Toms View of the World

It seems that I was wrong about Plaxo.

See the original post and comments made by Stacy (Plaxo’s Privacy Officer) on this thread, where she answers my concerns and clarifies my points. Also, read David Courseys followup article Plaxo Reconsidered, which I missed in my original research.

I’ve added a comment to the end of that Plaxo thread, which is reproduced here also:

Well, thanks Stacy for providing that much needed information which isn’t easy to find on your website, espescially clearing up my misunderstanding that responding to an update request doesn’t add my detail to the database for everyone, just the requestor.

The “Alice and Bill” example certainly works to explain how the permissions and privacy work in reality, and clears up my misunderstanding too

I beleive that much of the negative publicity surrounding Plaxo online is related to misunderstandings of your business model and privacy statement - whereby it is sometimes difficult to understand who you consider to be the data owner, and whether an update to one address book by an non-subscriber will update his details on another. Maybe posting the comments you’ve made here as one of the FAQ’s on your website would help clear things up.

In these days of email Phishing for personal data and identity theft, I am (understandably) wary of emails requesting I provide my personal details to “someone I know” - remember many malicious scripts and software work from an infected PC’s address book. As you rightly say, trust must be earned, especially on the internet. I don’t even trust that an email apparently from my bank is actually from them, I always contact them independently rather than replying to or clicking a link in, an email.

I can’t see myself signing up for an on-line address book management service, I am quite satisfied with my current approach to maintaining my contact information, however, I will now not consider Plaxo emails to be a threat.

I still urge caution when recieving emails claiming to be from Plaxo (in case they are not) - however, having read the Plaxo reconsidered article, and the comments made in David’s followup article (linked in Stacy’s comment) I don’t now consider legitmate Plaxo emails to be a malicious threat.

This post is primarily here to set the record straight, and apologise to Plaxo for any misunderstanding.

To be honest I was very surprised to get someone from Plaxo finding this post so quickly, then responding to my concerns. If only some other companies I deal with were as good at making contact with their customers, as Plaxo are about contacting people who are merely talking about them, then business on the internet (and out here in the real world) would be much easier!

This post is simply here to bring attention to the 2 comments on the original thread, I’ve closed comments here, but the comments on the original thread are remaining open.