Recently, I had an experience that led me to set a new intention. An intention to share and connect in a way that might resonate for longer than the instant yet momentary nature of social media sharing.
A few weeks ago I went on a five day canoe trip down the Whanganui River. I would describe myself as a novice a but passionate canoe-ist…my friends and I took to it like ducks to water. For five days we paddled downstream, passing misty waterfalls, precariously steering around rocks (occasionally crashing into tree stumps), and tumbling over rapids. Miraculously, we didn’t fall out once - although I did lose a sandal whilst trying to ascend a steep muddy bank on the third day. The sandal floated swiftly downstream beneath the water never to be seen again.
On the trip, we were blissfully unaware of what was happening in the outside world. Away from reception, we had no inkling of Putin embarking on an invasion of Ukraine, the growing Covid-19 cases in New Zealand (although we did place our bets on this) or the continued protests outside Wellington’s parliament grounds by anti-mandate and anti-vax protestors.
When we did return to reception the world seemed rather topsy-turvy. A definite shift in anxiety levels.
I also came back to discover my Facebook account, and our French for Rabbits advertising accounts had been hacked by hackers in Vietnam and our ad accounts taken over - luckily we are relatively broke due to Covid-19 so they couldn’t steal and spend too much money on their scam advertisements. They target small business owners, and very cleverly take advantage of various flaws in Facebook’s customer service systems by posting objectionable material to your personal Facebook pages so that your account get’s suspended and you can’t reach customer support.
In the meantime, they add themselves as admin to your ad accounts - and use them to spend money from your attached paypal or credit cards. I swiftly cancelled cards, and contacted PayPal. It took over three weeks to get in touch with Facebook directly, thanks to the kind support of New Zealand charity Netsafe, and a LOT of persistence. We are still working on resolving all the issues as I write. No matter what I did myself - I could not get through to anyone at Facebook’s customer service - broken links abounded, and automatic replies would lead in circles! I am quite sure Meta make it purposely very difficult.
I felt violated by the hackers actions, but worse than that I felt let down by Facebook who could not be contacted about an urgent matter such as fraud. We all know that there are a myriad of ethical issues with Meta (Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp) but like many artists and musicians we feel obliged to use it - as a tool for connecting with our fans, our communities, sharing our news and upcoming shows and releases.
Losing my account for those weeks made me reconsider who owns my data - and what happens if a company like Facebook threatens to delete your account (as they did to me when the hacker posted objectionable images without my consent). I’ve learned a thing or two about security (make sure you have a good password, 2-factor security, no money in the bank account attached to an ad account, and have at least two admin for any page or business account for a start).
Long story short, I hope to connect more through other means. Our mailing list for our rare emails (up to four times per year, generally) so we can be in touch directly, and here on our website which I will endeavour to update more frequently with news and perhaps an update like this once in a while. What do you want to hear about?
I loved those golden old days of the internet, when people wrote blogs and connected through community forums that were set up by enthusiasts and not hosted on one mega-platform! Let’s go back to that a little more, huh?
We announce a New Zealand tour tomorrow - and last week we had the LOVELY news that our new album ‘The Overflow’ has been nominated for a prestigious music award The Taite Music Prize 2022. Chuffed! For now, goodnight! Hope to connect with you all in person soon. We love emails - so please get in touch if you like.