Digital Watch-Are GSM operators violating your privacy?

A cell phone is a pretty private thing. It travels with you everywhere. For some, their mobile is their alter ego. They even sleep with their mobiles. Take their mobiles away and they feel disconnected.

Losing their phone, for many people, is a horrendous nightmare. Contacts are lost and a lack of communication ensues. Since cell phones keep one in contact with the rest of the world, they tend to become an extension of the individual. Anything done with or through a cell phone is usually regarded as private. For some, a cell phone is equivalent to, let’s say, a toothbrush. One person, one cell phone. This emphasises the highly personal nature of cell phones.

Any violation of cell phone privacy is regarded by many as a serious offense. The best way to annoy certain people is to call them without receiving their number from them. For others, beeping (flashing) them and going through their phone without permission are the sins that they just cannot forgive. However, there is one major invasion of GSM subscribers’ privacy that is even more irritating and which is on the increase. This is the sending out of unsolicited junk text messages across an entire network.

Imagine this: You are sitting at your desk juggling with the day’s problems or in the middle of an important meeting. Your phone suddenly starts to vibrate or beep. It must be something important. Or so you think. You surreptitiously take a peek at the message.

"Send blah blah blah to blah blah blah to get a chance to win blah blah blah.." it says.
Irritating, isn’t it?  I mean if you wanted to gamble, you would have gone to a casino.

The above is just a sample. GSM subscribers are forced to withstand a barrage of unsolicited text messages asking them to do something to get a chance to get something, telling them about an upcoming event - which they are in many cases not interested in - or basically just trying to promote a particular product or service.

 I once received a text message asking me to pay my tax arrears. Tax arrears! I am a law abiding citizen for God’s sake. I pay all my taxes. And who are the perpetrators of these acts? The GSM operators themselves! Now don’t get me wrong. I am not saying that what they send to people are not sometimes relevant. It is also a fact that some people like receiving such messages.

That is not the issue at all. The real issue here is the question of choice. As things stand now, you have no say over whether you should receive these messages or not. As long as a particular operator’s SIM is in your phone, they feel that they have the right to bombard your PERSONAL phone with whatever information they like. That is certainly not right.

People should have the chance to decide what type of information they receive, how they receive it or if they should even receive any information at all. In fact, this facility is built into all standard mobile phones. Any decent phone has the facility to receive broadcasts.  Subscribers can set the type of broadcasts they want to receive by choosing from different Topics. Most even have language facilities.

All the operator needs to do is to broadcast a particular message across the network and those who have subscribed to receive that kind of message would get it. Those who don’t would be spared the irritation of receiving irrelevant information. We hope GSM operators would take note of this. Subscribers need some privacy, even from their operators.