Yesterday, I noted that Paul Allen did not write a blog entry about the change of FamilyLink into FamilyHistoryLink, but did twitter a few messages about it instead.
Fact is, Paul Allen did write a blog entry, just not about FamilyLink. He waxes lyrical about approaching 189
high-traffic web
sites with a a very innovative partnership opportunity
and how LinkedIn helped him reach these companies.
He writes that In the past week it has become apparent that FamilyLink.com, with our super
popular We’re Related app on Facebook (5 million monthly active users and
growing fast), is ready to reach out to brand advertisers and marketers who want
to reach some of the families who are using our app.
and that We think we can provide media buyers "the
best way to reach families through social media."
.
The practical takeaway from that post for users of We’re Related seems to be: buckle down the hatches, you are going to be flooded with spam…
I decided to have a look at the We’re Related privacy policy. They have a Privacy Policy link on their home page. That link does not lead to a web page, but to an annoying small pop-up window. Hm, why did they bother to go out of their way to make that inconvenient pop-up window up, when a simple web page would do? Could it be that they want to discourage reading it?
I was not discouraged, and read through it. I am not a lawyer, so I have no idea
how the use of WereRelated
instead of We’re Related
throughout the privacy
policy affect its validity, if at all.
I do note that their domain is WereRelated.com, and will assume it does not matter at all.
The line that says WereRelated will not rent, sell, trade, share, or give away any of your
personal information, unless your consent is provided.
sounds reassuring,
but you apparently give the required permission by signing up, as it also says:
WereRelated may use a member’s email address to send news updates, or promotional material.
.
Note that We’re related promises to not to share any of your personal information, but does not indicate whether they consider your email address to be personal information. Let’s assume they do. Then it says that they will not sell their email address list to others.
Well, of course not, they do not want others to spam you, they want to do the spamming themselves. They do not want to sell that email list once, they want to spam you behalf of others, and make money every time they do.
To make sure their spam escapes the legal definition of spamming, their privacy policy (which you must agree to) includes a line saying that you give them permission to send you "promotional material". Note that "promotional material" is completely unqualified; so when you agree, you agree to receive any promotional material, not just We’re Related stuff, but third-party stuff as well.
Luckily, Members who does not wish to receive this information of
this type may unsubscribe by clicking on the Unsubscribe or change subscriber
options link located at the bottom of every email
, but it remains an issue that We're Related uses opt-out instead of opt-in.
I decided to verify this. I used the form on We’re Related home page to sign up.
I tried to sign up with just my name and email, but that was not good enough. A
pop-up appeared to tell me that Your Birthday is required
.
There is a link titled "Why do I need to provide this?". If you click it, you
get a message box telling you that We require a birthdate to protect the honor
and the reliability of the site.
.
Hm, yeah, that bit of nonsense explains it. Really, I am completely convinced now.
It is about the honour and reliability of the site. Now I understand. I am so relieved that it has nothing to do with demographic profiling to better target the spam.
Oh well, After you sign up you can hide your birth date from others
.
You should not provide the password to your email account.
The second dialog asks for my gmail password. You should not provide the password to your email account. There are three reasons not do so.
First of all, you should never give your email password, because when you do, they can read your email. You should not need any more reason than that, but there are more.
You should not be so cavalier with your contact list. You should treat your contacts with respect. You should never provide it to any company. When that company decides to spam them, they will not like you for it.
And there is a reason that is perhaps somewhat specific to gmail: many of the people in your gmail contact list were not added by you, but automatically added by gmail.
Third-party applications that want import your contact list … do not need your password to do so.
Companies that ask for you password say they will only use it to retrieve your contacts list. It does not matter whether they are honest about that. You should never give out your email password, period. However, you have every reason to believe that they are dishonest, because they do not your password to do that!
Google released its Google Contacts API on 2008 Mar 5. That is more than half a year ago already. Third-party applications that want import your contact list can use that interface, and do not need your password to do so.
Google has the Google Contacts API. Microsoft HotMail has the Windows Live Contacts API. Yahoo! Mail has the Yahoo! Address Book API. AOL Instant Messenger has Web AIM. There may not be a standard Contacts API, but there is plenty of support for retrieving contacts without demanding the user’s password.
If you ever gave any company your email password, change it now, and never do it again.
That We’re Related is still asking for your password is unprofessional at best. You should click the "Skip this step" link. The next step asks me to synchronise with my FaceBook, MySpace, Bebo, Flickr, Photobucket, Picasa Web Albums, GTalk Status Update, Twitter, Live Journal, Blog, Amazon Wish List and YouTube accounts. What the heck! I am guessing it is going to ask password for all these services, to get yet more email addresses. I did not even bother to find out, but simply skipped that step. The next step seems to continue the demographic profiling setup process, by asking for my gender, relationship status, hometown, and religious views.
It is not immediately obvious, but you are looking at your We’re related profile already, and do not need to enter any more information.
Here’s the interesting bit. I looked around for the ability to hide my birth date from others, but it does not seem to exist. I looked for the ability to opt out of the spam, but that ability does not seem to exist. There are tabs titled "My News", "My Relatives", "My Tree", "My Photos" and "Email Me!", but there is no tab titled "Settings" or "Options". There are menu items along the left, titled "News", "Relatives", "Tree", "Photos" and "Email Me!", but no menu item titled "Settings" or "Options".
You need to spot the "My Stuff" tab in the upper right corner and move your mouse over it to reveal the only menu that has "My Privacy" and "My Settings" on it. That is where you can opt to hide specific profile information, such as your birth date, from anyone but direct family.
It is bad enough already that We’re Related uses opt-out instead of opt-in. What’s worse is that I could not find an opt-out option anywhere in the menu system. If it is there, it is well hidden in some inconspicuous corner. We’re related claims that there is an opt-out option each email, but forgets to mention that that is the only way they offer. In other words, they get to spam to you at least once, and there is nothing you can do about it.
I checked whether We’re related sent me any mail to confirm that I signed up with their service. Perhaps that mail would provide an opt-out link already, so that I would not be forced to suffer at least one spam message, but there was none. There is not even an option on my profile to deregister. There is no way to opt out of spam.
I heartily discommend We’re Related.
Paul Allen twitters: Testing Facebook ad campaign targeting 19,000 people
over 55 who are interested in genealogy.
.
The link to your google contacts is only valid if you are logged in. My link checker reports a broken link.
The link has been removed. The link is https://mail.google.com/mail/contacts/ui/ContactManager.
Copyright © Tamura Jones. All Rights reserved.