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What company is monetizing your address book?

• wmeredith 8y ago
  Googling for 2 seconds shows that numerous companies over the years have gotten in trouble for scraping contacts. A couple fast examples. June 16th, 2015: Linkedin settled a lawsuit for over $13 million in a class action grounded on their alleged use of users’ email contacts it obtained from the “Add Connections” feature in its service.[0] Apr 30, 2013: Path, the photo-centric social network that just hit 10 million users yesterday, has been getting some heat for what some users say are spammy tactics to recruit new users. Digital marketer Stephen Kenwright downloaded the app earlier this week, tried it out, uninstalled it, and went to bed. When he woke up, he found that Path had gone on a rogue mission early in the morning, texting and robocalling an unknown number of his contacts, including his grandparents. [1] [0] https://www.hastingslawandpost.com/hlandp/2015/6/16/look-out-for-import-your-address-book-on-linkedin-and-similar-pop-ups-on-other-apps-a-recent-settlement-outlines-the-new-marketing-strategy-for-linkedins-data-use https://www.hastingslawandpost.com/hlandp/2015/6/16/look-out... [1] https://www.theverge.com/2013/4/30/4286090/path-is-spamming-address-books-with-unwanted-texts-and-robocalls https://www.theverge.com/2013/4/30/4286090/path-is-spamming-...