Yesterday I received a facebook message from a colleague. lets call him Mr. X, inviting me to join MyCalendar – Birthdays.
Can anyone give me one reason why I would want to do this? Because I can give you several reasons why I wouldn't.
#1. What does MyCalendar – Birthdays actually do?
Well it apparently updates you about friends birthdays. Wait a minute, doesn’t Facebook already do that without the need for another app?
But the problem is more sinister than that, because MyCalendar – Birthdays, doesn’t tell you what it does until after you sign up. It's a bit like joining a secret society but without the cool handshakes.
#2. Before you gain access to the app to find out what it does, it asks for permission to access your basic information which includes, name, profile picture, gender, networks (whatever they are?), user ID, email, birthday, current city, URL and list of friends. Does anyone think this list is a little long for a Calendar app.
#3. It's the 'List of friends' that bothers me. If I don’t like this app I wont sign up for it, but if my friends do, I’m getting the spam anyway!
You know how angry you get when the friend who bought the overpriced vacuum cleaner, sold five of his friends names to get the 10% off, and now the salesman wants to waste your time convincing you of a need to clean your filthy house? Are you starting to see my point.
#4. But were not done yet, we have to accept the terms of service before we can continue. My bet is that most users have not read this. It is 5022 words long! Here are some highlights.
- ACCEPTANCE: You must agree in order to use this service.
- TERMINATION: To terminate the agreement you simply stop using the app. They retain all your information.
- INDEMNITY: If they send birthday cards from you to an Al Qaeda cell, and the FBI knock on your door, you cant engage MyCalendar – Birthdays in litigatiuon.
- PRIVACY: They may collect, your IP address, message board comments, purchase history, name, mailing address, telephone number, credit card and billing information, information about the identity of your friends, email address, current city, gender, URL and Networks (whatever they are.) The information will not be available to third parties, except in the event of a sale, merger, acquisition, reorganization, bankruptcy, or other similar event. - or if they change their mind
- MyCalendar – Birthdays can change the contract any time they like.
- Oh yes – You also get to see more adds
So if you’ve been suckered into joining this intrusive data harvesting organization (and that's exactly what it is,) don’t despair, there are at least15 million other active users.
Stephen R. Drage
Author: MUD LANE
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