Shoulder surfing

I was travelling in a bus. I was watching a cat video on my phone. I had muted the video so that I would not disturb anybody. I felt a gentle tap on my shoulder. I don't around to see a woman seated behind me. Smiled at me and she asked me politely, "can you give the phone to my son? He loves watching animal videos". This was definitely a bizarre request. I denied but then it made me think. This was a classic case of shoulder surfing.

Shoulder surfing is an activity known with computers. However in recent times I believe this should be extended for the to mobile phones and tabs as well. Shoulder surfing on the computers is prohibited for data security concerns and it should also be prohibited for the mobile phones too. This brings me neatly to the digital etiquette: Do not shoulder surf.

This is not just one incident. I am pretty sure that every person must have experienced shoulder surfing in public spaces, where they must have noticed that someone is watching over their shoulder to see what they are viewing on their mobile phones. This is really a bad habit and it has to be rectified by informing each and every person.

In my case I was in a public space wherein I was watching an appropriate video while muting the sound so that I would not cause any disruption. Additionally the brightness of my phone was really low. It was really difficult to see what I am viewing on my phone unless the women had deliberately shoulder surfed to see what I was was watching. This definitely needs to considered as an invasion of privacy.

I believe nobody has the right to peak inside your phone screen unless you have allowed it. Nobody has the right to see what is on other persons phone screen unless the device owner is okay with that. Irrespective of whether the person's phone screen is bright as the sun or the device is on full volume, nobody should sneak inside other person's phone. It is a question of integrity. It is something we should implement ourselves. We should not peak inside someone else's device. Additionally we should not allow any person to peak inside our own device.

It may sound very simple, but it is very difficult to implement because of the human nature - mainly the curious nature. Bright light quickly attracts our attention. Noise to would quickly fuel our curiosity. We may look in the direction of the device driven by our instinct without even realising. However after that we should rectify our behavior, bind our curiosity, and we should turn away from other's device.

This behaviour goes both ways. I believe we should start training ourselves to prevent ourselves from viewing someone else's screen. I completely understand that we may not be able to control or prevent others from viewing our screen but we should try to implement certain measures to avoid attracting unnecessary attention. By my experience of watching cat video on the bus I have learnt my lesson that I should not watch anything interesting in the public space which would attract the attention. Yet I completely understand that I would need to make phone calls or I would need to check text messages while I am in the public space. I may not control others' behaviours towards me and I cannot stop them from watching my phone screen. Yet if I notice someone viewing my phone then I simply cover my phone screen. At the same time I definitely control my curiosity in the public space and don't peak at anybody else's device. This is an etiquette that I have taught myself and try to implement it as well.

I hope you put find this helpful and would start implementing today itself.