In December 2002, Adrian Chiang from Singapore announced in a Forum that he had discovered it was possible to send a message from his phone to another phone using Bluetooth.
He gave this new communication phenomenon the name Bluejacking. Choosing an inappropriate name immediately gave this mode of communication a negative connotation. Today the same technical phenomenon, used differently, is trendy: Toothing: the possibility to find contacts, partners using Bluetooth technology. The new frontier of quick-fling hookups comes from Britain and is driving young (but not only) English workers crazy. All thanks to Bluetooth technology and a protocol launched by a group of British youths. Almost all new mobile phones and PDAs are equipped with Bluetooth, and can identify other devices nearby (showing their phone number, model, and nickname). The toother, take an example of a man, takes a look and if he finds a female name, or a nickname that could belong to a woman, sends an SMS (usually with “Toothing?” written), just to test the waters. If the response is positive, the game begins. Which can end up at one of the interlocutors’ homes or, in case of stormy hormones, even in the nearest restroom. The inventor of the new craze is named Jon, although he became famous under the stage name Toothy Toothing. And he says: “I live in a commuter town near London, and in the morning, I take the train for a long and boring journey. I started toothing last November, with an SMS exchange with another commuter, Angela. We arranged to meet in the compartment’s restroom, and we consummated.” To ensure that the exploits of toothers don’t remain confined within a train car, Jon launched a website with chats and individual blogs. And within four months, thanks to thousands of people, a casual sex community was born where participants compete to share their experiences. Which don’t always end well, because a nickname doesn’t always match expectations. Behind “Hello Kitty” there could also be a hairy and burly hulking guy. But that’s part of the game. Certainly, there are some strategies to discover who you are writing to. As Jon explains, “just look around immediately after sending the message and see if there’s someone reading the display, looking around curiously, or trying to meet the gazes of those present. At first – Jon concludes – it’s a bit like cat and mouse. Afterwards, though, the story grows in intensity.” Technically, toothing consists in sending, from one’s Bluetooth-enabled mobile phone, a data packet in the form of a contact card, thus immediately acceptable by the other party’s phone. This has an important legal implication, which we will discuss in detail later. For now, suffice to understand that what is sent is nothing more than a contact card, a data packet not exceeding a predefined number of characters, with the possibility to fill certain fields (First Name, Last Name, Company, Role, Cell Phone Number, Email Address), possibly with values different from the actual label. For example, as we have seen, usually the “First Name” field is replaced by “Toothing?” since it is the first to be displayed, thereby introducing the contact request. Instead of the “Company” label, one can put the gender (male or female) and so on… In some Smartphones, it is possible to add a small photo associated with the contact name to be sent. It is important to remember that sending a business card via Bluetooth does not create a “pairing” and thus “trusted” connection and therefore there is no actual access to the IT system: as we have seen, it is only the business card that is introduced into the other phone with a margin of 180 available characters.
Pubblicato in Digital Tools
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