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Couple of years back a friend of ours had proudly announced that he no more cares for postmen or the snail mails through post offices. He now ‘owns’ an email id and would love to get updates, new year wishes from his friends in his ‘inbox’. He happily distributed his email id to all of us and wait…… he gave away the password too. This was the time when Indian users of the internet were slowly getting accustomed with the concept of email transactions and there were no consolidated laws to protect the internet /computer users from the big bad world out there. In no time, our friend’s email id was no more his personal id, it became almost a ‘public id’ and he felt every one had known his private life. He closed his email id and went back to snail mails. However, he ensured that no one opens his post box without his permission and kept it under strict vigilance. Nearly 12 years have passed and now almost all of us are equally vigilant with our email inboxes. The first and foremost thing we learnt from our friend’s experience was never to share the “key” of the inbox with anyone; not even with boy friends, or even husbands. Well, we do vow to share each secret of our lives with our lovers when the hearts bond strongly, with our spouses when we get married, with our close friends when we trust each other ; but I made it a point to not to share my passwords with anyone after I owned my own email id in due course. The worst result one can expect when one shares his/her own password is, to find himself/herself in a messy situation like misuse of email id, hacking, cyber terrorism, monetary crimes ( if the email id is used for business and official transactions), defamation ( when the personal informations are taken out and publicized without your knowledge) and offcourse,severe spouse- abuse especially when one of the spouse is more dominant and feels it is absolutely right to monitor the other even in the cyber space.
In 2010, on behalf of Centre for Cyber victim Counseling (CCVC), we did a baseline survey where we found that 46.6% respondents share passwords of their email ids and/or other profiles with others (see Halder, D., & Jaishankar, K. (2010). Cyber Victimization in India: A Baseline Survey Report. Tirunelveli, India: Centre for Cyber Victim Counselling. @http://www.cybervictims.org/CCVCresearchreport2010.pdf ). Yes, in some circumstances, sharing the passwords with business partners or even spouse becomes inevitable especially when one can not access internet due to unavoidable circumstances and still needs to keep up with his/her acquaintances. But then think of the risks: a very recent news report states that a spouse "hacked" her husband’s and her father in law’s email ids to gather evidence for dowry harassment. In course of prosecution, she denied that it was hacking and maintained that the passwords were provided by her husband himself. Indeed, the case got a U turn and she got a “clean chit”( see “Sharing passwords with spouse is risky” by Pankaj Sharma (23rdJan, 2011) in DNA. Retrieved on 5th February, 2011 from http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_sharing-passwords-with-spouse-is-risky_1497980). Now, the case may need more investigation to establish the truth; but what makes a point in this case is, if it was really a consensual act on the part of the complainant himself to pass over the secret to the to the other party, he may not claim the benefit of innocence in the process of victimization. Definitely this could make a perfect case of breach of trust when financial loss is incurred. But imagine the plight of the complainant if he really had shared the password! The bitter promises of long techno-legal battles, the harassments and finally the uncomfortable feeling when in the cyber space may never leave the poor soul to rest in peace .Such instances must not be taken lightly as many readers may feel this was a case of ‘washing dirty linens in public’; Do not forget
1. cyber space can be used as a double edged weapon;
2. If you share passwords with persons you do not trust or you fear that the relationship is vulnerable, trust your instincts. Be ready for legal battles such as this;
3. Do not allow your children to use your emails/profiles and do not share your passwords with them. You never know, they may ‘leak’ your well possessed password.
4. Change the passwords regularly.
Have a safer cyber venturing
Please Note: Do not violate copyright of this blog. If you would like to use informations provided in this blog for your own assignment/writeup/project/blog/article, please cite it as “Halder D. (2011), “That space is yours and you must not SHARE the KEY”, 10th January,2011, published in http://cybervictims.blogspot.com/
