Wolves in Sheep's Clothing: Available Now on your Newsstand

You would think (0.00 / 0)

that after West Virginia, anyone who suggested publishing the addresses of faculty would be public humilitated as being an asshat...

Oh, and don't forget MSU's stalker guide...every year they publish the adresses of the students at the University. They are one shooting spree away from a massive law suit.

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by: Nazgul35 @ Mon Aug 13, 2007 at 13:50:02 PM UTC

CMU is no better (0.00 / 0)

Heck, I used to work at Central Mich. at a student run facility where you needed your ID card to enter. If you forgot your ID card, we looked it up using you social security number. The bad side of it? We could reverse this and look up people's social security number by just their last name.

So, by having your last name, I could look up your social security number, on-campus address, home address, phone numbers, grade level and a few other things.

And, we were student employees making minimum wage, with on sort of background checks. Take that privacy!

I've heard that CMU doesn't use the social security number as your ID number anymore, but I would bet that the reverse look up function still works.


"We in America do not have government by the majority. We have government by the majority who participate." --Thomas Jefferson

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by: Bokononist @ Mon Aug 13, 2007 at 17:43:36 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

There were a lot of very strange things in that article (0.00 / 0)

Starting with the apparent argument that finding a parking spot on MSU's campus where you won't get ticketed, walking to the library, and finding and asking the reference librarian for a specific publication is pretty much the same thing as looking it up on the Internet (or call the university's P.R. department, who will get back to you very reliably if you're a bonafide member of the press; if not...).

And, then ending with the suggestion that because college kids put photos of themselves doing beer bongs on their MySpace page that they wouldn't, in 10 years, mind having their salaries made public information.

Everyone has been so focused on reminding each other that shining a spotlight of how government works is good for accountability that no one has yet acknowledged that there is a corollary that someone who gets their mitts on public information use it responsibly and intelligently.  Posting salaries of public employees, with no context, online does nothing to empower public awareness of how government spends money, but does everything to empower half-informed cranks already disposed to believing that public employees make too much money.

Among the Trees

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by: Eric B. @ Mon Aug 13, 2007 at 14:08:35 PM UTC

Not defending the LSJ, but (4.00 / 2)

Careful that you don't go too far in creating a "use test" for public information.  The FOIA explicitly does NOT require that you have a good reason to access the information; in fact, public agencies are expressly forbidden from asking you why you want it or what you intend to do with it--and that's as it should be. 

Requiring that people who get "their mitts on public information use it responsibly and intelligently" means the end of FOIA, period.  NOBODY can pass that test when bureaucrats want to bury things; it's hard enough making FOIA work now, don't make it harder.

The right response to the LSJ's asshatery is what's going on now (consumer revulsion and resistance)--but keep hold of that FOIA baby before you toss out the dirty bathwater the LSJ fouled.

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by: jmgear @ Mon Aug 13, 2007 at 16:25:14 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Oh, I'm not tossing out FOIA and I'm not suggesting a use test... (0.00 / 0)

But, I don't think it's unreasonable to expect people who get information from a public body with the purpose of sparking debate to use it wisely and responsibly.  I mean, if someone FOIA'd correspondence between two public officials and then excerpted it in a way that misrepresented what it said ... I don't think there's obviously something very wrong with that.

It's really the same standard I've applied to the State Journal all along ... I'm less against their posting of the information than their posting of the information without any kind of context that properly informs people.

Among the Trees

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by: Eric B. @ Mon Aug 13, 2007 at 16:49:57 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Me write pretty one day... (0.00 / 0)

I don't think there's obviously something very wrong with that.

'Xcuse me -- I think there's obviously something very wrong with that.

Among the Trees

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by: Eric B. @ Mon Aug 13, 2007 at 16:51:22 PM UTC

[ Parent ]