IF you’re one of those who find the facilities and services of internet cafes or cybernooks so convenient and, uh, private that you’d rather not buy yourself a PC or a laptop but simply hie off to the nearest IC, you’ve got another think coming.

My neighbor, Wilson, set many of us thinking deep, including another neighbor, Ging C, when he revealed that for all the cozy, pretty, hunky dory atmosphere in there, you could actually lose your precious “privacy” as you innocently log on to some confidential sites or file that online loan application with your bank or insurance firm or do money transactions (especially withdrawal activities) using one of those P20-an-hour units. 

No, we don’t mean to impugn the integrity of the internet joints, far from it. Many of them are actually doing simple, honest living and often only earn enough for day-to-day shop operations. Never mind if their softwares or operating systems (OS)are licensed or not; that’s for Microsoft and authorized dealers to break their heads over.

But while the owners or shop operators may not actually be doing the criminal eavesdropping on online identities, there are, as in any human habitat, the smart ones  now called “key-loggers” (wonder if we got that right?) who pretend to be customers  and who can practically steal your key data once you leave the place — PIN, bank account numbers, license numbers, address and  ANY AND ALL PERSONAL thingmagagigs you don’t share even with the wifey or your gf.

You say you took all the necessary safeguards while loggin online? That’s what you think. But cyber technology is now boundless, both for creative and criminal purposes, your deepest data secrets won’t stay that way for long. 

Our neighbor’s simple advise cum word of caution: Internet cafes are good and safe for games and encoding of harmless text (like Liway’s, Eva’s and Yolly’s blogs, see?) but never online banking or Top Secret notes. 

Use a laptop — yours, of course — if you have to be doing such transactions. 

Still I wonder  if … you can even trust yourself nowadays. Ah, the height of paranoia!