by Unknown 3:08 AM 0 comments

What happened to your netiquette? Sound advice before you post part 2

Another source of online idiocy is with our personal and financial details. Mobile shopping is booming in Hong Kong, with PayPal reporting that around 1.1 million people have shopped on a smartphone or tablet in the past year - a growth of 444 per cent in a single year - spending a whopping HK$6.4 billion.

Research from Nielsen finds that 62 per cent of Hong Kong shoppers do not believe mobile shopping transactions are safe enough while 15 per cent of mobile shoppers have actually experienced fraud. The fact that over half of those making purchases online spend less than HK$100 suggests that confidence in the "digital wallet" needs some shoring up (PayPal's own service is one attempt at that), and that's partly because each of us knows how idiotically insecure we've made our online financial and personal data. PayPal advises that we all use unique passwords that aren't everyday words or names of our family members, pay with a trusted third party payment platform, only buy from retailers with buyer protection, and be wary of those offering unbelievably low prices.

Online etiquette protects every individual, but what about each other? Picture the scene: it's rush hour on the MTR and you're one of hundreds of people pouring out of the station. What do you do next? Keep moving, or slow down, reach for your smartphone, check your e-mails and ignore the crowd you're obstructing? We've all done it - and we know we shouldn't.

A study into smartphone use partly conducted in China by Cisco reveals that 60 per cent of people compulsively check for e-mails, texts, or social media updates - and more than half use them during social meals.

If that's you holding me up in the morning while you stop to leave a poorly judged comment on Facebook, please find a side-street to do it. No one wants to walk into an idiot on the internet.