If you get an email with a subject something like "[New Challenges] Soandso has Tagged you! :)" delete it quickly. I can't say for sure whether the company (tagged.com) is the next generation of sploggers or spammers gone social or if what happened to me this morning was just a cock-up on my part.
So I got the email this morning. As I follow Web2.0 stuff as part of my job I tend to register for everything to see what's what...
- I follow the link in the email
- I register on the site
- Noticing they're using the gmail api to pull addresses I think "cool" and give it a try
- On the address listing I mark one of my demo emails as a friend and click on "invite"
...at which point everyone in my gmail address book receives a "you've been tagged" email. This is great, I of course relish the chance to be incredibly rude to friends and strangers alike while looking completely stupid at the same time.
As Tim said in his angry response "Dug, this is a terrible service". Tim, I couldn't agree more.
And finally, dear gmail address book folk, sorry about my invading your inbox this morning:-(
![[FSF Associate Member]](http://www.donkeyontheedge.com/i/fsf.png){kind=small}
Farhana has added a comment to another post about tagged.com - Dug
Michael,
None taken:-)
The mistake was definitely mine.
My complaint is that the interface 'encouraged' my mistake. It's sort of like lying by ommission
Thanks for your comment,
Dug
No offence, but didn't you think about why they were asking for your gmail password?
Hi Yanamal, I agree in that I didn't suggest they actually misused the user and pass data directly.
My problem with the site is the interface which obscures certain elements and promotes others. Or, in other words, the interface deliberately misleads the user into doing something that she might not necessarily have wanted to do.
I think the sending of reminders without having specifically requested them is also pretty dodgy.
On LinkedIn, when you send a contact request the form specifically mentions re-issuing the request at a later date. As I recall, the page design includes a complete explanation of why this would be a good thing.
from what I heard and saw,i don't think they are using the google API directly... I think they might be taking the password themselves and then logging into your gmail to get the addresses...
The little google thing on the side just did not look "official"... they also do that for hotmail and yahoo I believe?
I signed up at Tagged and imported my Hotmail address book and selected which friends to invite and they got invites - isn't that how it's supposed to work? I've used the site for over a year now and like it as much as Facebook... don't really see what they're doing wrong here?
I also got an invitation.
Glad I didn't supply my Gmail-pasword.
I already thought it had a smell, and Googling for "tagged.com" confirmed this.
Johan.