From a netfriend: I'm wondering if anyone on this list is worried about getting Plaxo'd. Is there some definitive/authoritative critique of it anywhere? First, from a friend of a friend: Dear Friends, I've just been notified by my Postmaster that there's "a new, great-sounding Internet service called Plaxo at http://www.plaxo.com, which is offering users of Outlook and Outlook Express a way to keep the addresses in your address book current and accurate". However, he goes on to say:"At first this may sound like a great idea, but it is fraught with significant potential risks. The Plaxo servers keep all the addresses for all their clients on the PLAXO servers and then update client's address books as changes are made in each client's address book. Their servers will without a doubt become the target of spammers and other malevolents and if that information becomes public then both their clients AND those with addresses in their address books can become victims". So PLEASE do NOT share my email address in YOUR address books with any centralized address book service. ~~~ So I did a Google search and came up with: Bill Machrone in PC Magazine: 'In my book, the only difference between Plaxo and an e-mail worm is that Plaxo doesn't attach itself to the messages it sends. You have to go to the site and do the deed yourself. I find Plaxo troubling because it sends a complete copy of your contacts to a third party. Plaxo's privacy policy says it won't do anything with those addresses without your permission, but if that's the case, why does it want them? There's some boilerplate about only doing demographic analysis and offering future services and service levels, but as usual, if the company is sold, all bets are off.' Another worry: 'It is easy to imagine someone creating a virus that looks just like Plaxo: It infects your machine and sends out an apparently innocent email to all your contacts getting them to hand over all their contact information and, if the evildoer is lucky, they all install the little program and it keeps spreading.' http://www.buzzmachine.com/archives/2002_11.html More on Plaxo: It's been around for nearly a year. See this warning when they launched their product: http://www.redherring.com/vc/2002/09/bubbleboys0923024529.html http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,56322,00.html Bill's critique (then amended) in PC Mag: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,905467,00.asp http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,949832,00.asp Another: http://hackinthebox.org/article.php?sid=9276 Rowland Croucher August 2003
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