friendpics.info - Unethical if not a scam

Sitting here at my comptuer, my MSN Messenger IM window pops up from a friend over in the UK.

"Hmmm, what could this be they have just sent me with their screenname.friendspics.info?"

Looks like a fun place to share pictures and stuff with friends, maybe they have some shots from when I was just over there for cfunited:europe. All you have to do is...

WARNING!

give them your msn login name and password! The site looks slightly harmless and possibly a good way to share pictures with friends. But read below, and upon logging in you are giving them unfettered access to utilize your email address and even your IM account to send marketing (*cough* SPAM w/ a touch of phishing) to all of your friends, so that they can do the same.

Is it legal? I dunno, there is a bunch of legalsleaze under jurisdiction of Panama at the bottom that says you agree to give them your email, IM and access to your friends to spread their viral message.

Is it ethical? I say NO WAY.

Its harmful to the internet and its communities, where people are starting to trust single sign-on methods like Microsofts Passport and the emerging OpenID standardization.

Below is the crap they show at the bottom of their page, where you give them your own email, IM and friends, and for what? Dunno, I didn't give it to them.

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Update

PartyPicz.Info appears to be running the same scam as a "clone" site. I suspect there are more out there. Please, do not give away your MSN account to these sites, and spread the word to your friends so you don't get spammed to death by them either.

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Terms of Use / Privacy Policy: By filling out this form, you authorize TST Management, Inc to spread the word about this 100% real and upcomming Messenger Community Site. You will receive your share of the credit in helping us spread the word. This is a harmless Community site which is offering users a platform to meet each other for free. We do not share your private information with any third parties. By using our service/website you hereby fully authorize TST Management, Inc to send messages of a commercial nature via Instant Messages and E-Mails on behalf of third parties via the information you provide us. This is not a "phishing" site that attempts to "trick" you into revealing personal information. Everything we do with your information is disclosed here. If you are under eighteen (18), you MUST obtain permission from a parent or guardian before using our website/service. This page is not affiliated with or operated by Microsoft(tm) or MSN Network(tm). ANY LIABILITY, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION ANY LIABILITY FOR DAMAGES CAUSED OR ALLEGEDLY CAUSED BY ANY FAILURE OF PERFORMANCE, ERROR, OMISSION, INTERRUPTION, DEFECT, DELAY IN OPERATION OR TRANSMISSION, COMMUNICATIONS LINE FAILURE, SHALL BE STRICTLY LIMITED TO THE AMOUNT PAID BY OR ON BEHALF OF THE SUBSCRIBER TO THIS SERVICE. We may temporarily access your MSN account to do a combination of the following: 1. Send Instant Messages to your friends promoting this site. 2. Introduce new entertaining sites to your friends via Instant Messages. This is a free service. You will not be asked to pay at any time. You will not be subscribed to anything asking for payment. This service is made possible by many hours of human effort. TST Management, Inc reserves the right to change the terms of use / privacy policy at any time without notice. To view the latest version of this privacy policy, simply bookmark this page for future reference. You understand that this agreement shall prevail if there is any conflict between this agreement and the terms of use you accepted when you signed up with MSN. You also understand that by temporarily accessing your msn account, TST Management, Inc is NOT agreeing to MSN's terms of use and therefore not bound by them. This agreement shall be construed and governed by the law of the republic of Panama. You expressly consent to the exclusive venue and personal jurisdiction of the courts located in the Republic of panama for any actions arising from or relating to this agreement. If any provision of this agreement is held to be invalid, illegal or unenforceable for any reason, such invalidity, illegality or unenforceability shall not effect any other provisions of this agreement, and this agreement shall be construed as if such invalid, illegal or unenforceable provision had not been contained herein.

In an addendum to the Verizon debacle. I was looking forward to really trying out microblogging from my phone during the cfunited europe conference this week. I am quite saddened that that will not be happening. Especially, since the hotel charges $40/day for internet access in your room, and then has a separate company charge you another rate if you want to use wireless in the common areas. Ridiculous.

The other advantage to twitter was that I wanted to be able to twitter during my wanderings about London tonight, and then maybe even have others twit back to send me back home faster. Granted if my phone worked I wouldn't have gotten lost anyhow.

Granted Pownce would have been even better, since I could have taken pictures of places and then micro-blogged with those right back to the site. Will be interesting to see if twitter incorporates payload.

Finally, if you don't understand Twittering, check out the Geek Brief Daily Video #325 Cali Lewis just put out with CommonCraft.com and their "plain english tutorials". Its an excellent beginner's tutorial on why one should twitter.

Follow me at twitter.com/cheyennejack

So in true Cheyenne fashion, I decided to go on a bit of a wander throughout London tonight. Try to get my barings see what I might just run into and find.

Nothing new, as this has been going on for eons, but as technology gets better and better, it becomes increasingly more difficult to get lost. I mean now I can just use my phone to pull up maps and images, or better yet turn on the GPS and have my phone talk me through where to go.

Enter Verizon Wireless, "Americas" best network. A.k.a have fun outside of America, because even your alarm clock doesn't work. You are holding onto a $300 brick. I was set back decades, meandering around, actually having to ask "real" people for directions.

Granted when the "real" people are exiting the pub speaking real drunken British, the fun gets better. Oh well, I made it, and will have to seriously re-think not having a phone carrier with international presence.

I'm sure by tomorrow I'll find some new solutions, like a rented mobile or something, but having the option of "it just works" for your normal cell phone would be quite well worth it. Maybe T-mobile is on this track.

Here is another nice little gotcha in Vista.

Unplug your iPod when booting.

I'm sure its something set in my bios, but thats a factory setting. Makes me wonder how many regular folks know about this, and will waste tons of time waiting for Vista to boot, and get nowhere. Finally they resort to shut it down, take it to the store and have it magically work again. They may even get a bill.

Wonder if the Zune has this same problem.

Obviously,I'm loving having to still re-learn everything on Vista 8 months later and at 6am in the morning, trying to "oh I know accomplish a simple task".

Grump signing out.

Apparently uninstalling Groove from Microsoft Office 2007, will do the trick, but of course I now I have reboot to complete uninstall. http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewContent.do?externalId=kb400788&sliceId=2 That Mac "It just works" stuff is really starting to seep into my brain.

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Ok. I'm back. Uninstalling Groove 2007 and running Dreamweaver 8 on Vista, is running pretty smoothly now. However, I think it killed my install of Multiple IE, since it was running and now is dead. Hopefully, I'll be getting approval soon to purchase the upgrade to CS3 so I can avoid all this compatibility hassle, or I'm just going to go buy it myself.