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Path texts my entire phonebook at 6 AM

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Re: Path texts my entire phonebook at 6 AM

#21

Post by citricsquid »

andrewaylett wrote: post #6
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.

I remember when I was a kid in... it must have been 2005 or earlier, when I was at a friends house and they had this, it was literally the coolest thing in the world. A phone that spoke text messages? My god, it's the future! Novelty wore off fast once I entered adulthood because it's never a text message I want to hear. Who knew I could claim my PPI back?! bah

Re: Path texts my entire phonebook at 6 AM

#23

Post by meritt »

zalzane wrote: post #18

Why is it even possible for this to happen? Did someone really think it was a bright idea to provide an API to access people's personal data, and if so, why doesn't the phone tell them that before letting them install the app? On top of all of that, why wouldn't the phone provide a setting to restrict all personal/identifying information from being accessed by the app?

It most likely does warn users but most people just click 'Accept' on all those "ABC application wants access to X, Y and Z" warnings.

Re: Path texts my entire phonebook at 6 AM

#26

Post by jamesaguilar »

zalzane wrote: post #18

Why is it even possible for this to happen? Did someone really think it was a bright idea to provide an API to access people's personal data, and if so, why doesn't the phone tell them that before letting them install the app? On top of all of that, why wouldn't the phone provide a setting to restrict all personal/identifying information from being accessed by the app?

All of the smartphones I have used ask you before allowing access to your contacts. But many apps want to use these for legitimate purposes -- for example, Vine uses them to find people you're already friends with.

Re: Path texts my entire phonebook at 6 AM

#27

Post by smickie »

This might be off topic but I loved reading that post, it turned into comedy gold. The time I was at the third... (I don’t have any photos to share with them) I was giggling. And the list of people path called at the end killed me.

Re: Path texts my entire phonebook at 6 AM

#29

Post by amartya916 »

coldcode wrote: post #9

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

Totally agree with the sentiment. I believe that companies have DNA, and that most companies do not change over time, they just get better at hiding the bad stuff. I would probably trust a company that starts off of the right foot (e.g. Google) even when it becomes larger, than trust one that's built off – what I consider to be – shady growth strategies.

Path seems to be taking especially egregious steps. All the UI polish in the world can't hide shady business practices.

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