Yesterday a group of bloggers played a somewhat organized prank on their unsuspecting blog  readers, fellow twitter followers, as well as facebook friends. A prank… that comes rather late, in my opinion. After all, April 1st is definitely over. This prank, would have inspired a smile or even laughter if it’s conjured on 1st April 2010, but unfortunately, it is not. Some of you might be wondering what sort of prank it was. Well…head over to Merryn’s blog, and follow Foongpc on twitter @foongpc. The main subject here is, Merryn and Foongpc. Foongpc is an anonymous blogger, who never plaster his pictures all over the net met up with Merryn, along with Iamthewitch and her husband, Saucer.

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Then, after that, they decided to play a prank via Merryn’s blog where she proceed to write an entry by putting up Iamthewitch’s husband’s picture, Saucer and mislead the readers into thinking that Saucer is Foongpc’s husband.

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In the beginning, nothing happened until Foongpc began to rant and rave that he didn’t give permission to her to put up the bloody pictures, and seems to be pissed to the extend that he’s going to take legal action against her. While it is a fact that Merryn did not exactly mention that the picture in her entry is Foongpc’s picture, Foongpc gave many comments both on his twitter as well as in Merryn’s blog to give the impression that he is the man in the picture. And many readers were enraged by Merryn’s action; exposing what she’s not supposed to exposed. From what I gather, she probably received many hate mails and hate comments for it, and I was horrified for her safety as well as her son’s safety.

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I was horrified because of this; the threat for legal action by Foongpc as well as the haters. And my imagination started to run wild. People are hating her for what she did then.  I was thinking, it would be a shame if crazy haters get back at her through her sweet, innocent little boy Ethan. You see… Ethan is one of Merryn’s main subject in her blog. People actually knows how Ethan looks like. Gosh, I can’t imagine the poor thing being harmed or kidnapped just because people hate Merryn for what she did! God forbids that! I may sound paranoid, but this world is no heaven where everything is protected and loads of lunatics roam about.

. The next day, another entry was made, and apparently, everything is a hoax, and it seems that it is a joke made up at the expanse of the sympathetic and foolish readers. So… I kinda wonder why when everything was out in the open, Foongpc even dares to ask us why we fools thought that he is the man in the picture while he himself seems to imply it? I don’t quite get this part of the joke, though. Was he being sarcastic or did he not know that some of us are not only Merryn’s readers but his twitter follower as well? I’m not quite sure. 😛

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Truth be told. I was one of those stupid fools, and should have laughed at myself for being foolish. However, I couldn’t really find the heart to laugh at this little conspiracy. Why? Easy. Firstly, it’s because, deep down, I am somewhat similar to those uptight British bitch, and I am slow at getting jokes to penetrate into my brain, and secondly because I am also an anonymous blogger.

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This may be a playful, harmless joke played at the expanse of the innocent, unsuspecting readers, but to me… the effect is not quite those of a joke. I wish I could laugh with mirth, but I couldn’t find the laughter. Instead, the joke scares me. It scares me to my very core and made me shudder in fear.

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Yes. Shudder in fear. I experience many near-death experience before, however, it doesn’t come close to scaring me like this. Being somewhat anonymous in the world wide web all these while, I felt as if I’ve been doused by a bucket of ice through this entry, making me realized many things.

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Things that I have somewhat neglect to delve into since earlier of this year where I am determined to lead a happier and more fulfilling life by opening up my hearts to more people, and be a better me. Through this entry, I realized that… I MUST be extremely careful when I meet people next time. Or better still… don’t bother to meet strangers at all.

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Merryn’s entry may come out as a well organized joke, but in truth, such thing similar to the jokes she played might be real one day. It may not be from her, but I can’t honestly say others won’t do it for real-reveal one’s identity and expose what’s preferred to be private and confidential in the first place, just because they thought it’s not important and it’s funny or just because they thought it can bring traffics to their blogs.

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If I am not careful enough while meeting strangers, they might do what Merryn did in her entry-expose someone’s identity to the public without permission. While hers is meant to be a joke, such thing might not be a joke when it’s done on me, and that, wouldn’t be a laughing matter anymore.

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It will be an invasion of privacy in the most awful and cruel way, and if it happens to me, I’d be sure the one who did it pays dearly for the damage that has been done to me. I don’t tolerate invasion of privacy well. To me, it is a form of rape. Kindly do not ask me to chill or tell me that I think too much, because I value privacy very much.

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Merryn’s little joke really made me think how dangerous the world wide web is, and I must thread carefully. Plastering my own pictures with my freaking face all over the net is a no, no for me. And I definitely don’t allow anyone to do it without my permission as well. If you do that… I’ll file a lawsuit. Why? Well, you wouldn’t understand it, so, let me explain. This is not going to be a pretty post, and I am somewhat prepared for flames. Well, do your worst but I’m still going to discuss this issue. It’s been in my head for quite some time, but apparently, nothing actually triggered me to write it.

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Let me start with some questions. Do you know why Superman kept his identity a secret? Why Spiderman wears a mask covering his face? And why terrorists NEVER ever carry the picture of their family and children in their wallet?

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The reason is extremely simple. The superheroes, and the terrorists alike have something that others do not have, which is something to protect. By not exposing themselves… their true identity to the friends and foes alike, they are protecting something precious to them, which is their loved ones.

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Imagine everyone who knows who is Superman in his world…he may be a superhero with super powers, but the ones he loved, Lois Lane and his parents are just mere human. If the bad people finds out who is related to Superman, what would they do? Kill his family of course, cuz they are weak and powerless. They might need a kryptonite to weaken and kill Superman, but they don’t exactly need anything much to kill his human family.

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Killing Superman’s family members is as good as having a revenge on him. I am sure many bad guys out there agree with me on this. If you can’t get the bastard, get his family. That would be good enough. This world is not exactly paradise or a heaven on earth, if you ask me. I may not be Superman, or Batman, or any being with super power.

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I am just a normal human, but I have something to protect, which is my family. All of you may have nothing to loose by plastering the pictures of yourself and your children online and have no qualms of letting people know who you are, but I do. I don’t exactly write sweetly pleasant things that makes people happy all the time. More often than not, my writing is somewhat free… I am a very opinionated person, and what I write may hurt people’s feelings rather than not. My writing provoke people’s thoughts,and God knows how many people out there is waiting to strangle me to death for being rather peculiar and opinionated.

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And so… I don’t quite appreciate it when people ask me why I never reveal my face online. I read a comment in Merryn’s page where someone asked Foongpc… why he doesn’t want to show his picture? He looks fine and handsome, and he shouldn’t be shy about it. This freaking stupid, brainless, bimbo-ish question irks me to death. Do you know why?

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Because….you fools… sometimes, people kept their identity a secret not because they are not-photogenic, camera shy or they look fucking ugly. It is because they value their privacy and realize how important it is not to have unnecessary exposure in the public. They, unlike you who exposed yourself, have something important to protect, and they prefer to remain safe than sorry. One may say that they are just pictures… what harm can it do? I say many. People can recognize you on the street while you have no idea who they are. And I shudder to think that some losers out there are looking at your pictures while masturbating.

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Absolutely freaky, if you ask me. You may say they don’t know your address, your phone number. Oh…they do know…this is the information technology era. They can trace you through Facebook… through advertising companies READ: Nuffnang and so on. Maybe you don’t get me yet, but you have to key in your IC number, address andmany other confidential details in order for you to receive payments for those ads, am I right?

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What if some sex maniac and pedophiles reads your blog and wants you and your children so bad and they happen to have access to your confidential profiles?

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I dare not imagine, but I shall say prayers for you and hopes nothing bad happens to you. Seriously, do you think that everything is secure? I say no. Because I live in a world where black hat hackers as well as white hat hackers exists, and breaking into people’s facebook accounts and whatnot is a piece of cake for them. Some even work as programmers…who laugh at the security of these social networking sites. By the way, did you know that in some sites, your password are visible to administrators?Am I bullshitting? No… I am not bullshitting… sometimes, to site admins, they don’t even have to see your passwords to be able to login into your accounts. They have a universal password for it. In other words, the only thing that kept these people from harassing you is just their work ethics and moral.

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Nothing, dear readers, nothing is really secure. Anyway…please allow me to openly apologize to my former journalism lecturer as well as mass communication lecturer. I am so sorry that I did not pay much attention in class when you mention about not trusting whatever we read as well as rumours, noise and miscommunication. I’ve learn my lesson now. The hard way. I am so, so sorry and this will not be repeated on my part ever again. I promise I will try to differentiate  between white noise and the real news instead of just believing. Shame on me…and I dare to call myself a journalism grad. I don’t deserve that.

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Cleffairy: Fame comes with a price that I am not willing to pay, because I saw first hand…that nothing is actually 100% secure in the first place. Do I sound paranoid? Childish and immature? Imagination too wild? Well, excuse me while I go and play Maplestory using a level 135 Bishop to boom at some stupid skellies by using Genesis. And maybe after that, I’ll go watch Sailormoon and waste away by reading Doraemon and Dragonball! You people go ahead and do whatever makes you happy.

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ps: Thank you Merryn, for reminding me how dangerous the Internet can be. Your joke made me realize that not everybody is as nice as you and won’t expose people’s identity. From this day forward, only the privileged few will know who I am 😀