1 post tagged “social networking”

So I guess it was bound to happen eventually, but it looks like those pretty little "check your gmail address book" features on social networks, are now going to be used by spammers as a way to spread their garbage. Quechup was the first one to use this trick, but the latest one is a product by "RapLeaf" called "Upscoop." A look at their privacy policy shows that the "address book" section used to say:

After a member provides his email address and email password, Upscoop extracts all the email addresses within the member's email address book. NOTE: Upscoop does not email, contact, or spam any friends from an email address book. [ Google Cache Link ->  (http://64.233.169.104/search?q=cache:uL5Uoiffy6UJ:https://upscoop.com/privacy_policy+upscoop+spam&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=4&gl=us&client=firefox-a)lkjklj ]

But now reads:

After a member provides his email address and email password, Upscoop extracts all the email addresses within the member's email address book.
(https://upscoop.com/privacy_policy)

As you can see, they're clearly positioning themselves to spam their repositories of contact information. Based on these latest examples, I'm thinking its time to stop using the "Check your Gmail Address Book to see if your friends are on our Social Network!" features.