Bluetooth As Social Disruptive Tool?
Technology often impacts society in many ways. Some times new technologies such as mobile phones come with unintended consequences. Regardless of whether you like that or not, you need to understand and deal with the change. Ignorance and avoidance is not an option.
Take Bluetooth as one example. The anonymous messaging capabilities using Bluetooth has created a new form of interaction between boys and girls in conservative Middle East. See this story from Marketplace.org’s special report from Middle East. I assume this is valid for Pakistan to some degree as well.
This is a topic with many aspects and view points will vary. However the fact remains that the youth of today have grown up with a whole new set of gadgets. The new modes of communication are part of their lifestyle. There will be applications to capture their attention, advertising to entice them. At the same time rest of the society has to adapt to this change and provide guidance to youth. The parental controls of the past will no longer work.
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well i dont think it’ll happen in pakistan…
50% of the total population is uneducated….
and only tha high class can afford good fones with bluetooth, however most people are unaware that u can send messages…. =D
so for the time being, pakistan is safe… =P
I would humbly disagree with Faraz. As almost 100% of the youth has quite a good idea of how to use a phone and how can the capabilities be enhanced. And, almost all the phones now a days have B.T.
We must write and discuss on such fears as to make the authorities realize that some security measures should be introduced.
BR,
Nasir Abbas
The next time you’re at a wedding, Faraz, enable bluetooth and check out the other phones.
Nasir, what possible “security measure” would you have implemented?
Pakistani consumers regardless of youngster or anyone is good at gadgetry. They may sometimes not know the rationale behind the service and the what to use in which situation but they sure know how to operate almost all technologies. Damn. That wedding thing never occured to me. Good one Faried. Even I’ll try it out for fun. Lots of weddings coming up! :)
I don’t go to weddings, but that’s a nice tip Faried! :)
Nash/Nasir, I certainly would not want authorities doing any sort of monitoring on my communications. They can’t monitor bluetooth anyway.
I don’t whether this sort of technology has an existence that when you point towards a guy or a girl in the crowd and your cell speaks “Right Girl” “Right Guy” “Keep Away” etc ;). Just thinking out loud!
I think all of us are just looking at one side of figure ie. message comm. between devices through BT
have u ever noticed one thing?
If u keep ur bluetooth ON at all times….u ll be receiving “<FileName.sis” from numerous people around you who also hjave their BTs turned on
if u accept it
Gotcha!…u r the xxxxxth victim of ^CeLlUlAr UnDeRwOrLd^
that file is not sent deliberately by the users…
It is a virus that propogates itself from device to device and the holder even doesnt know
what do u comment on this???
keep your cell virus free by running antivirus after connecting it to a PC …just like any other Flash Disk
@Ahmed
That’s similar to getting an exe file by email or IM. Fact is, email used to be more risky and virus prone than bluetooth.
Ahmed that’s a pretty nice question and most of us need to get aware of - Symantec’s Norton offers anti virus and spam for your handsets and here’s what it does according to the product description, it also covers the your bluetooth concern:
Key Benefits
Protects against viruses and other threats— Prevents malicious threats from entering your smartphone and compromising your privacy.
Minimizes SMS spam—Blocks short text and multimedia messages from unknown senders.
Blocks snoopware from turning on your camera—Prevents intruders from entering and exporting data from the mobile phone.
FeaturesAdvanced protection:
Award-winning Norton AntiVirusâ„¢ technologies automatically scan, detect, and quarantine harmful viruses, worms, and mobile spyware in individual files, file archives, and applications.
SMS antispam protection: Short messages (text and multimedia) from unknown senders are blocked.
Real-time protection: Enhanced firewall blocks hackers, intrusions, and denial-of-service attacks.
The Symbian® and the Microsoft® Windows Mobile® platforms are supported.
Easy-to-use interface: You can easily manage and schedule antivirus scans and protection updates*, set the firewall protection level, and manage which files are encrypted.
On-demand scans allow you to check for viruses in individual files, file archives, and applications.
The device is protected against malicious code downloaded from the Web, sent via email or a Wi-Fi connection, or “beamed via Bluetooth” or infrared ports.
Product and virus definition updates are delivered wirelessly via LiveUpdateâ„¢.*
The application is optimized to preserve your smartphone’s performance.
An activity log shows all recently logged events to help make you aware of potential risks.
User alerting allows you to respond quickly to potential threats.
@waqas
yes it is… but PC doesnt be with you all times but cell does.
Where ever u go… for eg from office….on the way…park..restaurant….ceremonies…
u get the same *.sis file bugging u…and a simple button press will welcome it into your cell
E-mail might be virus -prone but blue tooth viruses can be more frequent and can make u a guinne pig to propogate themselves
Believe me….there is much population that is serving as a guinni pig out there on the streets
i am not talking against Bluetooth….just making aware what diseases people are having in their cells
and to remove the same….refer to my post above
Good tip about mobile virus protection, I think this kind of malware protection for mobiles will become common over time and may very well be included in the service as a value-add.
I’ve also heard about “Bluejacking” (sending spam bluetooth messages - term used in UK). Don’t know if it is a pervasive problem or not.