I've been getting email from people who use tagged.com. They claim to be a “social networking” site, but their Terms of Service and Privacy Policy are so bad that I don't think anyone should use them.
Here are some of the more disgusting parts from the June 4, 2009 version of their terms of service:
E) Notice Regarding Commercial Email MEMBERS CONSENT TO RECEIVE COMMERCIAL E-MAIL MESSAGES FROM TAGGED, AND ACKNOWLEDGE AND AGREE THAT THEIR EMAIL ADDRESSES AND OTHER PERSONAL INFORMATION MAY BE USED BY TAGGED FOR THE PURPOSE OF INITIATING COMMERCIAL E-MAIL MESSAGES.
Tagged also makes it unconscionably hard to terminate your agreement:
Should member object to any terms and conditions of the Agreement
or any subsequent modifications thereto or become
dissatisfied with Tagged in any way, Member's only recourse is to
immediately:
(1) discontinue use of Tagged;
(2) terminate Tagged registration; and
(3) notify Tagged of termination.
Tagged encourages members to submit their email address and password. You should never do this; you would be giving Tagged the capability to read your email, send email in your name, and copy all of your contacts. If you use the same username and password for bank accounts, you are giving anyone who breaks into Tagged.com the ability to rob you blind - and tagged.com claims you would have no recourse.
I hope my friends are equally suspicious of any “Free Service.”
Update: New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has threatened a lawsuit against tagged.com:
NEW YORK, NY (July 9, 2009) Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo today announced that he has served the social networking site Tagged.com with formal notice that his office intends to sue the company for deceptive email marketing practices and invasion of privacy. According to Cuomo’s notice of intent, Tagged devised an illegal plan to lure new members and artificially inflate traffic on its site. Consumers who visited Tagged were tricked into providing the company with access to their personal email contacts, which the company then used to send millions of promotional emails. Tagged disguised these solicitations to make them appear as if they were coming from a personal contact, when they were actually spam.