I always find the practice of making one’s life an open book absurd. Not because I’m jealous; trust me but because of cyber crimes. Call me paranoia but I do believe this is being wary is necessary.

I fell like I’m repeating myself but as time goes by, people are becoming more comfortable with technology. Comfortable or prone to the promise of revolving the world around ourselves; your choice. Back in my university days (I can assure you it was about a gazillion years ago), people jot down everything that they do in a day in their blogs, short of posting their pictures in the loo. I succumbed to that for a while and of course, you learn from mistakes. After a while, it felt really lame.

And then, comes along the trend of answering questionnaires and tagging your peers. Questions available seem harmless like your favourite movies, nicknames, first school, mom’s name. Seems pretty harmless, right? It is something that you may ask a friend or write in the autograph book that is so popular back in school. It might also be something that you post on your Facebook profile.

BUT that was just the surface. Take a step back and rewind; what are the questions banks ask when we are about to set up our online accounts? Isn’t it almost the same? The most common question is ‘What’s your mother’s maiden name?’ other than your favourite cartoon and maybe also your first school. If I want to steal your private information (no worries, I’m too lazy to do that), I’d be asking for your favourite movie, favourite author and even your hobby. This will later make it easy for me to steal not only your bank accounts but all other online identities.

In order to secure sensitive information, cryptography is used. Like passwords, we use some sequence of letters that are familiar to us to protect our online accounts. Usually, things that bring meaning to us become our password. Decrypting  passwords may not be difficult but why post everything online for the convenience of a cyber thief? Cracking passwords are just guessing games (right, IT people?) and once you post everything that bring any meaning in your life online, it is pretty much a gone case.

Sometimes, these things cannot be avoided. In that case, I really cannot say anything. But please, these tagging games might seem harmless but in the long run, it may turn against you.

And remember, if you are not or have no plans to become a celebrity, it’s pretty much pointless to have your lives as open books.