Why I Won’t Join Plaxo, et al

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From Boing Boing:

In the popup that appeared, the NoScript extension was blocking some JavaScript. Clicking on the button to enable the code revealed that the JavaScript was hosted at — gasp — Plaxo (no linkee for them), the company that enlists its users to send spamalicious address book related emails. So from the looks of it, when you share a YouTube video with your friends, you may be unwittingly adding your friends’ email addresses to Plaxo’s databases. Slick. Or, should I say, slimy. At least it appears so. There is no confirmation that this is what is happening, but it certainly does look suspicious.

I have always been suspicious of the companies that wish to ‘backup’ your contact details. The very fact that they ask you to spam your friends to invite them to join up worries me.

Airset may be a better, safer option.

UPDATE: BoingBoing has a rebuttal from Plaxo.

Related posts:

  1. More Plaxo
  2. I Heard it on the Grapevine

3 thoughts on “Why I Won’t Join Plaxo, et al”

  1. Its a shame to see that spammy ways. I have been using airset for online calendaring. Their limited support for mobile took me to mobical and finally Zyb. Learned of it via http://popgadget.net/2006/08/zyb_will_keep_y.php, with a soultion for outlook and future plans to support i-pods and palms i am hopeful about them keeping thing secure.

  2. Patrick Hurley from AirSet here. Thanks for recommending us to your readers.

    Not sure how to interpret Carl Seth’s above comment about “limited support for mobile”, so I thought I’d clarify that AirSet supports both Brew and Java (J2ME) mobile platforms, which make up the majority of handsets in the marketplace. We’ve successfully tested and been approved on over 110 different handsets, with at least that many that we have not yet completed testing but believe will be compatible with our mobile client.

    Our early focus was rolling out in the States but with the upcoming launch of our Java client, we’ll be able to support more global useage. We’re in the later stages of beta testing for the Java client. If you or any of your readers want to participate, they can click on the following link: http://www.airset.net/Group/Home.jsp?gi=dwWWJXmyLQjX

    Thanks. — Patrick Hurley

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