with guilt at having to explain myself every step I take. Like everybody else, I need friends too … and I do my utmost to try and BE a friend – best as I know how. I AM different than most people and I am sorry if I am not who you thought I was when we met. Them’s the breaks. And most of all, I am sorry you weren’t able to spend a little effort to get to know WHO I AM INSIDE instead of who you want me to be.

And here’s the clincher: it’s mostly because of shit like this that I stay in the damn cave in the first place. All my life I’ve just kept the hurt locked inside when someone walks out on me because I am not the kind of person they expect me to be. I guess I am finally just speaking out about it.

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