Intruding Privacy

The last few days have been difficult for the Obama administration to control the outrage against allegations, which have now been accepted by the administration, against the NSA 'spying' on foreign nationals (or Americans, unintentionally). Firstly, there was a leaked, of course, document stating that Verizon has been court ordered to provide broad details of any telephonic communication done on their network. Next Washington Post comes along with a few leaked, of course, slides and data about a NSA program called PRISM. PRISM essentially collects data from the big internet companies like Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, Apple etc and helps the NSA create a report on foreign nationals and some american nationals, unintentionally of-course.

These revelations have bought utmost outrage against the Government and the NSA. I don't think they deserve it.

Let's say they are onto one's internet trail. They have captured the email transactions, social network activities (which are mostly public already) and bank transfers. I am pretty sure the people at NSA have a better alternative than to read the millions, if not billions, of email sent daily. Nor do they worry about your bank details. They have access to a Fed Bank. They don't care about peanuts in your bank accounts. 

What these programs have to do with the public? They are not meant for the majority of us. They are safety precautions to help NSA (and other abbreviated Govt. organisations) to keep tabs on the law offenders. It is better to be safe than sorry. These are the same people who would have, in some way, helped catch the Boston terrorists in just days. And, such programs cannot be made public. With national security at risk, these are not to be disclosed.

Whenever I read an article on the same lines, I remind myself of one of my favorite quotes :

If you have something that you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place --- Eric Schmidt

I read the news of Obama defending these arguments of intruding privacy. He terms it as "modest encroachments on privacy". I don't really think they are modest but this shows what they are capable of. But he is right when he says "There are trade-offs invovled".

I would be surprised and happy if we had such programs in India too. Then I would atleast stop uploading all my photos on Dropbox, Google+. Anyways, they will have a copy. And with college students hacking around CBSE ICSE websites, I should be able to access my photos uploads right?

Book Read: The Secret Wishlist

I usually don't buy fiction books by Indian authors. I am not biased, I just go by the popular name. I borrow books from friends who recommend it. But I  did something new on one March afternoon; I bought The Secret Wishlist by Preethi Shenoy. {And, I feel sad it took me more than a month to publish this post.}
I did read the summary on back cover. I must accept that it made me curious. A girl falls in love at sixteen, but, she is married off in pakka Indian arranged marriage style. After few years she meets her true love and this leads to mental crisis. As John F Kennedy said

"When written in Chinese, the word 'crisis' is composed of two characters. One represents danger, the other opportunity." - John F. Kennedy

And the author uses this opportunity to tell us the story of Diksha
First few pages were really interesting. I liked the way the author kept moving between the past and the present. But soon the real intentions of the characters are revealed and the story goes in a slow(boring) pace to have a hasty climax.

Pros:

• Different story. I had never ventured into books centered on extra martial affairs and sorts.
• The book also is lesson on work-life balance. 3 people who work their ass off and end up in contrasting situations.

Cons:

• I didn't really need a dictionary while reading the book. So, it doesn't help you improve your vocab much. 
• After the first few chapters, everything is predictable and I begged the book ended sooner. 
• I hated the story, what the characters chose to do. In the end it is the author's story but the protagonist makes ridiculous choices and the worst part is she even defends those choices every time.

The concept of extra-martial affair though touched and indulged by the protagonist, the author doesn't really highlight it. Instead, she claims all the actions taken are in the name of freedom, an entity everyone claims but no one has it.

After I read the book, I felt I had wasted my time and started cribbing why I had not finished the other novel from Jeffrey Archer - Not a Penny Less, Not a Penny More(By the way, I have finished the book now, and it is fablous, you should read that instead). I don't recommend this book to anyone.