How to convert email addresses into name, age, ethnicity, sexual orientation

Re:How to convert email addresses into name, age, ethnicity,... by Semiapies on Sunday January 03, 2010 @08:08AM (#1028481)

"So you have somehow begged, borrowed or stolen an email list of 1000 users who you believe are interested in your new service."

If you had to scrounge around to find my name and other details, or otherwise do something besides ask me, I'm not interested, just so you know.

If I ever get an email with my name from a company I've never given information to, I look to see any indication of how they got it - and then delete that email.

I'm sure the people whose eyes are lighting up at this idea don't care that some of their targets won't like this bit of cyber-stalking. I can only hope those who use it get more resistance out of it than responses.

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Re:How to convert email addresses into name, age, ethnicity,... by maxklein on Sunday January 03, 2010 @08:22AM (#1028488)

The "evil" in this method is that you will never know the company has your email, because they will get your info off your facebook profile without having to contact you. Facebook will give the info to anyone who has your email and they won't notify you.

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Re:How to convert email addresses into name, age, ethnicity,... by Semiapies on Sunday January 03, 2010 @06:26PM (#1029329)

The disrespect and lack of ethics is not limited to Facebook by this behavior. The fact that Facebook is insecure does not make exploiting Facebook's insecurity any more ethical or proper.

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Re:How to convert email addresses into name, age, ethnicity,... by brianto2010 on Sunday January 03, 2010 @09:09AM (#1028523)

The point of this service is not to contact you. If they already have the e-mails, then they won't need this service; they will e-mail/spam you anyway. It's in place because...

> Such information can help you correct course before you are too invested in a particular idea you have.

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Re:How to convert email addresses into name, age, ethnicity,... by Semiapies on Sunday January 03, 2010 @06:28PM (#1029331)

I'm quite aware. The purpose is to get information about me through exploiting a service. You can put it in a little targeted spam to me to try to get past spam filters and get a favorable reaction.

It's snooping, and it's reprehensible.

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Re:How to convert email addresses into name, age, ethnicity,... by brianto2010 on Sunday January 03, 2010 @09:28PM (#1029590)

I wouldn't call it exploiting; I'd call it 'harnessing public resources', since most of the information collected through this service from Facebook is supposedly public.

Also, how can you have a 'favorable reaction' to spam given that...

> If I ever get an email with my name from a company I've never given information to, I... delete that email.

I also agree that this is snooping. However, this is just a tool, and should be used responsibly. Abuse would make it reprehensible.

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Re:How to convert email addresses into name, age, ethnicity,... by Semiapies on Monday January 04, 2010 @11:46AM (#1030592)

Public resources are what I put on my blogs or web sites or what I mark to be public. As has been heavily discussed in this thread, Facebook has changed policies to make certain information public no matter what users choose in their privacy settings.

"how can you have a 'favorable reaction' to spam"

The intent is for people to lower their guard when they read email that's directly addressed to their name and seems to display knowledge of them.

"Abuse would make it reprehensible."

I think its abuse is being promoted, here. I mean, really, reread the blog post.

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