Archive for November, 2005
Too detailed registration duty is a security risk
06 years ago
by jan
in Daily blogs
In Singapore, I’ve gotten used to big brother watching over my shoulder. In most cases, I don’t mind sacrificing a little bit of privacy in order not to compromise on security. I guess I’m not that European in that sense. In most of those cases it just make sense. And don’t get me wrong, I would object if a country starts doing stupid stuff, and a police state as the US is definitely what I’d be looking forward to. The Singaporean way is actually still quite alright.
"As part of an ongoing and holistic security review by the Government to boost Singapore’s security, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), in collaboration with the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA), have worked together with mobile service providers on a practical regulatory regime over prepaid SIM cards". Good deal, terrorists will also need to register their SIM card and can’t just easily detonate bombs through the GSM anymore (there are a hell lot of other possibilities, but that’s besides the point).
So what’s my problem? The thing is that every employee of those companies that you need to register your details with has complete insight in that information. Every employee at Singtel can look at all my details at Singtel. Every employee at Singapore Power can look at all my details. Every employee at the bank can look at all my details.
Actually, this wouldn’t be such a big problem, except that the information that these people have insight in is just to sensitive, especially when it comes to e.g. your IC number, which to my irritation is asked all the time for the most irrelevant matters. And IC number is a very important number that should be kept as safe as a credit card number. If you’re making a phone call to a bank, usually your account number, IC number and date of birth is sufficient information to get access to your account. So, guess what combination of personal information all these employees of Sintel, Singapore Power and banks have in their hands… Scary?
With this I would actually like to plead for the following:
Dear IDA, if you make detailed registration duties compulsory, please also make detailed corporate privacy security compulsory for those corporations that collect this information.
Related links:
» IDA – Regulatory Controls on Prepaid SIM Cards
Feeding in the MRT and inconsiderate people
26 years ago
This weekend we had quite a difficult task: feeding the baby in the MRT. When Dani
e-Acheteur
06 years ago
by jan
in e-Acheteur
Don’t get me wrong, there are things that do bother me, but this is not bothering me at all. It’s just that I took note of it and thought it was remarkable.
This is about actors, presenters and singers that appear on TV from time to time. Mediacorp was revering to them as artists. That’s okay I though, it’s a small country and you have to look at your economy of scale and stuff, that’s why you don’t make a distinction between them, you just call them all artists. In a tiny country like Singapore, you’ll probably have to because, people need to be able to take-over eachothers role. Hey, the newsreader is sick, come let’s get that guy from Pua Chu Kang, I think he speaks English too. As the folks in this business say: the show must go on.
However, what I noticed recently is that these guys are not called artists at all. The union of presenters, actors and singers probably said that they’re worth much more and can’t just genericly be called artist. To make it sound more expensive they have followed the artist with an ‘e’, so that it’s now artiste. I saw this recently when I was reading something about Mediacorp, in which this was spelled out. Now, the Oxford dictionary says that there’s indeed such a word, but that in English the most common form to use is actually just artist.
So why do they want to call it artiste (with an ‘e’). There’s two possible reasons. The first reason could be that they’re trying to make it sound mediterranian. Check that word out in the French, Spanish or Italian dictionary. It probably exists in them all, and does contain the compulsory ‘e’. In Singapore, French or Italian goes together with words like luxury, as in a dinner prepared by the French chef, or the Italian Da Vinci furniture. Mediacorp could be trying to express that their artistes are luxury goods, and should be compared to Louis Vutton bags. But then: why do they look so cheap?
Another reason could be that they’re trying to make them all females. In my native language and also a lot of other western-European languages a job is made ‘female’ by just adding the ‘e’. Given the fact that most of the folks at Mediacop seem to be female (whether they’re genetically a lad or a lass), this could be a very good reason. I find it unlikely that in a conservative country like Singapore, Mediacorp would really openly do this though.
If it were up to me, I’d just keep it to the first reason: Mediacorp folks are supposed to be luxury items. So, I’ve decided that I’m going to print new business cards and follow their branding example. E-Marketer sounds cheap and in a western context almost like e-spammer. From now on, it’s going to be e-Acheteur!
