Love is blind...but are you?

HYDERABAD: Gone are the days of password hacking and morphed pictures of stars. Guess what’s keeping the cyber police busy these days? It is the fake profiles created by people and the content posted by them on social networking sites. No wonder, US President Barack Obama himself has barred his two daughters from accessing Facebook.The problem of online stalking and defamation is on the rise in the twin cities. A case in point is that of K Deepak, a techie, who was arrested by the cyber crime police on Saturday for creating profiles in his fiancee’s name on Facebook and Google+ and posting pictures of her, alone and with him. And just two days prior to this incident, another city chap, G Krishna, who is pursuing his B.Tech from Chennai, was arrested for creating a fake Facebook account of an MBBS student and posting objectionable content on it.“Youngsters love socialising these days and with the advent of technology, it is the way to go,” points out U Ram Mohan Rao, Additional SP, cyber crime. He explains, “They buy smart phones, click pictures and post them. People become more friendly and start sharing passwords and photographs. But what they don’t realise is that these personal pictures might be used against them and in most cases, they are in fact bound to be misused.”On using Facebook as a medium for posting these pictures, Ram Mohan says, “They opt for Facebook, as it is very quick and convenient and fake profiles can be created in a jiffy. It’s difficult for us to track, investigate and apprehend the culprits. If it was an email chain, we can easily track the IP address from which it has been sent, but this gets a little tricky.”Motives behind such behaviour range from past grudges, insecurity and obsession to rejection and in some cases, even fun. And when it comes to the consequences, the ultimate sufferer is the girl in a majority of cases. With youngsters going on a dating-spree in the city, break-ups are becoming common for a number of reasons. Couples click pictures of themselves to cherish their private moments, but once their bond starts weakening, these pictures become weapons of blackmailing. This is what happened in the cases of both Deepak and Krishna.Expressing shock over these incidents was a research scholar, Neha Ahuja. “As a woman I feel violated and as a person, I feel breach of trust which cannot be forgiven,” She says. Agreeing with Neha, another student Neelima Chowdary Paruchuri says such incidents dilute the trust in a relationship. Giving a more neutral outlook on this Usha Rani, director of Sannihita, a centre for women and girl children, explains, “Girls these days are very social. Before they even realize, they are already giving false hopes to boys. And guys by nature cannot take a  “no” for an answer. When rejected, they let out their anger through all these means. So, girls have to be very cautious.” Providing some tips to the girls, Ram Mohan advises, “girls should never blindly trust anybody and share their personal information with them. They should watch their every step, when in a relationship. They must also not share any of their passwords with anybody and also their passwords should have at least 18 characters, which should include lower case, upper case and special characters. Do not let anybody access your personal computer in your absence and avoid blocked sites and urls as much as possible. Make sure all the privacy settings on your profile are switched on.”He also offers a word of advice to parents. “They should trust their own daughters and not jump to any conclusions.”