There's a lot of hubbub over Rapleaf, a company that datamines email addresses from MySpace, Facebook, and other places. They are "supposed" to be about reputation monitoring (kind of like eBay's seller and buyer reputation) but they are also affiliated with another company, Trustfuse, that sells aggregate data but not emails. You can view a sample of a typical Trustfuse-Rapleaf report here (PDF). After they got spanked by the blogosphere, they altered their privacy policy and softened the language regarding the sale of data, but I suspect at this point the damage is done. They have the following info regarding removing your profile on their privacy page:
Opt-Out
An individual may request information taken down for a given email address by emailing support@rapleaf.com.
Additional, individuals can elect to have their information opted-out from Rapleaf’s database by following these steps:
1. Email opt-out@rapleaf.com from the email address requesting to opt-out. Rapleaf will then email back an opt-out form to confirm the email address.
2. Print out this customized opt-out form, fill it out, and mail it to the following postal address:
Rapleaf
Attn: Opt-Out Request
657 Mission Street, Suite 600
San Francisco, CA 94105Rapleaf will then quickly follow up with a confirmation email. All relevant information pertaining to this opted-out email address will also be removed.
Will there attempts at mollification be enough? Will Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn and the other networks that Rapleaf uses close of their API (Application Programming Interface) to Rapleaf and Trustfuse, denying them access to the data that makes them run?
After the outrage, I suspect they'll have a way to remove yourself online as well. The way they set it up makes it difficult enough to leave that most people won't bother. They need to have a way to opt-out via email - the reality of the process as set up actually serves to discourage someone from completing the process, and at worst, delivers Rapleaf your physical address as well. They would be best served by taking a proactive and conciliatory approach to this boondoggle, quickly.
4 responses so far ↓
1 Little World of Kx // Sep 5, 2007 at 11:34 pm
2 Russell // Sep 6, 2007 at 1:16 am
Their search service upscoop will also send an e-mail to your entire contact list when you login. I definitely think they are crossing the line with this spam service they have created.
3 rzklkng // Sep 6, 2007 at 7:22 am
Agreed, Russell. The problem with these marketing arrangements, both online and off, is that they all require an opt-out status to remove yourself. If we are working on building social networks and building trust and reputation, it needs to be opt-in.
4 Deanna Hoak // Sep 7, 2007 at 6:19 am
Well, the crappy thing is that even though they’ll now delete your information with an e-mail request, many people can’t reply from the e-mail they scraped–either because it’s an old one, or one set up strictly for anonymity (like LJ’s). I don’t have a way to opt out with them.
5 Ruth Charles // Sep 8, 2007 at 9:52 am
Their opt-out is hardly great. Once I became aware of what they were doing, and the multiple profiles they had created for me I asked them to delete the data they had gathered on me permanently. They had done this without my knowledge or consent for their own commercial purposes. Further, they had retrieved data from social networking sites in direct contravention of their terms and conditions. This is little more than theft. This sort of data mining is illegal in the UK & EU where I reside.
They tell me that my data has been removed from ‘public’ searches. This goes some way towards resolving the problem, but not all the way. They have not confirmed that they have actually deleted any personal data, nor that this will not be sold on through their Trustfuse operation.
It is ironic that a company that claimed it was all about rating reputations is behaving in this way. Their reputation is in tatters, and I hope that the people who were foolish enough to put money into this fly-by-night operation realise what a serious mistake they have made and pull the plug on the whole operation.
6 Rapleaf Blog // Dec 22, 2007 at 8:07 pm
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