From today till April 6, SingTel cellular phone subscribers who come within one kilometer of shisha hot spot Kampong Glam will receive a MMS containing a video warning about the dangers of shisha smoking.
The issue here is NOT about shisha smoking.
What I am concerned about here is the issue of privacy and intrusions into my privacy.
What gives anyone the bloody right to beam unsolicited messages into my cell phone?
If we don’t fight this, very soon, we’ll have Big Brother sending us messages when we are near fast-food joints (obesity and trans fat), Geylang (sexually transmitted diseases), cybercafes (gaming addiction), Joo Chiat (Vietnamese prostitutes), Hong Lim Park (Speakers’ Corner, breeding ground of anti-government elements), Chinese restaurants (cruelty to sharks), pharmacies (they display and sell condoms, promoting indiscriminate copulation), opposition wards (urban decay, these constituents didn’t vote PAP), French restaurants (cruelty to geese), Orchard Towers (horny and rowdy foreign talents), ramen restaurants (monosodium glutamate), and God alone knows what else.
And this is from the same government behind the proposed Do-Not-Call registry – which aims to protect personal information from being stolen or indiscriminately collected and used for marketing purposes.
When eventually enforced, we will have a choice to opt out of telemarketing calls, or SMS and MMS messages.
But if the government themselves do it, it’s ok?
Another classic case of multiple standards.
Shame on you if you take this lying down!