I got a question for you. When was the last DAY you actually weren’t on the web? I mean that seriously. What has been the longest time that you have allowed to go by between checking your e-mails? Now, I know that we all have work e-mails and things of that nature but let’s be real about this for a second. We are all tied to the internet in some capacity.
How many of you purchase items online? How about paying your bills? How about sending out invitations? How about sharing your thoughts? Do you realize how many times you input your address into a website? How about your photo album of your whole family that you have online? See how easy it is to be accessible to the world? Less than 20 years ago, you would have to do some serious research to find out any information about someone. Now, within a matter of seconds and minutes, you can find out a person’s last 3 addresses, a picture of them, where they work and what they are interested in doing.
Sometimes, it gets more crucial. Before, allyou had to worry about some nut at the club following you home. Now, you have to worry about someone falling in love with your picture and your information. You know that picture you have of yourself with that bathing suit on that showcases your abs that you’ve been working on so hard? Now, it’s the screen saver on same young lady’s or young man’s computer. All of a sudden, the person who once sent you casual instant messages has not become creepy. So you try to block them.
Does it end there?? NO! Remember, you have a myspace page and a face book page that has a crap load of information about your favorite sites, your groups, and your friends. So what do they do? They change their ids and try to reach out to you that way. They post wild comments to your blogs. They send you 100s random e-mails a day to every e-mail you have. They leave insulting messages in your group. It’s so bad that you hate even getting on line. Why? you may now be the victim of a cyberstalker. (Check out the law in your state. In Florida, “Cyberstalk” means to engage in a course of conduct to communicaate, or to be communicated, words, images, or language by or through the use of electronic mail or electronic communication, directed at a specific person, causing substantial emotional distress to that person and serving no legitimate purpose.)
It can get ugly as well. How many of you have found yourself MAD because someone posted some information about you that was FLAT ASS WRONG?? You look up and you see it all over the website and you wonder “why are they doing this and why am I being singled out?”. You may have a potential ‘defamation’ case:
In law, defamation (also called calumny, libel, slander, and vilification) is the communication of a statement that makes a false claim, expressly stated or implied to be factual, that may give an individual, business, product, group, government or nation a negative image.
Keep in mind. They may have a defense. If the information is true, this may be a defense in some states. If the information is an opinion, this may be a defense in some states. Again, check the laws of your states and check with an attorney.
We won’t even TALK about cyber security. Is your computer truly safe from the hackers and cyber intruders of the world? How many more e-mails can you get talking to you about ‘male enhancement’ or ‘lottery’?
You’re probably saying “What the Hell?” but the fact is that with so much access to the internet world, the internet world has access to YOU as well!
