3 ms·

Never ever give up your email password to a 3rd party you don't really trust. My only exception is Mint.com so far, not even Facebook or LinkedIn.

TallGuyShort 17y ago
That was my first thought - but to me it sounded more like they were contacts already downloaded to his iPhone, or the contacts file you can download from GMail for your own personal backup. I don't think he gave them his password - unless I'm mistaken? edit: in any case, your advice is still right on the money, and I'd have to second it!
- brown9-2 17y ago
  Sounds like iDrive spammed every contact on his iPhone, and because of the fact/coincidence that he has gmail set to save every person you ever send an email to as a contact, AND because of the way he is using gmail on his iPhone, this became "iDrive spammed my gmail address book". If a company is selling a service (iDrive) which is basically "store your contact data on our services, trust us with this data", it's pretty shitty for that company to then turn around and market to the contacts in that data. It's probably in their TOS or something, but it still feels like an abuse of trust.
jacquesm 17y ago
I wrote that a while ago here and got flamed for it in a pretty heavy way. I really object against any third party applications or websites that ask you for your credentials, it is asking for abuse. The more people get conditioned to supply their credentials to parties other than the original service the more we'll see this kind of problem.
lutorm 17y ago
Not to mention that doing so is most likely a violation of their TOS...
DenisM 17y ago
Do you give your password to Outlook?
- riffic 17y ago
  A client application that runs on your own pc and a third party website are two different animals.
  - CalmQuiet 17y ago
    Each with their own types of vulnerabilities. I wonder how many non-techies (the masses) have had their Outlooks ripped vs how many been ripped off by web 2.0 site participation?
cdr 17y ago
What the heck does Mint need your email password for?
- riffic 17y ago
  they don't, they do use your banking service passwords though.

TallGuyShort 17y ago

That was my first thought - but to me it sounded more like they were contacts already downloaded to his iPhone, or the contacts file you can download from GMail for your own personal backup. I don't think he gave them his password - unless I'm mistaken? edit: in any case, your advice is still right on the money, and I'd have to second it!

brown9-2 17y ago
Sounds like iDrive spammed every contact on his iPhone, and because of the fact/coincidence that he has gmail set to save every person you ever send an email to as a contact, AND because of the way he is using gmail on his iPhone, this became "iDrive spammed my gmail address book". If a company is selling a service (iDrive) which is basically "store your contact data on our services, trust us with this data", it's pretty shitty for that company to then turn around and market to the contacts in that data. It's probably in their TOS or something, but it still feels like an abuse of trust.

jacquesm 17y ago

I wrote that a while ago here and got flamed for it in a pretty heavy way. I really object against any third party applications or websites that ask you for your credentials, it is asking for abuse. The more people get conditioned to supply their credentials to parties other than the original service the more we'll see this kind of problem.

lutorm 17y ago

Not to mention that doing so is most likely a violation of their TOS...

DenisM 17y ago

Do you give your password to Outlook?

riffic 17y ago
A client application that runs on your own pc and a third party website are two different animals.
- CalmQuiet 17y ago
  Each with their own types of vulnerabilities. I wonder how many non-techies (the masses) have had their Outlooks ripped vs how many been ripped off by web 2.0 site participation?

cdr 17y ago

What the heck does Mint need your email password for?

riffic 17y ago
they don't, they do use your banking service passwords though.