Is The Contact Info You Provide Someone Public Or Private Info?
from the interesting-legal-questions dept
I've complained in the past about the annoyance of Plaxo spam. Lately, the more I've been thinking about Plaxo, the more it annoys me. Though I've never had anything to do with the company, and have never responded to a single spam, they now have a database with my contact info that others gave it. Bambi Francisco over at CBS Marketwatch has noticed the same thing with Spoke Software, which she finds disconcerting. However, I'm wondering about the bigger legal issues: is the personal info you've given to individuals for business or personal reasons shareable? Some say that all Spoke is doing is collecting public information. However, if the info was given to an individual, is there a reasonable expectation that the information is not public at all, but for private use only? I'm not sure what the answer is, but I wonder how long until there's a lawsuit around this issue. Personally, like so many other things, I don't think it's something you can get "back in the box," but these systems do reveal to me who is freely giving away personal information about me, which could make me less willing to do business with them in the future.
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Greeting cards
What about the company who's 'service' is electronic greeting cards? I'm sure some if not most of these site are nothing more than email harvesters to use or sell for spamming.
Who hasn't received one of these cards? Can I sue my mother now for giving away my contanct information?
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Plaxo spam
The other day I posted a request for information on an e-mail discussion group where I've belonged for several years, and got back dozens of Plaxo things. Most of these people I'd never heard of before.
So I posted another msg saying that if they'd be so kind as to e-mail me direct and introduce themselves, I'd be happy to give them my phone number and directions to my house. ;>)
Nobody responded!
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Free Webmail
I've always wondered about this with free webmail like Hotmail, especially when someone puts your email address into their address book.
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Contact Info: Public or Private?
Well, if you wanted it public, you could put an ad in the newspaper! Let's face it, there are no shortage of whore's out there who would sell their mothers, let alone your contact info. The internet is still evolving, and I hope sooner than later, you could find some objective way of recognizing reliable entities from the unknown quantities. The Internet's survival depends upon the ability to recognize responsible and dependable organizations. I have faith in government entities, Microsoft, Mozilla, and many companies I deal with. Recently I dealt with some online contact lens companies. They charged my credit card within seconds of placing an order they could not fill. It has been over a week now, and my credit card has not shown a credit for my unfilled order. This is but an example of the vast spectrum in credibility which needs a rating system, backed by legal teeth that can bite hard on spammers, frauds, pornographers, and data betrayers. Until the black hole is illuminated, we'd best recall the old "Caveat Emptor" de Internet.
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Re: Contact Info: Public or Private?
Good point. All of this just reinforces the brand integrity of companies such as Yahoo, Amazon and Ebay. People will naturally gravitate towords brands that they trust.
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Hey Commenters! Why are you posting your names?
I'm interested to see commenters here posting what look like real names and e-mail addresses. Are you mad at TechDirt now for publishing them? ;-)
Awareness and personal responsibility should play a role here. More people should be doing more things anonymously if they want to exercise substantial "ownership" of their names and contact info. Social norms are definitely evolving here . . . .
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Re: Hey Commenters! Why are you posting your name
and thats in direct contradiction to Mikes " Anonymous Coward " when I fail to advertise my name & contact information ...
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Re: Hey Commenters! Why are you posting your name
Should be "Righteously Anonymous Person."
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plaxo spam?
"I've complained in the past about the annoyance of Plaxo spam."
Not meaning to be picky, but while you may not like receiving Plaxo emails, they are not "spam." They are sent by real people that identify themselves, there is no marketing, and there is a one-click opt-out.
"... Lately, the more I've been thinking about Plaxo, the more it annoys me. Though I've never had anything to do with the company, and have never responded to a single spam, they now have a database with my contact info that others gave it."
Most of this info is already available via Google, AOL, Yahoo!, and many other information services. And, many of these services have no qualms about sharing it with others. Plaxo does not share this info, period.
The real difference is that Plaxo lets you know it. Regardless, Plaxo's privacy policy is very clear that this information will not be shared with anyone.
"... Bambi Francisco over at CBS Marketwatch has noticed the same thing with Spoke Software, which she finds disconcerting. However, I'm wondering about the bigger legal issues: is the personal info you've given to individuals for business or personal reasons shareable? Some say that all Spoke is doing is collecting public information. However, if the info was given to an individual, is there a reasonable expectation that the information is not public at all, but for private use only? I'm not sure what the answer is, but I wonder how long until there's a lawsuit around this issue. Personally, like so many other things, I don't think it's something you can get "back in the box," but these systems do reveal to me who is freely giving away personal information about me, which could make me less willing to do business with them in the future."
The answer is complex and differs from country to country. The USA takes a "data owner" approach -- the data owner (e.g. address book) owns the data. The spirit of European and Australian laws are more towards individual ownership, but are guided by many details and nuances. Plaxo does not violate these laws.
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Re: Plaxo spam
I have personally investigated many examples of this (i.e. people receive update requests from so-called "strangers"). Every case resulted in me discovering how the person knew each other.
The bottom line is that 99.99% of the time that someone has you in their Outlook Address Book, it's because you've met or interacted at some point in the past. Many of these may have been awhile ago and some may be minor meetings (e.g. you met at a conference).
But, the main point here is that these people are not evildoers trying to *steal your identity."
BTW: Plaxo is adding a feature (as we speak) to enable Recipients (i.e. you) to challenge the Sender (e.g. how do I know you?). We will use this to build a Plaxo user rating system and find out which users are abusing the service.
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Plaxo is bad
I have huge problems with Plaxo, for very similar reasons. I wrote an article about it if anyone is interested:
http://www.radicalapathy.com/mt/archives/journal/000129.html
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Re: Plaxo spam
Such a rating/challenge system is still not there - almost a year later. So Plaxo's just gone into my spam-filters
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TO A SAFE ACCOUNT.
ECONOMIC COMMUNITY OF WEST AFRICAN STATES [ECOWAS]GHANA
REPLY through THIS E-MAIL desmondedward2007@gmail.com
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Best regards,
Mr Desmond Edward
REPLY through THIS E-MAIL (desmondedward2007@gmail.com)
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