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We are sorry

blog.path.com

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21–30 of 220 posts

Re: We are sorry

#21

Post by chc »

natural219 wrote: post #12

I'm kind of sick of this "let's revolt against everybody using my data" mentality. They don't persist your contact data to their server. What exactly is it that you're afraid of? Moreover, how on earth did you think the "Add Friends" feature worked? I'm assuming at least some of you program software, and you should know that data doesn't just appear out of nowhere. Do you really expect a software startup to move ever…

If they aren't persisting your contact data to their server, how can they now say they deleted it all from their server? I was under the impression that storing your contact data was exactly what bothered people. Am I mistaken?

Re: We are sorry

#22

Post by alex_c »

54mf wrote: post #13
dsr_ wrote: post #4

Surprise: an actual apology, followed by an explanation and how they're going to do it slightly better in future, plus a remedy of sorts. Better than ATT, VZW, MS, TW, Comcast, or any national US bank.

The fact that they've already deleted all user address book data, and have an updated version of the app available today with a privacy option, is a big deal. I don't know how they managed to get an update to the app approved so quickly (24-48 hours?), they must have worked directly with Apple. A good sign, either way.

Apple is getting a lot better with their approval process, I've had updates approved in 24-48h without doing anything special.

Re: We are sorry

#23

Post by samarudge »

attheodo wrote: post #18

This is a welcoming move from Path. However, "industry standard firewall technology" is gibberish.

Translates as "We don't use encryption because it would cost too much, but we have ACLs so only our staff can look at your personal data"

Re: We are sorry

#24

Post by betterlabs »

The right thing to do. However, their 2nd paragraph should have been the one starting with "We believe you should have control when it comes to sharing your personal information..."

The rest of it is a repeat of yesterday and is really not necessary.

I do want to know how I can backup by Path to a S3 or Dropbox account. Does anyone know if they support this?

Re: We are sorry

#25

Post by jnorthrop »

I like the apology. They are doing to right things as well by deleting all of the existing data, but it is a lesson to all companies playing in the business-to-consumer space: Have clear and easy-to-read privacy policies and get explicit consent from users before you collect their data.

After reading the post, it is apparent that Path did nothing wrong except poorly communicating their procedures and policies.

Re: We are sorry

#26

Post by djb_hackernews »

davidcash wrote: post #9
lopatin wrote: post #2

I have a question about how they store the contacts. Can't they encrypt each of the phone numbers before they get sent to the server? This way there's no breach of privacy and the friend suggestion feature still works for everyone.

How would one carry out the friend suggestion feature with encrypted phone numbers?

a cryptographic hash of a phone number on their server should match a cryptographic hash of a phone number in a contact list on a phone. The app sends the hash to the server, the server looks up users via the hash and responds with user data for matches.

To be honest this should be a third party service, since it sounds like every major social networking app is doing the same exact thing.

Re: We are sorry

#27

Post by yangtheman »

Private social network seems almost oxymoron. To create large social network, a company has to tap into user's vast social network and try to get the user's friends/contacts to join in as well. And then to increase engagement or stickiness, you have to keep reminding them to come back. Otherwise, the social network company might not grow as fast as founders/investors would like and also most likely affect revenue.... It's a tough place to be, really. I don't condone their action. At the minimum, they should've gotten user's permission first.

Re: We are sorry

#28

Post by natural219 »

evan_ wrote: post #19
natural219 wrote: post #12

I'm kind of sick of this "let's revolt against everybody using my data" mentality. They don't persist your contact data to their server. What exactly is it that you're afraid of? Moreover, how on earth did you think the "Add Friends" feature worked? I'm assuming at least some of you program software, and you should know that data doesn't just appear out of nowhere. Do you really expect a software startup to move ever…

I agree in general, but they do actually store your data on the servers.

Oh. Nevermind, then.

Re: We are sorry

#30

Post by verelo »

As someone who is always concerned about my own privacy and the privacy of people who trust our company with their data, i am very pleased to see that when things do go wrong honesty is being appreciated.

While i don't think its acceptable to ever make this kind of mistake, we should also encourage companies to be upfront and honest about what went wrong and what they're going to do to make things better when issues come up.

This is a positive step forward for this company and tech companies as a whole. Having said that, maybe i would feel different however if i actually used this app?

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