Path texts my entire phonebook at 6 AM

#1

Post by kemayo » Tue, Apr 30, 2013, 3:57 PM UTC

Path texts my entire phonebook at 6 AM
branded3.com

Re: Path texts my entire phonebook at 6 AM

#2

Post by evan_ » Tue, Apr 30, 2013, 4:02 PM UTC

The weirdest part of this is that it apparently made voice calls to landlines? Why would they do that, it makes no sense. Unless maybe that's what the phone company does if you text a landline? Never tried it but I would be surprised...

Re: Path texts my entire phonebook at 6 AM

#3

Post by bochoh » Tue, Apr 30, 2013, 4:05 PM UTC

evan_ wrote: post #2

The weirdest part of this is that it apparently made voice calls to landlines? Why would they do that, it makes no sense. Unless maybe that's what the phone company does if you text a landline? Never tried it but I would be surprised...

Verizon in the US offered text-to-voice service in the past. I'm sure this is something similar.

Re: Path texts my entire phonebook at 6 AM

#4

Post by forgingahead » Tue, Apr 30, 2013, 4:06 PM UTC

evan_ wrote: post #2

The weirdest part of this is that it apparently made voice calls to landlines? Why would they do that, it makes no sense. Unless maybe that's what the phone company does if you text a landline? Never tried it but I would be surprised...

If you send a text to a landline, a lot of providers will convert it to a phone call using some sort of text-to-speech API. I've done this by accident on older cell phones when I'd add someone's landline to a text message instead of their mobile number. This sounds like a nightmare scenario though for this poor chap and his family (and his dentist).

Re: Path texts my entire phonebook at 6 AM

#5

Post by MWil » Tue, Apr 30, 2013, 4:10 PM UTC

I feel like you won't hear back from them. Know any lawyers who would be willing to pen a snail mail letter for you?

Re: Path texts my entire phonebook at 6 AM

#6

Post by andrewaylett » Tue, Apr 30, 2013, 4:10 PM UTC

evan_ wrote: post #2

The weirdest part of this is that it apparently made voice calls to landlines? Why would they do that, it makes no sense. Unless maybe that's what the phone company does if you text a landline? Never tried it but I would be surprised...

It's a reasonably standard thing in the UK. Useful at times, really annoying at other times... You can get landline phones that will actually receive the texts as texts; other phones get calls.

Re: Path texts my entire phonebook at 6 AM

#7

Post by raverbashing » Tue, Apr 30, 2013, 4:13 PM UTC

This is good information

I'll make sure to never install Path

There are some abuses that can't be solved by an apology.

Re: Path texts my entire phonebook at 6 AM

#8

Post by haraball » Tue, Apr 30, 2013, 4:13 PM UTC

Path seems like a company which is doing everything wrong these days. My peeve with them is that I signed up and used it happily for a long time because it should be possible to get my data exported later. Now they have removed that from the FAQ/Support and their support mails are just ignorant saying "not possible but the team will look into it".

Re: Path texts my entire phonebook at 6 AM

#9

Post by coldcode » Tue, Apr 30, 2013, 4:14 PM UTC

The just got fined $800,000. I guess it should have been $800,000,000.

Re: Path texts my entire phonebook at 6 AM

#10

Post by sailfast » Tue, Apr 30, 2013, 4:14 PM UTC

I have been a Path user since the app launched and have never had any text messages sent to my address book. Path informed users that the address book data hook was no longer there and that all data had been removed from their services after the initial FTC inquiry. I took that at face value but after this article I would be interested in hearing a response from the company about how my information is handled.