‘You have NO privacy. Get over it’

That is the message of a popular viral video produced by the Belgian Federation of the Financial Sector (Febelfin), which has so far been seen by more than one-and-a-half million people, the Computing reported.

In it, members of the public are invited to a very special mind-reading conducted by a charismatic grey-haired mystic called “Dave”. As the ham actor gets into his stride, more and more compelling information about the lives of his clients is spilled onto the table:

“I see a school in Antwerp”... “A house for sale”... “Your best friend’s name is Julie”... “Interesting love life – I see, three? Four people?”

But Dave leaves the best until last: “I see a negative [bank] balance”... “Last month, you spent €200 on alcohol”... “€300 on clothes”.

And then he reads out their bank account numbers, before the secret of his mind-reading power is revealed: a room full of computers operated by balaclava-clad hackers who (supposedly) had been feeding the information to the phony mind-reader in real time.

The video was intended to warn people against making available excessive amounts of what ought to be private information about themselves online, and the ease with which such data can be used to break into email addresses, commerce sites and, ultimately, bank accounts.

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