The modes of communication have evolved over a period of time. One can now talk on
smartphones or send messages on various platforms that have evolved over a
period of time. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter are all modes of interacting with
people across the world. However with all these platforms despite all the
measures one might take, it would make sense to exercise some caution.
Siddharth Mehta, a businessman from
Navelim who had a Facebook account realised someone had created a duplicate
account in his name last month. He said “Someone was sending messages using my
photo by a fake account. They were asking for money from my friends. I
immediately posted an alert and also changed my profile from public to private.
Now I don’t face any problems”.
Ganesh Lamani, a lecturer at MES Higher
secondary had his Facebook account hacked. He said “Someone created another
account with the same photograph and sent requests to my friends for money.
They also sent suggestive messages to my female friends and expressed their
interest in being their friends. My name was being dragged through the mud.” He
said he promptly registered a complaint at the Verna Police station and
informed the cyber crime team. They blocked the account and sorted out the
problem. He however conceded that no one knew who had done it.
Santosh Morudkar said someone created a dummy account by using a
photo from his profile. They went asking his friends for money. The mail said
he was in a very tight spot financially and needed assistance. Santosh said “It
was irritating and my name was getting spoiled. I removed all my photos and
informed my friends that it was a fake post and that was the end of the
problem”. He expressed his relief that not one of his friends had fallen for
the ruse. He said that no one was stupid enough to fall for such requests but
it was always possible that someone could be naïve enough to fall for it.
But why does this happen and what is being done to ensure that
users of these services are protected. Nastika Rebello CTO, CodeMax IT
Solutions Pvt Ltd said that in this era , cyber security was a myth. She said
no matter which site you visited there were fine lines where unknowingly, the
user would give them information. She said whenever one accessed such platforms
it was important to understand the usage of such platforms. She said “Many
people have joined social media because it is growing and falling prey to such
things. Someone should educate them about the basic idea behind all this.
People get spam calls regarding a win in a lottery, education has to take place
at an individual level”. Asked what Facebook’s responsibility was to this, she
said one had to look at the Global Data Privacy laws and Regulations in the UK
which were data protection rules. Citizens there had the right to question
Facebook she said whereas in the Indian market they were still working on the
Indian security policy. She said “Once that comes out then the Indian citizen
will have the right to ask them questions. We can then hold them accountable
for what they are doing. Right now we have given them our data willingly”. She
said companies in India could provide security to their employees and ensure
they would not fall prey because they all had a cyber security department but
at an individual level that was not possible. She ended by saying in a way it
was still the Wild West digitally and everyone would have to exercise caution.
However companies too can face problems in the digital world.
Raja Selvam the lawyer who represented Ikshaa Goa speaking from Chennai said
the other party called themselves IkshaVillas. He said “We had registered our
trademark ten years ago whereas they had not registered theirs. They started
using this name in 2017-18. They came on Facebook around that time whereas we
have been on that platform since 2011. When we informed Facebook we have our
trademark, they argued that IshaVillas was registered with them earlier than we
were. Using their data which pointed out that we had registered on their site
in 2011 and doing this twice and then threatening them, we would go to high
court if they did not comply, they pulled the other page down.” He said the
only solution for Facebook was to appoint legal officers in their customer interaction
team to ensure such disputes were sorted out quickly.
Perhaps
it would make a lot of sense if everyone at an individual and corporate level
exercised caution before making a move in the digital world.
