If you are like me, and use your Facebook account to log in to your Spotify account or any other service for that matter, you might find this post a little interesting. Now, two factor authentication, in case you don’t know, is a safety measure most companies have adopted to give it’s customers an added layer of security. What it does is, it does not allow you to log in to your account merely by using your username and password, but rather it sends you a text on your cellphone to verify if it’s really you who is trying to log in. Pretty neat trick. For some reason, our friends at Spotify don’t care about this, and so they have not implemented this feature. You can see why it is causing me a lot of headache, especially when I get an email one day, saying someone from Nigeria has logged in to my Spotify account. The first thing that came to mind is “what is he going to do? steal my playlist?”, but then I realized I have my credit card information stored on that account. So I email the guys at Spotify, letting them know what happened. The guy writes back saying “everything is okay”. He then follows to bullshit me on how much they care about my security. What’s interesting about all this is that Facebook (the app that I used to log in to Spotify) does have two-factor authentication. Somehow the hackers bypassed Facebook’s security mechanism to get access to my Spotify. So what I’m trying to say is, we’re fucked.
privacy
Anonymity
Trying to maintain an anonymous blog is tricky. For example, people can pinpoint your location, to the very latitude and longitude, using metadata from the pictures you upload to the internet, unless you remove geo-tags from your pictures. I have nothing to worry about because the only people who are after me are angry redditors who can’t admit puppies are cute. Anyway…here’s how I spent my Sunday:
Here’s a video for you to get a feel of this South Indian paradise.
Not so anonymous
The reason why you start a podcast is to speak your mind right? Sometimes people prefer to remain anonymous when doing so. Why is it then Saavn and Gaana (how much more stereotypical can you get with the name?) seem to care so much about your legal name? Why is it that I have to provide ‘accurate information’ when distributing my podcast on these platforms? Here’s the signup process for some of these websites:
- Name of podcast
- Mother’s phone number
- School principal’s home address
Next thing you know, you’ll need to type in your passport number to send E-cards.
Swimming in dark waters
Every time I write stuff on here, I am aware that the content of this post is not just visible to bloggers, but to countless other search engines, tech companies, governments and who knows? Maybe even a few tentacle-faced people. This amazing thing we call the internet, is an information abyss. You stare into the abyss, and the abyss stares right back at you. It knows what you know. It can help you decide whether or not you are fit to purchase a house. It can also show you pictures of random dead babies.
Enter Zoom, the video conferencing platform that has taken the world by storm. According to news outlets, their profits are rising at astronomical rates. With rising popularity comes controversy, and Zoom is no exception. I remember reading in the paper that organizations are advising against the use of Zoom due to security concerns. I was reluctant to use Zoom for this very same reason. That was until everyone decided to ignore all the security threats, and push Zoom for work meetings. Fast forward to today. The news paper says Facebook was (once upon a time) fined 5 billion dollars for unauthorized use of user data. There have been legit warnings issued by the Indian Air Force against Xiaomi phones, saying they are a threat to national security. It is common knowledge that the twitter account of the founder of Twitter was hacked.
From what I understand, if there are people out there, determined to hack into your life, they will most likely be able to do it, which means all of us are floating on a cloud of uncertainty. There’s the argument that “you have nothing to be afraid of if you have nothing to hide”, which makes sense to an extent. If you lead a normal life, if you don’t send nudes or blackmail people for a living, you are going to be fine. On the other hand, all private information is at stake.
I can’t have peace
Just two little tiny months of peace. That’s all I wanted. Apparently that’s too much to ask.
I live in a company owned accommodation (my employer owns the flat), and I knew sooner or later this would cause me a fucking headache. Two idiots (colleagues) are moving in to the apartment adjacent to mine. Here’s the kicker, I will have to share one of my rooms with one of them. It was the only room I had to keep my drum kit, hang clothes to dry, and declare (with zero proof) to be haunted, and write stories about it.
What’s going to happen now? What’s going to happen to my freedom? I can’t afford to lose my nudy time. This was supposed to be my place of zen and peace. Not to mention there is a fucking pandemic going on!
You know what? Maybe this is a sign. I’ve been wanting lo leave this dump since two years. Maybe this is the universe’s way of pushing me out of a “comfort zone”. I have to leave. I have to leave this place. I love the people (a few of them) and the city, but I have to go.
Random Thought Beam 