Saturday 28 August 2010

"...moral and ethical and corporate responsibility..."

...is apparently something that Internet servicer providers have that no other company has, according to this woman:
Alexis Bowater, of Network for Surviving Stalking, said: "We need the internet service providers to get on board they need to take moral and ethical and corporate responsibility for what is happening to the millions of customers that they make billions out of."
Mmm. Get back to me when Ford are held 'morally, ethically and corporately responsible' for ram-raids carried out with Ford pick-ups. Or when the Royal Mail has to dance to the tune of the charities and authorities over threatening letters and blackmail attempts...
However, the Internet Service Providers Association (ISPA) says it is doing all it can about the abuse but it is not possible to police the internet in the way demanded by victims' groups.

James Blessing, of ISPA, says many people "assume that internet service providers can do more that they actually can", comparing expectations of them to "asking the police to put a speed camera on every stretch of road in the country".

He said: "Internet service providers are there to help charities and government to find solutions to this and we have been talking to them for many years. Unfortunately expectations from other parties seem to be a lot higher than what is actually achievable in a technical and operational sense."
Whatever new technology we invent soon gets used to commit crimes. It's just life.

Thr answer is never to put restrictions on the technology.

5 comments:

ivan said...

I have never understood why people that get unpleasant messages don't use spam filters to block them. In the piece from the BBC the example is given of someone changing accounts when they were blocked but there was no mention of blocking using a fast Bayesian spam filter that will learn what to block.

If it's on social networking sites then what is wrong with using the security settings to block everyone except a very small circle of friends?

Mike said...

Identity is surely the responsibility of the person who creates it. Some people crave attention, some don’t. Then there are those who want attention from time to time. Considering a virtual identity this is more fluid than perhaps an physical address or a phone number. Humans have discovered ways of changing everything about themselves, even sex.

If I were to be harassed then my solution would be to do one of two things. Ignore it or remove what the person is using to harass me from me. It might mean changing my number or even moving home but if it was important enough then that’s my choice. If someone was harassing me online as has been identified there are all sorts of ways of blocking and filtering short of changing my online identity or getting a new mac address by spoofing or replacing the network card..

Remember its only harassment if your aware of it and it easy to hide. The trick is being yourself and not attracting unwanted attention because if by being yourself you experience unwanted attention repeatedly especially from different sources then this probably comments on you not others.

JuliaM said...

Because that would be taking back ownershop of the resolution of the problem, perhaps?

And these days, it always seems to be for someone else to step in and solve the problem for the helpless victim.

Mike said...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-11104691

'tend to look at things realistically and treat them accordingly' now there's a thought.

a brilliant catch phrase suggesting the bloke in the piece 'Lucky for Boots he doesn't have a short fuse'

Mike said...

Identity is surely the responsibility of the person who creates it. Some people crave attention, some don’t. Then there are those who want attention from time to time. Considering a virtual identity this is more fluid than perhaps an physical address or a phone number. Humans have discovered ways of changing everything about themselves, even sex.

If I were to be harassed then my solution would be to do one of two things. Ignore it or remove what the person is using to harass me from me. It might mean changing my number or even moving home but if it was important enough then that’s my choice. If someone was harassing me online as has been identified there are all sorts of ways of blocking and filtering short of changing my online identity or getting a new mac address by spoofing or replacing the network card..

Remember its only harassment if your aware of it and it easy to hide. The trick is being yourself and not attracting unwanted attention because if by being yourself you experience unwanted attention repeatedly especially from different sources then this probably comments on you not others.