The more technologically advanced we get, the greater the danger…
While mobile phones and the internet were intended to make communication effortless, it does come with its share of problems. And, in some cases, constant harassment too.
The rising numbers of unsolicited ‘hidden/private number’ calls bears ample testimony to the abuse of both technology and consumer privacy.
Priya Vijayanand, a corporate trainee, finds applications to identify callers useless in determining the authenticity of an unknown call.
Starting off her career and looking for suitable employment, necessitates her to answer every call she receives, in the hope that is a recruiter or a potential employer. In the bargain, she ends up facing pesky callers from miscreants and others.
“Sometimes, those are blank calls and often wrong numbers too that quickly change into obnoxious harassment.
When people hear a female voice, they start getting opportunistic and that leads to multiple calls, text messages and even sending objectionable and offensive content.
The only thing you can do is block all these numbers on the mobile and hope that you do not miss on a genuine caller,” adds Priya.
It is not only that women fall prey to these prank and troublesome calls. Reportedly, a journalist from Lucknow was also threatened for blocking unknown calls from a stalker who later started sending threatening messages when she intimidated him with a police complaint of cyber stocking.
Surprising, the city police control room and other helpline numbers also receive multiple crank and hoax calls every day from various anti-social elements, often misleading them with fake reports.
To put a stop to such fake calls, the authority installed an Interactive Voice Response System (IVRS) that gather’s the caller’s information before diverting them to the policemen, reducing the fake calls to only a fraction of the total.
“There is an enormous network of people, tele-marketeers and local promoters who pay money to get contact random lists of phone numbers to promote their products and services.
accessing anyone’s phone number is no big deal anymore. Thousands of contacts can be accessed for a hundreds, leaving us with no choice and privacy,” shares a Kondhwa resident.
“100% security is a myth, and everyone needs to understand that,” remarks Adv. Rajas Pingle, Cyber Law and Cyber Security Expert to Pune365 when quizzed about how one can protect themselves from falling victim to cyber theft, cyber bullying and cyber stalking.
Most of the cyber crime incidents also happen by gaining access to one’s mobile numbers and their smart phones.
Adv. Pingle further explains, “The high-end phones and tablets have powerful processors and with 4G network, they have high-bandwidth connectivity.
In India, the average cost for a smartphone has also gone down drastically and with the mobile data war amongst mobile service providers, it has become all that easier to get a smartphone with decent internet connectivity. Nowadays, a handheld computer i.e. smartphone is in the pocket of every common man,” he adds.
One can however, register sexually offensive content on state cyber police portal, aimed at accepting any complaint related to sexually abusive content such as rape/gang rape content that is circulated widely on social media/ online platforms.
~~
#All views in this article are those of the individual respondents and Pune365 does not necessarily subscribe to the same.
Reach her at loveleen@pune365.com or tweet @KaurKaur18
- Pune’s Interesting Midnight Food Delivery Options - July 26, 2019
- Excessive Shopping Could Signal Illness- Mental Health Experts - July 15, 2019
- Chronic Stress ? Seek Professional Help Before It Takes A Toll - July 9, 2019
