A senior government official has sparked anger by advising internet users to give fake details to websites to protect their security.
He has a point there, you know. I am loathe to dish out more personal info than is absolutely necessary – and, yes, Google, I’m looking at you and your demands for my mobile number. You ain’t getting it no matter how many times you nag.
Ah, but….
Andy Smith, an internet security chief at the Cabinet Office, said people should only give accurate details to trusted sites such as government ones.
Bwaaahaaahaaahaaahaaa. You are kidding me, right? Government and trust used in the same sentence? Excuse me while I tape my sides back together. Government sites are the last place I would trust personal information to – not unless I was happy to see them left on a laptop or USB stick in some lost property office on our rail network. Jeebus!
Unfortunately, this rather undermines the sensible point he was making and the inevitable annoyance he has caused among the troughers of Westminster – which is always no bad thing.
Ms Goodman, shadow culture minister, told BBC News: “This is the kind of behaviour that, in the end, promotes crime.”
No it doesn’t, stop being so hysterical.
“It is exactly what we don’t want. We want more security online. It’s anonymity which facilitates cyber-bullying, the abuse of children.”
Ah, yes, the first refuge of the charlatan; the chiiiilldreeen! Keeping our personal information private is precisely what we do want.
But, then anonymity is a bad thing, isn’t it? People get to say things that contradict the orthodoxy and we cannot have that, can we?
So, despite my ribbing Smith for his comments about trusting the government, he is right about being circumspect regarding our online personas. And, of course, we get the subtle attacks on anonymity – okay, not so subtle, then.
There was a supermarket discount. When I saw what they demanded in personal info, I told them, in the politest possible way, where they could stick it.
I avoid those things. I don’t have any loyalty cards or such.
Ms Goodman, Shadow Culture Minister.
This woman sounds clinically retarded. Internet trolls may hide thier stupidity behind fake names but this fucking clown hides behind the “respectability” of being an MP.
Someone lock her up. Make sure she doesn’t play with scissors. A fucking first class cretin.
I liked the bit about not giving details to sites as “it can be used against you”, but then saying you must be truthful with ‘friendly’ sites like HMRC. Err …