Path texts my entire phonebook at 6 AM • Hacker News Board

Re: Path texts my entire phonebook at 6 AM

#41

Post by Avenger42 » Tue, Apr 30, 2013, 4:39 PM UTC

crazygringo wrote: post #34

How about another detail -- the fact that the message said the user had photos to share, when he didn't? There's annoying spam, and then there's straight-out-lying spam -- the "x has sent you a message, you need to create an account to view it" type. Just curious, is there a way to sue/fine a company like this for false advertising, essentially?

There was a court case against a high school alumni site that sent out "a classmate is searching for you" emails to get people to sign up:

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2012/11/how-lawsuit-again...

> The case originated with two lawsuits claiming that Classmates.com had sent out millions of deceptive e-mails telling users that an old friend was trying to contact them, and had viewed their profile or signed their "guestbook." For the great majority, that wasn't true; no one at all had shown an interest in their profile. About 60 million users were contacted, and about 3 million actually took the bait, paying between $10 and $40 to Classmates.

Re: Path texts my entire phonebook at 6 AM

#42

Post by smacktoward » Tue, Apr 30, 2013, 4:39 PM UTC

OGinparadise wrote: post #14

Wow, they just paid $800K to FTC for being shady. They are betting that they become so big that these shenanigans don't matter later on.

They're doing it exactly backwards. The Right Way is to hold off on the massive user privacy violations until you become huge. At that point enforcing the laws against you becomes too difficult and expensive, so the government won't bother; and if some random AG tries to do it anyway you can afford to buy whatever changes to the laws you need to get him off your back. Problem solved.

Re: Path texts my entire phonebook at 6 AM

#43

Post by JGM564 » Tue, Apr 30, 2013, 4:40 PM UTC

crazygringo wrote: post #34

How about another detail -- the fact that the message said the user had photos to share, when he didn't? There's annoying spam, and then there's straight-out-lying spam -- the "x has sent you a message, you need to create an account to view it" type. Just curious, is there a way to sue/fine a company like this for false advertising, essentially?

Classmates.com was sued in 2008 for sending emails claiming former classmates were searching for you. Similar, but Classmates.com was actually requiring a paid subscription before telling you there wasn't actually anyone on the other end.

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2010/03/classmatescom-set...

Re: Path texts my entire phonebook at 6 AM

#44

Post by meerita » Tue, Apr 30, 2013, 4:41 PM UTC

Glad i just deleted Path long time ago. I did it because many reasons, the first one is transfer my entire life to a new place, then find out it can close, sell to another company I don't like. So the fear of wasting resources and time to setup my life in there made me deny this app. The second reason was an old episode with contact data, so I thought they shall make many other "mistakes" in the future. So after this one I feel better I didn't follow this path. Facebook is also dead on my life, I just check it for family messages. Google+ all the way.

Re: Path texts my entire phonebook at 6 AM

#45

Post by jacquesm » Tue, Apr 30, 2013, 4:41 PM UTC

Path must really like thos FTC fines.

Here's to hoping the next fine will exceed their cash reserves and we can put an end to this madness.

The post is proof positive that path still uploads phonebooks from the app to their servers right after installing it.

Re: Path texts my entire phonebook at 6 AM

#46

Post by skytalon » Tue, Apr 30, 2013, 4:42 PM UTC

eksith wrote: post #11

Remember when a while back they downloaded far too much information from each phone (for the convenience of connecting you to people)? Everyone was surprised (some outraged) and then they pushed an update to stop that "feature" and when the CEO/Boss man posted a blog entry apologizing, everyone forgave the company, people were holding hands singing Kumbaya. Edit: Here's when they flubbed a year ago. http://news.cnet.…

I just noticed, in that apology letter, the line:

"... Your trust matters to us and we want you to feel completely in control of your information on Path. ..."

So they want you to feel in control.

Re: Path texts my entire phonebook at 6 AM

#47

Post by jordhy » Tue, Apr 30, 2013, 4:42 PM UTC

That's what I call a genuine "oh-sh&t" moment.

Re: Path texts my entire phonebook at 6 AM

#48

Post by pkulak » Tue, Apr 30, 2013, 4:42 PM UTC

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?

Address book access is a permission just like anything else (internet access, for example), so it can fly under the radar. Android has been trying to make things like "send text messages" stand out a tad more than "write to local storage", but they may need to go even further.

This is my personal favorite app permission that you can request: http://developer.android.com/reference/android/Manifest.perm...

Re: Path texts my entire phonebook at 6 AM

#49

Post by taylorbuley » Tue, Apr 30, 2013, 4:42 PM UTC

kemayo wrote: post #28

I think the HN traffic may have destroyed another WordPress install. So, google cache: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache%3Ahttp%...

For those with WordPress installs who want to survive an HN frontpage:

    1. if you don't have sudo, use the W3 Total Cache plugin http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/w3-total-cache/
    2. if you have sudo:
        2a. the easy way: apt-get install memcached, add the pecl memcache extension, and use object-cache.php http://plugins.svn.wordpress.org/memcached/trunk/object-cache.php and batcache http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/batcache/
        2b. the hard way: varnish https://www.varnish-cache.org/ https://github.com/pkhamre/wp-varnish

Re: Path texts my entire phonebook at 6 AM

#50

Post by NoPiece » Tue, Apr 30, 2013, 4:42 PM UTC

greghinch wrote: post #16

Path seems to do all the shady things with your data that we fear Google and Facebook could do. FB and G definitely push the boundaries of privacy/creepy sometimes, but Path seems to have no qualms about blowing right past them. I am staying away.

It reminds of one of Facebook's early growth tactics - as part of the contact import process, they'd send out spam IMs to all your contacts saying you just joined Facebook and ask if they wanted to join. It was very shady.