laurenspuhler.com

I just got in an invite to tagged.com.

It was from a friend I don’t hear from often, so I figured I check it out. I’m always down for more time-wasting, social networking sites after all.

I would have clicked “sign me up” until I read the “About Us” section:

Tagged provides a fun, safe, and exciting environment for people to showcase their personalities and talents, and to connect with friends and meet new ones.

Fair enough, but then the kicker:

Tagged is experiencing dramatic growth Advertisers love Tagged because they get clear, uncomplicated access to our audience. Our team is dedicated to making every advertiser successful and can develop and support any type of ad campaign.

I don’t know about you, but I hate giving advertisers “clear, uncomplicated access” to me. I get enough SPAM and junk mail as it is.

And here’s the Wikipedia criticism:

There have been several critical articles[3][4][5][6] written about tagged.com’s policy toward their users’ email address books. These policies have been described at best as spamming, and at worst as phishing attacks.

Eeek!