Six digit pin
While trying to open my Messenger a few minutes ago, I was faced with a series of options, none of which offered me a way into my Messenger chat. It turns out the company is changing the way they do things and any old messages will no longer be stored on Google, not that I knew they were anyway. They will be accessible through the device they are on now but they won’t be if one changes phone or computer. I have always relied on Messenger as a record of photos, and all kinds of other things. It is a bit of a pain scrolling through the lengthy reels at times but if I know something is there, I know I will find it if I am patient enough.
I chose the six-digit option which will give me access to these messages in the future should I change my phone, which I will do at some stage. But here’s the catch – it is just another pin to remember. And here’s the next catch – remembering is not something I do too well these days. There are just so many pins that it is impossible to remember each one. I have a book and I shouldn’t even be writing this but I record my pins and passwords in this. Initially I wrote in shorthand and coded the numbers but now I just write what it is for and password/pin alongside it. Heaven forbid if I ever lost this book or if anyone ever stole it. The positive thing about all this though is if I dropped dead tomorrow at least people could access the things they needed to. I know of one young person who died and the family was unable to get into her computer, something that would have been helpful at the time.
We are certainly of a different world to that of our parents. I think the only code they would have needed would have been to a safe deposit box and I am not sure too many of them had one of those. When I was a child, we never even locked the door let alone worried about anyone stealing our possessions.
Some years ago, out of curiosity, a journalist decided to see what information Facebook held about her. In the story, she gave the method to obtain this information. Being curious myself, I decided to follow her example. I was shocked to find that Facebook had a copy of every post and conversation I had ever had...everything. And here I am giving a six-digit pin so that all my private conversations will be held too. That is perhaps not a good idea after all, but then perhaps we should be very careful about what we say privately to other people.
And I have been watching a few murder programmes in the US. Cell phone records are one of the first things the cops go for when trying to establish one’s whereabouts. Is big brother becoming too much when our movements and written conversations are all recorded? Each time we use our Bank cards we are leaving a trace as well. I know some companies pay big money for our spending habits. Even our computer number can be recorded for anything we browse. It is easy to become complacent and forget all the surveillance that is on us. We just comply, as I have just done, by entering yet another pin number to access my own information.
If one wanted to be incognito, I am not sure that would be possible these days. One thinks progress is a good thing. I am not so sure.