Submitted via IRC for Bytram
If you were one of the millions of people that signed up with Unrollme to cut down on the emails from outfits you once bought a product from, we have some bad news for you: it has been storing and selling your data.
On Tuesday, America's Federal Trade Commission finalized a settlement [PDF] with the New York City company, noting that it had deceived netizens when it promised not to "touch" people's emails when they gave it permission to unsubscribe from, block, or otherwise get rid of marketing mailings they didn't want.
It did touch them. In fact, it grabbed copies of e-receipts sent to customers after they'd bought something - often including someone's name and physical address - and provided them to its parent company, Slice Technologies. Slice then used the information to compile reports that it sold to the very businesses people were trying to escape from.
[...] As the adage goes, if a product is free, you are the product. And so it was with Unrollme, which scooped up all that delicious data from people's emails, and provided it to Slice, which was then stored and compiled into market research analytics products that it sold.
Related:
Unroll.me, the Email Unsubscription Service, Has Been Collecting and Selling Your Data
Unroll.me Is Selling Your Information, Here's an Alternative
(Score: 2) by Pslytely Psycho on Thursday December 19 2019, @06:35PM (1 child)
So people voluntarily gave a third party total access to their email accounts?
I weep for humanity.
Hmmm, perhaps a new business,
something totally for the public good...
I'll call it...
SecureSAFE!
Yes, I know there's a cloud company called Securesafe, but my company will have SAFE in all capitals! So completely different! And super-SAFE!
The logo will be a giant safe with chains, padlocks and an armed cop permanently "on watch" over your money...
Just give me total access to your bank account, in order to secure it naturally, and I promise, even double pinky-swear, I won't touch it, [1] and your money will be totally secured! [2] For FREE even! As a public service to keep you from spending it!
I'll make a fortune!
[1]at least until I verify how much money is in the account that is....
[2]in my safe, where you can't touch it!
Alex Jones lawyer inspires new TV series: CSI Moron Division.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 19 2019, @07:48PM
People have been doing this for a long time. It is so bad at my company, they send out monthly reminders not to do it, and specifically cite the most notorious example of all, LinkedIn, among others. It is so bad that they have a zero-tolerance policy for it and people still get their email account access suspended for providing their account access to various third parties. Then I get the fun job of going through all emails accessed by said third parties and double check all addresses they sent emails, in order to determine if there are any compliance problems or trade secret leaks.