BAD HABITS NEVER DIE

Does the internet business have any ethics? I wonder if the National Telecommunications Commission has even thought of the topic.

Everytime I approach an internet shop I ask myself if the privacy of my communications would be respected at all. I think twice, three times and even ten times if I should go to this internet shop along Espana boulevard, or to those with cheap printing internet kiosks at the area near the Polytechnic Unviersity of the Philippines, or even at UP Diliman, Quezon City. I approach these places with great trepidation especially if I will write my blog which is political, cultural and social in nature.

Why do I say these? What has been my single most common experience at blogging is that these kiosks have a tendency to tamper with my writings. In a shop with many branches all over MetroManila, no matter how I try to perfect my writing and save it in a USB, as soon as I have the article printed, it is going to have one or two mistakes which I had already edited before I came into the shop. In another shop near PUP, the technician had tampered with my articles, removing those clip art drawings which I had saved in my USB and which I had reviewed in my laptop prior to going there. Then in another shop, I rue the way the technician, before pritning would tamper with the kind of fonts I am using. For example, at UP, I had the flyer, “Gospel Mass” printed there on bond paper, with each letter of the title in a different color and the font all in Arial. The technician, destroyed it by using another font for the word, “Mass.” As I was in a hurry to tack the flyeris all over UP, I did not notice it until after I had gone home already.

I could imagine the technicians sniggering, laughing behind my back over the devilish acts they have committed on my works.

But really, it gets my goat. I am at the mercy of these kiosks because I could not find even an ounce of respect of my writings at home. My laptop, as soon as I open it, is already being viewed by people with laptops surrounding my room and surrounding our house. Yes, there are secret agents with malware operating nearby and I cannot even report it to the barangay which lacks the know-how and the facilites to check which houses have high-powered devices.

One time, an OFW friend to whom I voiced my misgivings sometime in 1998-99 checked where the hacker was coming from, with a gadget he used to manipulate when he was employeid as an electronics expert somewhere in Europr. He discovered that it came from only a few meters away, about 50 meters, somewhere near the or at the barangay office.

In fact, even my celfone is tapped. There are times when I have to send a text three times in order to insure that they get to their destinations. If sent only once, the texts would not be accurately or surely received my friends who more often than not tell me they had had not received any.

So you see Folks, how dedma I am whenever I hear about this and that new phone arriving, or how the technology is getting better and better? Our country is in a very primitive mode – matira and matibay. Kakainin ka kung gusto, at kapag nagreklamo ka, lalo kang bibirahin.

I have experienced that at UP. I complained about certain guys whom I had pinpointed as the culprits in tapping my laptop whenever I go online. No one has interviewed me or not a move has been done at all to address the problem. This time, it is the guard who comes around with the gadget that could paralyze the operations of my laptop – like draining its battery or slowing it down, or making the screen scroll up and down, without my holding a mouse or even touching that square below the keyboard wherein you could just tap it to move the cursor.

Hallelujiah, we are at the mercy of hackers!. Freedom of expression is kaput.! Long live the right to communicate on paper only.