confoozled.com - junk networks

junk networks	Mon 11/29/2004 6:15 PM
Almost two years ago I wrote about SpamMotel, an e-mail forwarding service that helps you keep track of who is giving your information to spammers. EndJunk is an even better alternative. With EndJunk, aliases are in the form of alias@yourusername.endjunk.com. Instead of random combinations of letters like SpamMotel gives you, you can use descriptive aliases that will help you remember who you gave it to. Also unlike SpamMotel, you don't have to go to the EndJunk site and create an alias before you give it to someone; each alias is automatically created the first time mail is sent to it. And my favorite part... instead of just blocking an alias that starts receiving spam, with EndJunk you can actually punish those who share your information by forwarding that alias back to them! Ah, sweet revenge! So why am I writing about this today? Because with EndJunk's help I have caught another company sharing my information with spammers. The perpetrator this time is Survey Networks. I double-checked their privacy policy, and they do state that they have a "do-not-share" list to which you must opt in to prevent your address being shared. This may cover them legally, but it doesn't make it morally acceptable. The thing that especially ticks me off here is that I was an affiliate of Survey Networks. I had been advertising this company to my web site viewers and encouraging them to sign up and give them information - information which would later be given to spammers. When a company I endorse pulls something like this, it reflects on me and confoozled.com. I think it may be time for me to write my own privacy policy, to let viewers know that I will never share any information I collect with anyone without their permission, and if I ever catch any of my advertisers doing so, they will not be my advertisers anymore. (To be clear, I do not share any of my viewers' information with my advertisers either.) So, I have set my EndJunk alias for Survey Networks to forward to the administrative contact listed for their domain, and have ended my affiliate status with them. And I will continue to expose any company I catch sharing information with spammers, right here on confoozion. << prev • home • next >>
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My name is Carly, aka HelloKit. I grew up in Oregon, and now live in Rhode Island. I'm queen of IT and administrative assistant for an electrical contractor, but blogging and web design are my true passions.
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