While Tagged.com braces for
over $750,000 in fines and more lawsuits, Reunion.com prepares to fight
class-action suits. All this for misusing user information
that they could access.
As the fight against invasion of online privacy gathers
momentum, more and
more marketers are realizing, the hard way, that respecting customers
and their
data pays off ultimately.
Tagged.com, for example, was pulled up by users because the
website apparently
coaxed users to disclose their email addresses and passwords. It was
later
found that Tagged used these details and shot off invites to all new
members’
email contacts telling them to join Tagged. Worse still, they made it
appear
as though the invite had been sent by the new member!
Imagine receiving a social networking invite from a trusted
friend, only to
later realize he or she didn’t send it. While it does no good for the
website
carrying out this campaign, it also damages the credibility of email
marketing
communication. As a result, people are bound to take similar
email communication
less seriously.
In an action that, once again, sent out a clear message to
privacy abusers,
Tagged.com has been asked to cough up no less than $750,000 in
settlements
to law enforcement officials in Texas and New York. Meanwhile consumers
have
decided to continue pursuing civil lawsuits against Tagged.
Another website that has had to suffer for similarly abusing
user privacy
is Reunion.com. Only in this case, it is the recipients of the
deceptive email
invites.
It all goes to show that abusing and misusing data, just
because you have
access to it, will come back to haunt you. If you ever do need to use
data
that you have collected, or want to share it with a third party, you
would
do well to take the user’s consent before doing so.
Source: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=117090
