How many tracking cookies are installed on your computer? A Truste study found that a user can encounter up to 140 cookies and other trackers while browsing a single popular website. Photo credit: Martina Misar-tummeltshammer. Molouk Y. Ba-Isa Saudi Gazette In the last week of the summer holiday, I was sitting next to another customer waiting at an airline's office. He was morosely staring at his mobile phone and every few minutes a “Ka-Ching” alert tone sounded. After about four alerts came, I casually asked him, “Is anything wrong?” “I'm going broke,” he replied. “My wife and daughters are at Harrods shopping.” It turned out that every “Ka-Ching” was an SMS from his bank advising him of another purchase on his credit card. Later, as we were driving home my husband asked me why he never received bank messages when I went shopping. “That's simple, dear,” I replied. “First, most of my credit cards are from my own bank account. Those messages come to my mobile phone. Second, when you offered me a credit card from your account, I filled in my mobile number on the application.” The now very poor man from the airline's office was tracking his family's movements in another country through their purchases. It seemed that they didn't care and every bank in the Kingdom uses software that tracks card purchases for any indication of fraud. A few weeks back, quite a discussion began about the fact that Saudi men can now receive text messages alerting them when family members for whom they are guardians, leave the country. Most every article focused on the text messages, when the real issue is the need for a Saudi woman to have permission from her husband to travel out of the Kingdom. For the record, my husband detests the system. He always signs for the issuance of my passport, as is required by the regulations, and then he immediately issues a travel permit good for the length of the validity of my passport. This enables me to travel freely for four and a half years, until it's time to get a new passport. In regards to the tracking though, it's time everybody realized that we're all being tracked all the time. Just go to the Ministry of Interior website — moi.gov.sa — and any individual with an account will see that there's a section showing every Saudi border crossing by the account holder going back years. It's a very handy reference when filling out visa application forms for other nations. Those countries track entries and exits as well. When I showed up at Immigration in the USA last time, the officer asked me, “Do you still work for that newspaper?” Since I don't have a “Journalist” brand on my forehead, I realized that particular tidbit of information came from my file in the database he was referencing and advised him to update it to my new publisher's organization. Saudi telecoms now oblige users to enter their national IDs to recharge their phones. Mobile positioning systems in cell phones easily allow their users to be tracked. More horrifying was the day I logged into my online account at STC and found that a record had been kept of all my text messages for more than a year. I immediately increased my password length and toned down the flirty messages that I send to my husband. It was a good reminder that SMS isn't a private form of communication. There are so many ways we're all being tracked now. Your friend tags you in a photo on Facebook. You willingly sign up for an account at the location-based social networking site Foursquare. There are the innocent looking “cookies” served up by every website. You accept a “loyalty card” from an airline in exchange for free miles. Hotels in Dubai log your every visit and they have a record that you hate feather pillows. With governments touting data mining as essential for a safer world and businesses depending on data mining to maximize profits, tracking of individuals will only increase. The biggest concern in regards to the situation in the Kingdom is that there are no clear, enforced laws to protect the exploitation of personal data used in tracking — either in the real or virtual world. And it's not just adults in Saudi Arabia who are being tracked. The lack of national data protection laws and enforcement means our kids are fair game, too. Think it's not a problem? The next time a stranger reaches out and touches your child through email or mobile phone because your son or daughter provided an email address in a local contest or because a telecom sold the number to a marketer, remember that there are no Saudi laws to prevent that from happening.
