racoma.com.phJ. Angelo Racoma on technology, economics, writing, problogging, and getting things done

This was aired last Sunday, August 19th, 2007 on GMA 7’s Mel & Joey talk show. The topic was innovative means of making a living.

The interview was actually about two hours long, as the producer and I chatted about a lot of things relevant to blogging and problogging. I guess due to time constraints (and to give way to other topics), they had to cut things short. The clip shown is just a few minutes long, and my part there was only about a minute or so. Fellow Filipino bloggers Abe Olandres and Gaile dela Cruz also appear on this segment.

Video is embedded here (viewable after the jump) ...

Some people do the stupidest things with information entrusted to them. Take this case for example. PTB contributor Arnold Gamboa discovered that a certain website purporting to belong to the Commission on Elections NCR (National Capital Region) has published the entire list of registrants for the region.

I think COMELEC made a terrible — make that stupid — mistake by publishing the personal information of thousands of NCR’s registered voters. Comelecncr.com — NOT .gov, take note (is this even sanctioned by the government?) is a partnership between a COMELEC official named Dir. Ferdinand Rafanan and San Miguel Corporation (yes, what does a multi-million peso company has to do with Philippine elections?).

Dir. Rafanan said the goal is transparency. Ok, sounds like a noble intention. But the big question is, does publishing someone’s name, registration number and home address over the internet where billions of people can access a violation of the right to privacy?

If I were a stalker (which I sometimes am), this makes for good resource material. I’d better save the entire list then on my hard drive, for future reference! Now more dangerously—if I had a grudge against someone but I didn’t know where he lived, I could check out the list. Or if I’m a politico, and I want to send out campaign materials via snail mail (a.ka. SPAM) to people, I could use this info. Or what if I run a business? I no longer have to buy address lists. I just check out the registrants list and I now have people’s full names, birth dates and home addresses.

Oh, and their web design sucks. Frames? Tables? Animated GIFs? Marquee text? Oh my God Looks like the site was made with MS Frontpage. Wait. It is!