The boogie man in your pocket

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

Telecom people say to hang on to the dumb old cell phone, such as the simple Nokia, Eriksson, or what have you, for as long as you can. Those are the best phones as they are too simple to be hacked. Smart phones are not so smart, it seems. This was something that was obvious to me already before anyone said so.

Aside from the fact that smart phones are, apparently, relatively easy to hack users also are seriously stupid when it come to the way they use them.

When you use them on Facebook you do not have an auto-responder set up that tells the world, the wife and the kids, that you are on holiday (and where) as that is an invitation to burgle your house. But, you would not believe it, people actually do that, in the same way that people do that with their email and voice mails, or on their telephone answering machines at home. I mean, hello, you are sending any burglar and would be burglar a message.

In addition to that far too many people have their location sounder on on their smart phones and other devices which broadcasts not just their location to the powers that be but also to everyone on the Net when they use Facebook and such like and when the location if a holiday destination well, here goes the message to the criminal fraternity again.

As far as I am concerned I want a simple cell phone that is just that, a telephone, with just the additional capacity and capability, as they all have that, of sending and receiving the occasional SMS.

No GPS, not Sat-Nav, no app for this or that. Just a phone with SMS facility is all I want and need and, in all honesty, that is the same for most people.

However, we are being brainwashed into believing that we have to have those smart phones with email and all that jazz.

If I want to go somewhere I use a map (and a compass if need be) as I have yet to find a Sat-Nav that actually gets the location of anything right. Using a map, generated on the Net (saves buying the book things), always gets me to my destination no problem. But then again, I do know how to use a map.

© 2012