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Key paragraph: "We believe you should have control when it comes to sharing your personal information. We also believe that actions speak louder than words. So,

by hexis 15y ago

Key paragraph: "We believe you should have control when it comes to sharing your personal information. We also believe that actions speak louder than words. So, as a clear signal of our commitment to your privacy, we’ve deleted the entire collection of user uploaded contact information from our servers. Your trust matters to us and we want you to feel completely in control of your information on Path." Great save for a bad mistake.

dclowd9901 15y ago
They should prove it by publishing the collection they deleted, otherwise how could we know? :P
phillco 15y ago
I would bold it if I were them. It's a nicely written message, but it reads like a lot of other PR apologies and it's easy to skim over it, deep in its position in the 5th paragraph. Sometimes you need to make actions speak louder than words. :)
- hexis 15y ago
  I almost wanted to bold it even in the quote. I actually missed it the first time I skimmed the post.
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
- gorgonville 15y ago
  >We are deeply sorry if you were uncomfortable with how our application used your phone contacts Better would have been 'we are sorry we misused your phone contacts', rather than trying to make the users responsible by invoking their feelings. Aside: interesting how the concept of theft seems meaningless when applied to copyrighted material, but meaningful when applied to private data.
  - zdean 15y ago
    I don't think that you should assume that they are sorry that they "misused your phone contacts". This, like a lot of companies' efforts, is emblematic of their efforts to find out what people's (ever-expanding) comfort zone is when it comes to giving up their privacy. They (Path) are not looking at this as a philosophical failure (which would be cause for the apology you put forth)...they simply see it as an A/B test result ('sorry about making you uncomfortable').
  - squiggly101 15y ago
    "interesting how the concept of theft seems meaningless when applied to copyrighted material, but meaningful when applied to private data." Not all that interesting. Theft of personal data can cause real loss and harm if misused. "Theft" of songs/movies does not cause any direct loss or harm, as no otherwise confidential information was exposed and the only "loss" is theoretical and hyper-inflated loss-of-potential-sales. The issue here is one of violation of privacy and of confidentiality (if I was a journalist my contacts may be highly sensitive information), not of theft.
- dmbass 15y ago
  I think you mean "make your words as bold as your actions." :)
- raghus 15y ago
  I would bold it too. That's at the heart of how sorry they really are. If they didn't delete the info, it would be PR blah.
darxius 15y ago
I completely agree. I'm happy they actually took action and didn't just say sorry.
- squiggly101 15y ago
  Well they didn't really say sorry, not for what they actually did: "We are deeply sorry if you were uncomfortable with how our application used your phone contacts." Should have been: "We are deeply sorry that we appropriated your personal contact information and uploaded it to our servers without authorization or consent" No real admission of wrongdoing or responsibility, only a fool would go back to trusting this company.
shareme 15y ago
But which mistake? I assume that you are not ware of the FTC fine involved if they kept the data, right? Its almost as bad was Zynga pulled its first year in operations
naner 15y ago
Great save for a bad mistake. Still leaves me with a shitty feeling. Basically this boils down to "sorry we got caught", they knew what they were doing. Not to single out Path, a massive number of apps are guilty of this behavior.
- yeggeyeggeyegge 15y ago
  >Not to single out Path, a massive number of apps are guilty of this behavior. And so is Apple. I am alarmed that any 2 bit app can access and upload all my personal contact information for any use they want to.
anthonyb 15y ago
How does that apparent belief square with their actions though? If they really believed that you should have control over your personal information, and that your trust mattered, they would never have uploaded it without user consent. It's not a "great save", it's a piece of PR flak arse-covering.
- opendomain 15y ago
  I completely agree. The engineers knew what they were doing when they design the app to upload all my info. This behavior should be illegal. I do not care what their BS press release says - they are just covering their a. I will never trust them ever again <\endrant>
  - sambeau 15y ago
    This behaviour is illegal in the UK.
gorbachev 15y ago
"Great save for a bad mistake." I'm not so sure. The updated iPhone app does the right thing. What do the apps not updated to the latest version do? Does it re-upload the contacts? If it does, what does the server do with the data?
buff-a 15y ago
"we’ve deleted the entire collection of user uploaded contact information from our servers" Since we're talking about a fantastic breach of trust, I'd like clarification that all copies of all uploaded contact information have been deleted from all servers (even ones that one could argue are other people's), and from all backup media, and further that no effort will ever be made to try to recover this information. Because, I'm sorry, but anybody who thinks its OK to violate someone's privacy like this is at best someone who is able to easily justify unethical behavior because they think their business might depend on it and at worst a sociopath. There is not a human on earth who would not object if someone else picked up their phone and started looking through the contacts.
yeggeyeggeyegge 15y ago
Key giveaway to their untrustworthiness still: "and we want you to feel completely in control of your information on Path" TO FEEL, as in "we still don't give a shit whether you actually _ARE_ completely in control of your information"
freshhawk 15y ago
Hardly. It's good PR maybe. Why would I not trust them with my contact info but trust that they actually have deleted it and there are no copies. Also, these are developers, there are copies, it's a near certainty.

by hexis 15y ago

dclowd9901 15y ago

They should prove it by publishing the collection they deleted, otherwise how could we know? :P

phillco 15y ago

I would bold it if I were them. It's a nicely written message, but it reads like a lot of other PR apologies and it's easy to skim over it, deep in its position in the 5th paragraph. Sometimes you need to make actions speak louder than words. :)

hexis 15y ago
I almost wanted to bold it even in the quote. I actually missed it the first time I skimmed the post.
deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
gorgonville 15y ago
>We are deeply sorry if you were uncomfortable with how our application used your phone contacts Better would have been 'we are sorry we misused your phone contacts', rather than trying to make the users responsible by invoking their feelings. Aside: interesting how the concept of theft seems meaningless when applied to copyrighted material, but meaningful when applied to private data.
- zdean 15y ago
  I don't think that you should assume that they are sorry that they "misused your phone contacts". This, like a lot of companies' efforts, is emblematic of their efforts to find out what people's (ever-expanding) comfort zone is when it comes to giving up their privacy. They (Path) are not looking at this as a philosophical failure (which would be cause for the apology you put forth)...they simply see it as an A/B test result ('sorry about making you uncomfortable').
- squiggly101 15y ago
  "interesting how the concept of theft seems meaningless when applied to copyrighted material, but meaningful when applied to private data." Not all that interesting. Theft of personal data can cause real loss and harm if misused. "Theft" of songs/movies does not cause any direct loss or harm, as no otherwise confidential information was exposed and the only "loss" is theoretical and hyper-inflated loss-of-potential-sales. The issue here is one of violation of privacy and of confidentiality (if I was a journalist my contacts may be highly sensitive information), not of theft.
dmbass 15y ago
I think you mean "make your words as bold as your actions." :)
raghus 15y ago
I would bold it too. That's at the heart of how sorry they really are. If they didn't delete the info, it would be PR blah.

darxius 15y ago

I completely agree. I'm happy they actually took action and didn't just say sorry.

squiggly101 15y ago
Well they didn't really say sorry, not for what they actually did: "We are deeply sorry if you were uncomfortable with how our application used your phone contacts." Should have been: "We are deeply sorry that we appropriated your personal contact information and uploaded it to our servers without authorization or consent" No real admission of wrongdoing or responsibility, only a fool would go back to trusting this company.

shareme 15y ago

But which mistake? I assume that you are not ware of the FTC fine involved if they kept the data, right? Its almost as bad was Zynga pulled its first year in operations

naner 15y ago

Great save for a bad mistake. Still leaves me with a shitty feeling. Basically this boils down to "sorry we got caught", they knew what they were doing. Not to single out Path, a massive number of apps are guilty of this behavior.

yeggeyeggeyegge 15y ago
>Not to single out Path, a massive number of apps are guilty of this behavior. And so is Apple. I am alarmed that any 2 bit app can access and upload all my personal contact information for any use they want to.

anthonyb 15y ago

How does that apparent belief square with their actions though? If they really believed that you should have control over your personal information, and that your trust mattered, they would never have uploaded it without user consent. It's not a "great save", it's a piece of PR flak arse-covering.

opendomain 15y ago
I completely agree. The engineers knew what they were doing when they design the app to upload all my info. This behavior should be illegal. I do not care what their BS press release says - they are just covering their a. I will never trust them ever again <\endrant>
- sambeau 15y ago
  This behaviour is illegal in the UK.

gorbachev 15y ago

"Great save for a bad mistake." I'm not so sure. The updated iPhone app does the right thing. What do the apps not updated to the latest version do? Does it re-upload the contacts? If it does, what does the server do with the data?

buff-a 15y ago

"we’ve deleted the entire collection of user uploaded contact information from our servers" Since we're talking about a fantastic breach of trust, I'd like clarification that all copies of all uploaded contact information have been deleted from all servers (even ones that one could argue are other people's), and from all backup media, and further that no effort will ever be made to try to recover this information. Because, I'm sorry, but anybody who thinks its OK to violate someone's privacy like this is at best someone who is able to easily justify unethical behavior because they think their business might depend on it and at worst a sociopath. There is not a human on earth who would not object if someone else picked up their phone and started looking through the contacts.

yeggeyeggeyegge 15y ago

Key giveaway to their untrustworthiness still: "and we want you to feel completely in control of your information on Path" TO FEEL, as in "we still don't give a shit whether you actually _ARE_ completely in control of your information"

freshhawk 15y ago

Hardly. It's good PR maybe. Why would I not trust them with my contact info but trust that they actually have deleted it and there are no copies. Also, these are developers, there are copies, it's a near certainty.