I’ve received an e-mail on two of my three e-mail accounts stating somebody connected with all of my social networking profiles (including my Amazon Wish List) by giving Spokeo.com my e-mail address. I’m not as much upset with Spokeo for linking to me as I am irritated with the person that gave Spokeo.com my information in the first place. I would never let a random company have my friends’ information.
Here is how it works:
- User goes to Spokeo.com and enters their GMail, MySpace, or other login/password where friend information is stored
- Spokeo looks at all of their contacts and searches the internet for sites where the contact’s e-mail address was used
- Spokeo then allows the user to receive updates whenever the contact changes information on the web such as their MySpace profile
The obvious benefit to the Spokeo user is they can go to a single place to get updates on their friends without needing to go out to Facebook and MySpace and blogs, etc. However, the fact that Spokeo can enter somebody’s GMail account and get their entire list of contacts is disturbing at least and a total invasion of privacy on the other extreme.
If you read my blog and consider yourself a friend, please DO NOT give Spokeo your login information!!!!
