Plaxo annoys me

I routinely delete all Plaxo requests. Some from people Iknow, others from strangers. The people I correspond with regularly know how to find me.

Lately, I've seen an increasing amount of plaxo emails coming in through our email system. At this point, I am concerned that the eventual result of this service could be catastrophic. What sense is there in uploading your address book to a 3rd party making who knows who privy to all of that information. I've urged all my users to not use the service either at work or at home.

I am a big fan of Plaxo. I have not received one
email from Plaxo that I was not suppose to get. My system has never been damaged by using Plaxo. I've also had other contacts in my data base sign
up to use Plaxo.

I signed up with Plaxo and within hours my in box was deluged with dozens of Failed Delivery notices referring to email addresses I didn't recognise.
I removed Plaxo immediately.

I can't find a tool on their site to remove and delete all the contact info etc.

Plaxo sounds like a dental product from the 50's.
PLAXO SUCKS!

Hi Guy, I too have been inundated with thousands of the same type e-mails. The bug is Swen or MiMail. See Symantec and see if you can get a free download which I did.

I am with One.Tel. What I did was to go onto their site and there I can stop various e-mails by stopping the phrases. Mine were to do with Microft updates and returned undeliverable e-mails. It has brought it all to a stop IMMEDIATELY. I was really surprised.

Have you stopped all these unwanted e-mails? If so, how?

Thanks.

JP

Check out this paragraph from the Plaxo 'privacy policy':

"In the event Plaxo goes through a business transition, such as a merger, acquisition or the sale of a portion of its assets, Your Information and your membership in the Plaxo Contact Networks™ will, in most instances, be part of the assets transferred. You will be notified of an ownership change pursuant to Notification of Changes section of the privacy statement."

My opinion? It's a vacuum for email addresses that will eventually be sold to the highest bidder.

Androo

As a netadmin, I'd have to say we've only been annoyed so far. It is a definite security risk. Plaxo seems to have a good idea, but in actual application, it is so ripe for abuse it's not even worth examining for furth possibilities.
Sorry, Plaxo.

My thought is that Plaxo if used correctly is ok. It is no different that this forum of posting responses but ask for your email. Now who is harvesting who and who is participating... Seems that those that are against Plaxo are participating is this thread of posting that also harvest email addresses. Email is like a phone number it is bascially public information unless you choose to have it as private. Individual choices... right...

Rudy,

Good point about voluntary participation, but one of the differences between Plaxo and this thread is that, by posting your note, you are not also giving Network World access to all of the e-mail addresses in your address book.

As for your e-mail address here, we actually do not do anything at all with it, it's there to let other users contact you (you don't have to provide one). We only "harvest" addresses from people who specifically register for services that require it (for example, to get our e-mail newsletters) or who specifically give us consent to send them e-mail (for example, people who register for one of our events).

I've been at Plaxo from the beginning. I will try to answer the common questions and misconceptions below (I will keep it as short as possible):

1. Plaxo is a sincere and legitimate service trying to solve the problem of keeping contact info up-to-date. We're not the first and we won't be the last.

2. Plaxo is not stupid enough to try to build a business by stealing or selling members' information. Our investors and management team are experienced and ethical, and capable of making money w/o breaking the law.

3. Plaxo plans to make money by releasing business editions that include extra features (e.g. collaboration). The free version will remain free, but we will be adding more and better new features to the premium versions.

4. If the company were to be acquired, our members would be notified and retain the right to delete their account and data at any time.

5. Plaxo offers non-members 3 options for opting-out -- see the (new) opt-out link at the bottom of update messages: http://www.plaxo.com/opt_out (this currently only shows the ful opt-out).

6. Plaxo has a strict privacy policy and does not send spam or contribute to more spam.

7. Plaxo does not send update requests unless the user specifically chooses to (some people have suggested that this happens behind the scenes).

8. Plaxo is not a worm -- users must actively choose to download and install Plaxo.

9. Plaxo members can delete their account and data at any time: https://www.plaxo.com/signin?r=/delete_account/

10. Yahoo!, AOL, MSN, Salesforce.com, Upshot, Siebel, Oracle, and many others also store their members's address books as part of their service. Plaxo has not invented this idea.

Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

Rikk Carey
vice president of engineering
Plaxo, Inc.
rikk@plaxo.com

What in the heck is the pop server address so I can start getting my incoming mail again.Plaxo has no customer service,doesn't return important phone requests[had to waste money calling 411]they don't list a #.and doesn't return very pressing email questions.I NEED THE POP SERVER ADDRESS FOR OUTLOOK X PRESS NOW FOR PLAXO HELP

Read this page with horror. Does it mean once you are on this PLAXO there is no waqy to get rid of it???
If some one knows the answer please email at r2j2d2@btopenworld.com

Merry Plaxo free Christmas!
R

Plaxo has a very weak customer support. There seems to be no way to get help. No way to speak with anyone. Everytime a question or e-mail is sent you are just referred to their FAQ page. Very critical and pressing issues are lef6t unanswered. I like the concept of the program. Like to whole convenience of it when it works. HOWEVER SUPPORT and meeting problems and issues goes by the wayside and left unanswered. It makes me want to delete it all and erase my contacts .If anyone from Plaxo is reading this, you would be well served to address some of these concerens. You have the potential of something GREAT, however you are dropping the ball in this area.

We offer the same products that plaxo offers but our product is not free. We offer e-business cards. The problem with Plaxo is that once you give them your email address, it goes into a database so others can access it and are able to send you spam and various other unwanted items. Do not get plaxo!! Remember, nothing is ever free!

Rikk Carey

What a bunch of crap. You don't use the information to sell. Get real. Just like Napster was not used to steal music.

You are full of crap and the word is going around. People can't stand your service.

Your privacy policy clearly says that the INFORMATION WILL BE TREATED AS AN ASSET !!!

Got it? Enough said you liar.

Regards,

PlaxoSucksandLIES!

10. Yahoo!, AOL, MSN, Salesforce.com, Upshot, Siebel, Oracle, and many others also store their members's address books as part of their service. Plaxo has not invented this idea.

Look at number 10 people. Why do you think they "store" their addresses? Can you say contact cross referencing and contact exchange.

The most infuriating part is how you have no control over your information. SOMEONE ELSE GIVES IT TO THEM.

Liars.

PLAXO IS SCUM

I have a ferinstance for you:

Mr. Big Spammer downloads Plaxo. Imports his mailing list to Outlook Contacts and requests an update.
Viola! Validated email addresses to sell for much higher price than unvalidated ones. And now, the spammers of the world have your full name, home address, home phone number, even the names of your spouse and kids.

Anyone with your email address can request your personal information from the system and receive it.

And the worst part is that you don't have to sign up for it to have your information on their system. Anyone who has you in their contacts can upload your personal information into their system for any spammer to download.

Don't want your information in their system? Set up an "Auto-reply" account and leave all information fields blank. Anyone who requests your information update will have all the personal information blanked out in their contacts.

All they will have is your e-mail address without name or any other personal information.

By the way, whoever posted that this board doesn't require an e-mail address to post is very wrong. But, no one ever said you have to enter a legitimate one.

If Plaxo really is legitimate, why isn't it advertised in a legitimate way? Hmmm, what are the factso plaxo? Legitimate company-legitimate marketing. SPAM marketing--SPAM. . . .

Since my last posting (see above), I have been called a "liar" and "scum" -- nice holiday cheer! ;) Here are a few responses to some of the new questions and concerns raised:

* To delete your plaxo account, go to: https://www.plaxo.com/signin?r=/delete_account/

* Plaxo has re-designed our Customer Support system, added more people, and created a new VIP Support with telephone support.

* I love this one: "We offer the same products that plaxo offers but our product is not free. "

==> Plaxo does not share your info w/ anyone unless you choose to. You do not receive anymore spam as a result of using Plaxo.

* This one was sent with some nice holiday spirit: "Rikk Carey What a bunch of crap. You don't use the information to sell. Get real. Just like Napster was not used to steal music. You are full of crap and the word is going around. People can't stand your service. Your privacy policy clearly says that the INFORMATION WILL BE TREATED AS AN ASSET !!! Got it? Enough said you liar."

==> This post provides no facts or specific points, besides a silly reference to Napster. I'd like to know what I've lied about.

* Here's another happy post: "Look at number 10 people. Why do you think they "store" their addresses? Can you say contact cross referencing and contact exchange. The most infuriating part is how you have no control over your information. SOMEONE ELSE GIVES IT TO THEM. Liars. PLAXO IS SCUM"

==> No one gives us your info. Plaxo users have complete control over how their info is used.

* "[Spammers use Plaxo to get your info.]"

==> The fact is that there are much better ways to do this than use Plaxo. Also, you should use common sense when replying to any email (plaxo or not)-- if you don't recognize the sender, you should probably not reply. Also, to be really careful, only put info in your public cards that you are comfortable giving out (e.g. whitepages).

Hopefully, most of the readers can see that we are trying to build a legitimate service and are interested in any feedback on how to make it better.

Rikk Carey
rikk@plaxo.com
vp of engineering
Plaxo, Inc.

Plaxo is is a SEVERE SECURITY RISK for corporates and home users. In our organisation we've poisoned the DNS for www.plaxo.com so that our users can't get there. Go away PLAXO!

Q. IS PLAXO LEGAL TO USE IN THE UK AND EUROPE?

A. IT SEEMS NOT!

European Data Protection legislation specifically forbids transfer of personally-identifying information to countries outside the European Union whose laws do not afford the same level of protection to the persons identified. This includes the US, where data protection laws are much weaker.

Therefore it is, as far as I can see, illegal to upload information about EU individuals to a US server.

NB: I am an e-marketing consultant (NOT a lawyer) and as such I have a good working knowledge of EU anti-spam legislation. I would welcome the views of a qualified legal professional as to the legality of using Plaxo in the EU. I have absolutely no reason to question the professional conduct of Plaxo, Inc.

Beyond the significant privacy issues, here are the two biggest problems with Plaxo:

1) Yes, it's now super-easy for you to manage your contacts, but only by asking ALL of the people in your address book to do the work of typing information instead of you.

2) It's a myth that Plaxo gives you accurate contact information, the most important piece being the e-mail address. If you do not already have my correct e-mail address, Plaxo is useless in getting it from me. Likewise, if I send you my information via Plaxo today and change my e-mail address tomorrow, you will not have my correct information nor any way to get it (since you don't have my e-mail address to give to Plaxo so they can ask me for accurate information). Not to mention that most people ignore update requests, getting you nothing.

A MESSAGE FROM SOMEONE WHO IS USING PLAXO SUCCESSFULLY....

Don't be so paranoid. I was at first and spent a few days researching Plaxo before deciding to give it a go.

My verdict - IT"S GREAT!

I had over 5,000 email addresses in my address book. Using Plaxo updater I was able to remove all those that are no longer valid and get new contact info from people who had moved jobs or phone numbers.

I have been deluged with people saying "great to hear from you! what are you up to these days? here's what I'm doing..." - It's been fabulous!

Of the 5,000 plus emails I sent out asking for revised contact details, over 2,000 replied within a week. The replies don't come into my inbox, but to the Plaxo server, so they don't interfer with my work at all.

I have had 400 come back saying the email address is no longer valid.

I have had one snotty person complain and ask why I was sending him an email. Yes, that's right, only one person in 5,000, so I guess people don't find it too annoying.

My recommendation is this - stop being paranoid and give things a go.

BTW - You CAN get away from Plaxo. Simply delete your account at https://www.plaxo.com/signin?r=/delete_account/

I received a plaxo email for the first time and replied. I wanted to see what it was like and accidently examined their software. What a nightmare. Can anyone tell me how to remove the Plaxo banner from emails I accidently hit yes instead of no and now hove this stupid banner at the top of all emails.

Thanks

Jane, you sound like you work for them.

I think a lot of people are looking at this the wrong way. If you like this product great, use it. But something you might want to consider is that the people in your contact list might not. Think about how that CFO would feel if you gave out his home phone number. Do you think he would like it? Do you think he would do business with you again? It is not "your" comfort level with this software that you need to worry about. It is the people in your contact list you should worry about. I personally have ended 2 contracts with companies that distributed my info. (And no it is not the same info I use to post on the Internet) There are confidentially agreements that will be broken with this kind of “service” . Most people who enter into the type of contract I am referring to should know better, but…..

The model looks cool. And used within a company, by that company, and maintained by same. It would be great. I will grab my crystal ball here for a minute and make a wild stab and say that within a year, there will be so many black lists with plaxo on them that even if the service is on the up and up it will no longer work.
I for one have myself placed them on black lists on 19 servers. I have some colleges who have done the same. If I were to guess I would say around 2000 to 2500 mail servers with the domain plaxo on the black list. And that’s just the people I know.
Just my $0.02

Thanks for all the info. i almost installed this application and came here looking for info on Google.

I concur with many of the people on this thread. Plaxo is both annoying and a security hazard. The knuckheads that enter your data into plaxo incur no liability in terms or risk as to how your personal information may by compromised.

I was vexed when I learned that some salesmen that I knew (and disliked by the way)entered my information into the system. I've also received about five others by people that I've never heard of before.

I complained to the postmaster@plaxo and requested that they remove all of my information from their database. They refused but instead asked me to sign up for an auto-reply account. I shouldn't have to do that! Just take my personal information out of your database! I thought about litigation. In reality, I don't need to take that path as they will implode on their own.

Below is the standard reply from Plaxo Support:

Hi there,

Thank you for contacting support.

We are as concerned about privacy as you are and want to build a service that our members as well as our non-members can trust. We believe our business will not be successful until we earn that trust.

Plaxo is a tool our members use to manage their electronic address books.
One element of the Plaxo service enables our users to keep a copy of their address books on an offsite server. The manner in which we store our users' address books is basically identical to the way in which other on-line services allow their users to store similar information. Every ISP has all kinds of information stored on its servers that refers to individuals who are not members or users of that ISP. ISP's obviously treat this information as owned by the account owner. In our case, this information is protected with best practice security systems and is not accessible by anyone other than the owner of the information and anyone to whom that owner gives access. The Plaxo service does NOT create a public accessible directory -- each user's address book is unique, each user may have entered different information about individuals in their address book, we do not share information from one user's address book with other users, and we do not attempt to cross-check the accuracy of the data in our users' address books (e.g., there might be thousands of entries for "John Smith", but no way to determine whether these entries refer to the same person, etc.). In no event will we delete information from our users' address books, regardless of whether that information is stored on a user's home computer or contained in their Plaxo address book stored on our servers.

If you do not want information about you in a specific Plaxo user's address book, we suggest that you contact them directly and ask them to remove your information from their address book. Alternatively, we would be happy to make this request directly to a specific user on your behalf.

We do not sell or exchange anyone's contact information with third parties, and we believe very strongly in protecting the privacy rights of our users and non-users alike. If you believe a user is violating our terms of service, please email us at abuse@plaxo.com and we will investigate and take appropriate action.

Please note that if you wish to stop receiving Plaxo update requests, you can create an auto-reply user account. This account will automatically respond to any Plaxo request, without ever sending an email to you. To sign up for an auto-reply account, just go to: http://www.plaxo.com/autoreply.

If you have any further questions or concerns regarding this matter, please let us know.

Please let me know if you have any further questions or concerns!

Best regards,
Jim
support@plaxo.com

A few of the users in my office have this software installed on thier machines, and I have noticed that the same users all have spyware, I have also been concerned about the security of sending all thier contacts out to a third party. I just installed this software today to see what spyware if any it comes with. I did a scan with spybot S+D, beforehand I had 73 (WMP, IE, creative soundcard, Kazaa) after the install I found 87, assuming that kazaa and plaxo don't use the same software that is 14 pieces of spyware it installs.

"(e.g., there might be thousands of entries for "John Smith", but no way to determine whether these entries refer to the same person, etc.)"

This is deliberately misleading (you'd make a good politician!), I would almost say lying, and the very fact that it *is* deliberately misleading makes me distrust the intentions of Plaxo.com even more - why would you be deliberately misleading us? I'll explain: Plaxo.com obviously KNOWS that their above statement is NOT true, because it is a trivial matter to realise that, although there may be many "John Smith"s, they ALL HAVE DIFFERENT E-MAIL ADDRESSES, and the e-mail address is the 'primary key' in the database, not the name! So everyone who knows the particular John Smith "johnsmith@abcdef.com" will enter that specific e-mail address into Plaxo for the contact, and voila, Plaxo.com can VERY accurately cross-reference ALL the different user's address books.

Now don't try tell me that *I* realised this simple fact, but that you, as someone who knows Plaxo well, did not. Please, don't insult our intelligence, it is obvious you CAN cross-reference the information, and pretty darn accurately too. But more pertinently: Why are you now trying to trick to us into believing that you CAN'T!?

One thing not yet mentioned is that Plaxo requires its accomplices (users) to use Outlook or Outlook Express AND some version of Windows. Plaxo updates the Outlook express address book. That means that every Plaxo request I receive is asking me to store my details in an email address book system which is known to have been compromised again and again and again, on an operating system which is known to have been compromised again and again and again. If you use Plaxo, right now you can't switch to a safe email client like Eudora or a safe operating system like Mac or GNU/Linux i.e. Plaxo requires its users to expose all their contacts to increased virus risk. Is Plaxo 0wn3d by M$?

Geez louise. Just don't respond to the Plaxo requests you jokers. I treat Plaxo requests like junk mail. Delete the request and you're done. Big whoop. Stupid idea. Easy to avoid it.

You can't just do that, Ezfreedom, because someone has still given your personal info to Plaxo, and they will still sell it when the time comes to do so.

And, what, pray tell, are they going to do with my email address that hasn't already been done by every two bit worm that has come across it in the last year? I think the majority of the arguments are made by a bunch of paranoids with too much time on their hands. Chicken Little's if you will. The Plaxo is falling. The Plaxo is falling. Or maybe. Big Plaxo is watching us (a takeoff on Big Brother). I thought it would be amusing to engage for a second. Sorry, gotta go and do something a tad more productive. Later guys.....

I have just deleted Plaxo, not because of the concerns that everyone is posting but because it kept making Outlook crash (Plaxo actually asks if you want to disable it if Outlook does not respond appropriately). I tried using it for about six months.

The support was a little frustrating at first, but I did finally connect with someone that took the time to examine the log activity, kicked it upstairs when the issue needed to be looked at by someone else and at least tried to resolve whatever the issue was.

Not once did I receive a request for an update from anyone other than someone I knew. Nor have I been subject to any spam or spyware (unlike a system such as Gator).

Plaxo is a really good idea and I would continue using it if only I could be sure that it wouldn't crash Outlook.

I just wrote an article about Plaxo you might find interesting

http://www.radicalapathy.com/mt/archives/journal/000129.html

Check out www.MyAddressCard.com. We're a new site that offers a similar service but it's all web based and there is nothing to download. Also the members have to specifically send a request to people for their address card. We have a revenue model, a free version, and a strict privacy policy.

hey guys,

I just thought of finding more about Plaxo in google and landed up here. I am shocked to read all your fabulous but senseless comments. I have been using Plaxo for a while now and from the past 6 months, all i have got from Plaxo or my contacts is only +'s and no -'s.

I work in a company where i keep moving between departments and hence my computer keeps changing and Plaxo has been a boon for every change or movement I make. Till date, I haven't received a spam, or a pop up or any sort of crap while using Plaxo. You guys are giving me a scare. But listen, a good critic is one who evaluates each and every feature, analyzes the positives and negatives equally and strongly condemns the negatives. It appears that most of you are shooting in the dark to hit a target without even knowing what you are aiming at.

I sincerely suggest you guys to know more about the product before scaring people(like me and lot others) with your creativity (writing skills). Don't you think its stupid to comment about Tiger woods without even knowing, what, Golf game is all about?

u guys should shd be thankful to Plaxo for providing a wonderful software to be in touch with your dear ones instead of passing comments out of frustration. Before downloading a software first try to learn abt it or atleast know What it is? or Does it serve your purpose. You guys download something that is free and start commenting when it is not the one u look for.
Be realistic.

www.plaxo.com

Parker, Sean
1975 Landings Drive
Mountain View, Ca 94043

Administrative Contact, Technical Contact:

Manager, Domain
1975 Landings Drive
Mountain View, Ca 94043

650-254-5400
fax 650-254-1435

I just installed plaxo out of curiosity. Someone I met only in the Internet invited me in.
But now I have a problem that I cannot even get in my password and useename. It "answers<" that the e mail address no longer is valid (the one I use and is predetermined to the ISP. No its not the one I am giving you now, that provisional.
I dont want to delete Plaxo before I even use it so SOMWONE HCAN HELP ME SOLVE THIE PROBLEM???

Luis,

why dont you try contacting their technical support at support@plaxo.com. I am sure they will help you out. Nice bunch of folks there, who are pretty quick in responding.

OK. I've heard how to delete your account if you are a Plaxo user. Now how about deleting your record that some Plaxo user uploaded?

How about doing us non-Plaxo users a service and initiate a search and delete records by email address -or whatever method you use to add us to your database?

The fact that you hoard our information without OUR consent is not right, even if other companies are doing it as well.

I bet that pretty much all positive feedbacks above come directly from Plaxo. However, if the negative feedbacks were coming from the competition, they would probably try to redirect the readers to their service.

I am such a smart ass.

I've just completed a very lengthy exchange with a support person at Plaxo over the course of several days. Without going over the entire discussion:

- Plaxo WILL NOT permit an organization to "opt-out" it's entire domain name. You would have to submit to them EVERY SINGLE EMAIL ADDRESS in your company you want blocked, and then of course they've accomplished what they wanted all along - they've got your email addresses (which of course they PROMISE to keep safe...)

- Plaxo will remove all email addresses from a particular domain (providing you get a signature of one of your corporate executives on a form they send you). However this is only a one-time thing: they'll take them all out, but they won't stop them from being put back in again.

The very idea of a plug-in in Outlook, with access to mailboxes on my corporate Exchange server, is the most mind-boggling thing I've ever heard. The Plaxo person seemed generally amazed I'd have a hard time simply swallowing their "trust us" attitude about the whole thing.

In short, since there seems to be no other way to protect our company, we will be:
- Blocking all access to their web sites
- Blocking all access to their mail servers
- Poisoning our DNS for their entire domain (plaxo.com)
- Setting up a mail filter on our Exchange server that rejects any message that even contains the word "Plaxo".

Funny, funny, funny!

You guys crack me up. It's a shame that this forum is the most informative result of a 'plaxo' Google search. This must be the hangout where I can find all kinds of paraniod people that have a lot of time to bitch.

Although it may be flawed, obviously these Plaxo people are trying to run a legite business. They give you all of thier contacts and they answer any legtimate question.

If this service is so bad, then treat it like spam and ignore it. I'm sure you already get bombarded with spam.

If you are still unsatisfied, then remove all of your info as they so easily instruct:

9. Plaxo members can delete their account and data at any time: https://www.plaxo.com/signin?r=/delete_account/

I recieved a 'Plaxo Info Update' from a company that keeps my name on a 'Freelancers List'. So of course I updated it.

I personally have decided to not use Plaxo, since I've found Outlook to be a huge risk to viruses. If Plaxo didn't require such an interface I would probably be interested.

But you don't see me freaking out, becasue I take the time to research things (instead of freaking out! Oh my god!) and with a very small amount of research most anyone can find it is easy to deal with e-mail program and spam management.

I recommend that most people on this forum do the world some good and take a little time to actually learn something.

Have a great day!

Happy, I quote from your post:

"If you are still unsatisfied, then remove all of your info as they so easily instruct:

9. Plaxo members can delete their account and data at any time: https://www.plaxo.com/signin?r=/delete_account/"

Then you suggest that others in this forum "do the world some good and take a little time to actually learn something".

Have you not read the previous posts? Perhaps you should be taking your own advice. You can remove YOUR account and YOUR address book, but anyone else can enter your personal information which you CANNOT remove regardless of any requests you might make to Plaxo. It is this loss of control and consent that troubles me (and I'm sure most of the other detractors on this board).

I have yet to receive a request from plaxo to update my personal information, and this (hopefully) means that none of my friends have been so inconsiderate as to disseminate my personal information to such a website without my permission. If I do receive one, it is getting deleted, and a message is going out to that contact demanding that they remove my information from this "spam list in the works". Just because some people are too f**king lazy to update their address books doesn't mean they have the right to expose my personal information in this manner without my say-so.

Am I paranoid? If I say no, then I obviously am. If I say yes, then I have too firm a grip on reality to be paranoid, but I must be paranoid, because I believe I’m paranoid. At the very least, I’m paranoid about being paranoid.

Paranoia or not, the bottom line is that no one besides YOU has the right to enter this kind of information. This is where the system falls down, and loses any kind of credibility that it’s convenience might suggest.

Zaphod --

No. You're not paranoid. You give your contact information to people who don't really care if they put your contact information in a big ol' database.

All of you that argue that Plaxo should let you delete "your" contact information from other people's address books need to get a *big* clue.

Why would anyone use such an intrusive service when there are really simple cards out there that don't keep or use any marketing data? The EZInfoCard, it is great! I have one myself, take a look for yourself at www.ezinfocard.com.

I will echo the other so-called "paranoid" comments:

If I choose to have my personal information placed on a databases such as this, that is fine.

My objection is that anyone with my name in their address book can give it away in the name of "convenience" to them.

Worst of all, once Plaxo has been given my info (without my consent) they will not delete it.

I recall a toy web site (the one with the sock puppet) that said its "mailing list" would never be sold, but when they went belly-up that same list became one of its few assets.

I'm sorry, Plaxo, but your "trust me" just isn't enough.

Look, I get the concern that this company might turn out not to be as trustworthy as they say. I even get the frustration that they may have information that you can't delete. But what I don't get is why you think it's their fault. The only information they have about you is information that 1) you typed into their system, or 2) you gave to someone else who uploaded it into their system.

If I send information to people I correspond with, I generally expect that information to be at risk of being made public. I'm not saying I 'expect' it to be made public, but I use some judgement in what I send to whom and am not shocked and outraged if someone I correspond with for business sends my email address to someone else they think I might need to correspond with. That's why I have different email addresses for business than for close friends and family.

If you send personal information to people who then upload it to Plaxo, they should fall into one of two categories: 1) people close to you and 2) people not close to you. If someone close to you uses Plaxo and that makes you uncomfortable, then tell them and ask them to remove it. If someone not close to you uses Plaxo, then why the heck did you send them private information in the first place? Plaxo is only one of many things people can do with the information you send to them, many of them worse, so you have no one but yourselves to blame if they have information that you don't want out there.

So use some common sense, for gosh sake, and stop thinking the world is going to come to an end just because there is one more server out there (added to the tens of thousands of others) that contains your email address. Ignore them, block them, whatever, and then go out and live your life.

Chillin', you're missing a couple of points:

I know my contact info is in Plaxo because I keep getting Plaxo requests. But I have never written to ANY of the people from whom I've gotten these things. For whatever reasons, they've written to me and put me in their address book (in one case, a person who wanted me to update his Plaxo listing for me was somebody who works for a company I had written very critically about and whom I have no desire whatsoever to contact).

That having been said - my address is, in fact, all over the place. The guy already has my address so, yeah, who cares if he feels like putting it in a Plaxo database?

From an enterprise persepective, however, I've got to wonder: Do you want your employees uploading their (potentially valuable) contact information to a server outside your control? Plaxo may be every bit as honorable as they say they are, but I can't imagine just letting corporate assets (and contact info in many cases is an asset - just as anybody in sales) float out the window like that.

Based on the OECD Privacy Guidelines and the European Privacy Laws, Plaxo is totally illegal because Plaxo is in fact "pumping" all the personal data of the contacts in your address book without informing your contacts about this "collection of personal data" and giving them an access to control, correct, update or delete the information at any time.

Opt-out is not the answer, Plaxo has to immediately inform your contacts when they are collecting the data!

Knowing that Plaxo has now more than 1,8 Mio members, it means that they have in fact surreptitiously collected a minimum of 200 Mio contacts with personal and professionnal information.

It is for me a total privacy abuse but not a surprise if you know that Shawn Fanning one of the Plaxo founder was previously one of the founder of Napster, another product well know for its total unrespect of fundamental rights.

Regards,

I can't believe anyone would fall for this Plaxo scam.

It's useless garbage that compromises security for no real benefit.

I like Plaxo. If you guys know of a better way for my Smartphone to automatically get updated with new phone numbers and addresses when a friend moves, let me know.

I find a better way to update address book:
http://www.keepincontact.com

Let us say NO to Plaxo!

just say no to plaxo

There are loads of other systems out there that dont suck up address books like plaxo... less intrusive.. worldaddress.com, goodcontacts.com, addressender.com ........

why bother with a worm....

Whooops......some very sensitive negative focused people out there who are clearly paranoid about change.

I have used PLAXO now for several months. It is a terrific way of keeping all my contact information up to date for someone who does not spend their entire life working their Contacts. It has heled me clear a load of redundant contacts from my list who are no longer where I thought they were and has reaquinted me with a number of good old friends & colleagues who over the years I have lost contact with. I have NEVER receieved any SPAM from PLAXO and I for one am delighted with the service it provides me.

Nobody is forcing anyone to use it, unlike the majority of my SPAM it is not offensive (I'm quite happy with my Penis size..!) and goes away if you ask it to. SO lighten up and either use it or don't, it's your choice not PLAXO's.

Cheers,

Gareth

It saddens me to read that the norm out there is for people to wallow in their own laziness, stupidity and ignorance. I too viewed my first "Plaxo" message with skepticism since it involved sending contact info in return. But I did what any other sensible person would, using the proper precautionary methods, I created an test account, tried the product for 2 weeks, uninstalled it, then checked and rechecked for spyware and viruses.... The veredict, nothing suspicious.

So what's my point? You ask. My point is that I did my homework before coming into a public forum and berating an up and coming company and its product. The fact that people filled with paranoia, half-knowledge or complete ignorance about a topic or product can come into a public forum and give such negatively compelling and damning evidence about same product scares me more than the purported "Big Brother", "Carnivore", "Echelon", and "Patriot Act" evil schemes our government has supposedly placed on us.

There are a lot good new technologies, products and ideas that get shot down without a chance because of people making assumptions from their lazily gathered information. Don’t believe me? Pick a product, even one that you know it legitimate and deserving of public confidence, then do a search on google along with the word “complaint”. Most likely, you’ll get many links, including some to forums like this one, which will contain postings upon postings from people berating the product and the company from which it comes from. You’ll begin to see a pattern of ignorance being spewed out by the general population who chooses not to do their homework on the product they are berating.

I know that my sermon here won't change your minds, it's easier to remain in ignorance than to make an effort to leap out of it, but I had to post it since it does make me sad that people as a whole don't like to make the effort.

By the way, back to Plaxo, I personally won't use it because I don't have that many contacts in my address book that merits it. But I can see how it can become an asset if you are in a business that does.

Those are my 2 cents. If you want to contact me with regards to my comments, send my and e-mail at uhuh@uhuh.com............Yeah right.

Plaxo has been a godsend for me personally. Ever since I was in college I've believed that contacts are as important in life as are intelligence, education and skills. I've thus tried to keep in touch with my old friends as the years pass, but the realities of changing email addresses and such have made it a daunting very time consuming challenge. Plaxo enabled me to get in touch with over 1000 people with very little effort...and since these are my friends they were very happy also to get in touch with me.

If you are a friend of mine and don't want your information to be routed through Plaxo you can just ask me and I'd be happy to accomodate. For all these people who are claiming that MY address book is THEIR information and thus on altruistic purposes shouldn't be put used in the most efficient manner possible to me, ie Plaxo or Outlook or eGreetingCards ...go keep your email address to yourself and live in a hole!!

And I DO work in the software industry and I DON'T work for Plaxo.

They're getting there, but not quite.

The "all bets are off if the company is sold" condition in Privacy Policy 2.0 is good, but there is still no way for an Organisation as a whole to stop getting those annoying "I'm updating my address book, please help me" messages.

There's no way to opt out of plaxo as a whole, you have to opt out once for each contact that has Plaxo. That sucks, and until that feature is available, corporate policies on Plaxo won't change.

Our organisation used to Spam Filter all emails with the word Plaxo in it (including people with Plaxo signatures), now it just spam filters all Plaxo "I'm updating my address book, please help me" by content, and prevents anybody visiting Plaxo.com via proxy server.

If I understand your comment correctly, Plaxo does allow a person to globally opt-out from receiving an Update Request message that may be sent to them from any Plaxo member. You may also chose to opt-out from receiving messages from a singular member. These options are available through the "opt-out" link included in each Update Request message or by going to:

http://www.plaxo.com/opt_out

Feel free to send other questions and comments to us. We are happy to assist.

Stacy Martin
Plaxo Privacy Officer
privacy @t plaxo.com

I'm killing spam from Outlook Express with bayesian spam filter SpamBully

Whew...

I can't believe I read the whole thing, and if you're this far down the list, I can't believe you did either!!

Before I state my opinion, it's important that you know the following: I am a computer technician, unlike any other technician that most, if not all, of you have ever known. I don't sell hardware, or software, but what I have done for the last 10 years is clean up my friend's / family's / and client's systems from all the crap that they unwittingly install, ie. spyware, spamware, trojans, browser hijacks, utility programs, "RAM boosters", firewalls, virus scanners, and just about anything else that I have proven time and time again to cause their system to run slower or less stable.

I modify their system so they have a list of 10,000 advertising websites in their HOSTS file, which blocks banners, popups ect without annoying, resource wasting, popup blockers. I provide them with the best free online virus scanner, so they don't run crap like Norton and McAfee which causes windows and many other programs to crash and still doesn't gurantee they won't get infected. I teach them that there are only about 100 viruses that have had a major impact on computers, not the 65,000 that many are lead to believe. and how to protect themselved better than any full time virus scanner. I spend the whole day with them, teach them about the dangers of e-mail attachments, what to guard against, how to keep their system running efficiently so they'll never need to call me again. (But hope they tell their friends about me :)

Almost every single time that I see a "free program" that is "really cool" (ie. Weather Bug, Bonzi Buddy, Gator, etc...) I take a deep breath, cringe a bit, and explain what I know, or research it so I do know all I can about each of these monsters! I explain that it's not hackers that they need to fear, it's corporations. Although firewall software companies will lead you to believe otherwise, hackers typically have higher moral standards than most corporate business people (The fact that the Napster creator is behind this is relevant here).

From all that I have read, here is my conclusion. This software COULD be perverted, just as e-mail, e-mail attachments, ICQ, and other facets of computers have been perverted by countless corporations. The ONE way that this collection of very valuable and private information is sure NOT to be perverted is if Plaxo's e-mail links takes you to their website, and gives you the option of deleting, and BLOCKING ALL INFORMATION bound to your e-mail address, without downloading their software! Their server should then send an e-mail back to the person whom you recieved the invitation from, and anyone else who subsequently submits your e-mail address, that you have blocked your address from their database. That way, those friends of yours can contact you by e-mail and ask you why, so hopefully you can change your mind later. I TOTALLY BELIEVE THAT PLAXO'S ENTIRE TEAM IS ONE OF THE MOST TRUSTWORTHY GROUPS OF HACKERS THAT I HAVE HAD THE PLEASURE OF READING ABOUT!! and IF they make the change that I suggested above, and forever keep our info private (where we choose each and every person that gets that info), and FOREVER give us the option to remove ourselves from their database at ANY time without installing their software, then they have my complete support, and my great appreciation for creating such an awesome service.

To the team, please don't let these people discourage you, you are fighting an uphill battle because those who have gone before you had nothing but greed on their minds. If you can convince me that something this potentially dangerous is really in our best interest, eventually you'll convince almost everyone!!
Good Luck!! Hang Tough!!

Rich, are you for real? If you are as you say, someone that digs all the way to the bottom, than I would not trust you with shit to do with my computer. If you can come up with that post after you know all there is to know about Plaxo you have no idea what you are doing with a computer. Or you work for Plaxo.

You just dont get it, do you?

"5. Plaxo offers non-members 3 options for opting-out "

Why can non-members opt out? If you are not a member what are you opting out of?

Opting out or setting the email adress they do have up not to send anything only means one thing:
Plaxo wants you to verify that your account works, that it is an asset worth keeping in their system.

Ethics aside there is no business sense here other than being able to sell all the harvested email adresses that were either verified by people wanting to use the services that Plaxo allegedly do offer, or veirifed by people trying to get out of Plaxos database.
If I get my info out of the database, will it ever enter the database again?

According to danish laws I can make it clear to a company that I do not wish to receive any information from them, yet if I remove my information once, will I ever receive an email again?
Yes, if someone has my email adress in their system and it gets onto Plaxo again.
Plaxo should implement a second list of adresses not to allow into the main database as they have already been there and the owner opted out.

Only then will opting out actually have any meaning.

Mikkel Breiler
(using a very old email account which gets 150-250 spam emails and viri per day. I read no stray email using this account I delete anything that isn't already setup!)

After not receiving any Plaxo requests in a long while, I'm starting to get them again. But lucky for me, the few that slip by the ISP filters wind up in my junk box and I just delete them.
Because I have never used any MS mail program including Outlook (UNIX Pine and Eudora are all I have ever used), Plaxo would not work for me anyway.
While I can't do anything about other folks joining Plaxo and adding my address to the Plaxo database, I also can't do anything about spammers selling harvested e-mail addresses on CD for big bucks. So Plaxo and anyone else is blacklisted on most of the servers I use.
Sorry Plaxo, I'm not interested in another database of harvested information.

It's too late!

It took me a while to get down here, but here we go.

One of the frequently proposed solutions above is Plaxo letting you entirely block your email address from entering Plaxo. However, funny enough, this is a contradiction.

If you were able to tell Plaxo that you don't want this and this email address to be entered at all by Plaxo users Plaxo would have to store that email address in a table of blocked addresses - and oops... who knows what may happen to those addresses in the future in the event of company acquisition or liquidation.

You would run the exact same risk. Actually you would even run a slightly higher risk since you entering your address for blocking would surely require email verification - and oops again... you just verified to Plaxo that the email address you entered is valid (and precious enough for you to go trough the trouble to block it).

No, the best thing for you to do is to remain absolutely non-communicative with Plaxo and to ask persons who enter your information to kindly remove all your information.

However, not even the latter will do any good since Plaxo still stores all old entries. This is proven by the "Change history" feature where you can se all the changes performed for a contact (either by you or the person himself using the update scheme or as a Plaxo member himself).

So, the sad final conclusion is: You can't do _ANYTHING_ about this but to try to prevent your friends from ever entering you information into Plaxo.

So if you're not already receiving update request from Plaxo chances are that your info is not yet entered by any of your friends: email them today stating that you do not want them to ever enter your information into Plaxo. Do it now before your information is irreversibly uploaded to Plaxo!

Most of these postive comments are probably from Plaxo employees trying to distort the conversation.

I am concerned that my private info will now be exploited by some reprobate who only had my email, but now has much more because some well meaning friend or collegue uploaded to Plaxo and it is there for the taking of any other user.

Plaxo may not have started evil, but their system is a conduit for evil doers. And they are not being forthwrite about that possibility.

I'm starting a website where you can store all you bank and credit card numbers and pin numbers. Trust me, I'll keep it safe, unless I decide to sell the complany. In the mean time, I'll only let others who have your email address get that info. If they just have your name, that won't work. They will need your whole email, which is very hard to get. Anyone with your whole email should be allowed access, right? So trust me, your info is safe with me.

Feel free to also list city of birth, mothers maden name, social security, where you hide your house key, and anything else you want to give me. Better we all have it, than you have to spend the extra time managing that information yourself.

What's your problem? Why slam a good product? I've been using Plaxo for hours and you can trust me. It's pretty good. I haven't noticed anyone taking advantage of that info yet, so I'm sure that will always be the case. It is great being able to upload all my friends', families', and business parters' information online. I'm sure that would tickle them pink to know I did that without their consent.

Thanks Plaxo. I couldn't have done this alone.

Plaxo seems good at first, but anyone who has read this far should have realized it just ain't worth it.

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