Furey: Facebook attack misses mark

Several weeks ago a video was posted online allegedly by the hacker collective known as Anonymous. The video urged online hackers around the world to work together on Nov. 5 to ‘destroy’ social networking site Facebook. Anonymous has taken credit for attacks on Sony, Bank of America and PayPal, to name a few.

The rationale for the Nov. 5 campaign was that Facebook violates individual privacy. It stores a cache of all of your activity which it can then offer up to corporations or governments for money. Your messages remain in their possession. When you delete your account you’re not really deleting it. The information still remains tucked away on their servers. It’s just no longer an active, publicly visible profile.

Soon after, representatives of Anonymous issued a statement saying that while the anti-Facebook campaign may have been created by members in their network, the group as a whole does not support the plan.

That’s comforting in some sense, but still unnerving to know that there are people out there who are hatching such a plan and trying to drum up support. I feel they’re missing part of our social contract, or should I say user contract. If you don’t want Facebook to have your information forever and if you don’t want them to sell it to companies and use it for other such purposes then you shouldn’t be placing your information on a network that they own and operate.

Ultimately, it’s buyer beware, use at your own risk, etc. It’s what comes from not reading the fine print. How many of us properly read the ‘terms of use’ when we sign up for a new e-mail account, credit card, even car purchase? I’m guessing not too many.

I remember when this first dawned on me. I realized that Facebook wasn’t like talking on my cellphone, or meeting someone in the park. It was like writing back and forth with someone on a bathroom wall.

Anyone who goes into the bathroom can read the scrawl and join in. Also if the restaurant were to close its doors my scribbles would remain on the wall, the property of the building’s owner.

My response wasn’t to rail against Facebook, but to go ‘Oops, I better be more careful with what I say.’

The Facebook story reminded me of an agitated reader who got in touch with us here at the paper. Several months ago she had sent in a letter to the editor and the letter was selected for publication. Not only was it printed in the physical newspaper, but it appeared on-line on our website. This happens with all of our content and it happens at most major newspapers across the world.

When the woman searched her name on-line this letter came up. She was frustrated to see that the letter remained in our archives, visible to the world, and called to complain. She wanted it taken down.

The letter made critical statements about a city department. The woman said if she wanted to apply for a job at that department they might find the critical words she’d once issued against them.

While the woman was polite enough, it irked me that she firmly believe we had mislead her and all other readers of our paper.

However the problem wasn’t that we had kept her letter on-line, the problem was that she hadn’t carefully thought out whether or not she wanted to commit to the words.

The world has changed a great deal with the predominance of the Internet in our daily lives. It’s no longer true that what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. These days, we all have to think before we speak.

Share and Enjoy

Massive tubing mob could be headed for the Chip

By Lisa Satayut
Special to the Sun

A mob of Central Michigan University students are expected to overflow the Chippewa River Saturday afternoon during a mass tubing event.

But, how many of them will actually go?

The event, organized by a group of CMU students on the social networking website Facebook, has had over 3,000 people saying they plan to attend.

“There’s no way that number of people are going to come,” event organizer and CMU graduate student Ruffio Crabtree said.

“Even if one-eighth of them do it would still be a lot,” he said.

The “Fillin up the Chip” gathering is scheduled to start at Meridian Park Saturday afternoon and end almost eight miles down the river at Nelson Park.

Crabtree said he planned a similar event last year and more than 100 people attended.

This year’s tubing extravaganza is planned the weekend of CMU’s “Welcome Week.”

“This year it kind of got out of hand. It went through the roof,” he said of the number of people on Facebook, who said they planned to attend by clicking on the “I’m Attending” icon. “We’re college students hoping to have a good time,” he said.

This potentially massive tubing event, the last Saturday before classes are scheduled to begin, is one that Crabtree hopes will go down in history.

If a mob of tubers do show up, law enforcement will be ready.

County, city and state police are well aware of the planned event.

City of Mt. Pleasant Public Information Officer Jeff Browne said the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (Isabella County) will also be monitoring and enforcing the law if necessary.

Isabella County Sheriff Leo Mioduszewski said he plans on having marine deputies assigned to Meridian Park that day. Mioduszewski, who said he has his doubts about the large number of people who committed to the event on Facebook, doesn’t want to under-estimate the potential mass gathering.

“We’re always concerned about that many people showing up. If we need to call other people they will be available,” he said.

Browne said the city police will have extra officers on this weekend due to “Welcome Week” and will be putting a plan into place for the tubing event. Besides alcohol and liquor consumption, Browne said he also has concerns about the environment.

“A concern of ours is people overconsuming (alcohol) on those types of events, as well as the trash and debris left,” he said. “People bring all this stuff in and don’t clean it up.”

Safety and overcrowding is also another concern.

“We want them to be safe. It’s great they’re doing an event together. If they do everything right with it, it makes it even better yet,” Browne said.

The potential overcrowding also has the county parks and recreation department concerned. Meridian Park has room for 75 vehicles. It costs $6 for a daily parking permit.

“Our biggest concern is going to be the parking,” Isabella County Parks and Recreation Department Spokeswoman Katrina Stock said. “We can’t do anything about them parking on the road.”

Mioduszewski said it is legal for vehicles to park on the side of the road.

“It’s legal to park there as long as you’re off the shoulder so you’re not a road hazard. Your car has to be off the road,” he said.

He admits this could become a problem depending on the numbers.

“If there are 3,000 people, there is going to be a problem,” Mioduszewski said.

Homeowners along the river also have concerns about this planned event.

“People don’t realize the river is a natural resource that needs to be respected and treated properly,” homeowner Nancy McGuirk said.

Although she is not “denying people to have fun and go tubing down the river” she hopes they do it with respect and within the law.

“People just don’t have any respect for the property owners,” she said of tubers in general.

The owners of Buckley’s Mountainside Canoes has organized a post-event cleanup event the next day at 9:30 a.m.

Crabtree will not be making that.

“I’m not really into that,” he said.

One of his posts on the Facebook event page states “everyone make sure you are respectful to the environment lol.”

For those who don’t know, the term “lol” is Internet slang for “laugh out loud.”

The local livery and Crabtree have been arguing via the web after Buckley’s owner Liz Busch attempted to post a notice on the “Fill a Chip” Facebook page in the past week. Ruffio kept removing it, but not before he, along with others, posted comments below the clean-up post.

Some of these comments, which have since been removed, included one stating “no-one cares about the environment” and similar remarks.

“The comments of these individuals are beyond ignorant,” Busch said.

Although Crabtree won’t be helping in the cleanup, he doesn’t have any problem with the effort. He just doesn’t want it posted on the event page.

“That’s respectful, I’m not going to participate in it. It’s a college town. This is kind of like a tailgate,” he said.

Crabtree did say he has posted the park and river rules on the Facebook event page.

“Obviously I’m not trying to promote littering. It’s on the page,” he said of the post.

To participate in the post-cleanup contact the livery at 989-772-5437. Buckley’s will provide canoes, bags and gloves.

• Return to Paging Mode

Share and Enjoy