Zit Seng's Blog

A Singaporean's technology and lifestyle blog

There’s Dumb, and There’s Dumber

Our friends in the United States of America have Trump. TKL didn’t stand a chance in Singapore. Thank goodness. Thank goodness there were others running for president. It would otherwise have been a calamity for our nation.

Mr Tan Kin Lian today posted some personal data of himself on Facebook. The personal data included information such as his NRIC number, date of birth, email address, and mobile phone number. He was trying to make the point that “paranoia about the privacy of NRIC and contact details to be over-blown”.

Oh wow. I don’t know what to say.

Then, not unexpectedly, someone tries to have a bit of mischief with his SingPass logins. His account gets locked out. Instead of reflecting on his stupidity, he insinuates that GovTech is not so smart. Seriously, who’s the one that is not so smart?

In other Facebook posts today, he goes on to rant about how NRIC numbers are easily obtained. True, but there’s no need to make it even easier. He wants to say how SingPass is flawed locking out NRIC login failures. Does he not know that he ought to have chosen a SingPass ID that is not his NRIC number?

If Mr Tan wants to characterise GovTech as not smart, I think he’s even less smart. At many times, I wondered what our attention-seeking presidential-wannabe is really up to. Does he not realise that he’s making himself out to be a fool? Or perhaps, to him, this is merely a publicity stunt to impress the few netizens who are even less tech savvy than him?

It’s true that we cannot control or prevent someone else from leaking our personal data. However, you don’t have to make matters worse by publishing your personal data yourself.

This is what some might say, self-pwned.

The Internet did not have Mr Tan’s NRIC number before today. Thanks to his good self, it’s now truly public knowledge.

Our Smart Nation goal is a journey, one that we should be able to make progress on, as long as Mr Tan gets out of the way.

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