Path CEO Says He's Sorry

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I am always leery of people that are only sorry after being busted. I'm not saying that I don't believe this guy, I've just never heard of "helping users find their friends" by taking their entire address book without permission. It stands to reason that I don't need help finding the people in my address book. And what about all the friends and family members in those address books had their personal info used by a company they've never even heard of?

"We don’t want to connect you with just anyone on Path,” Morin says. “Without the contact list information, some of these features just don’t work.” The address book data, Morin says, is used in only three ways. “We give you a list of suggested friends to connect with who are already on Path. We notify you when other friends of yours join Path.” And the third reason speaks to the very uniqueness of Path itself — its “Friend Rank” algorithm. “We used the data for the sake of simplicity,” Morin tells me. “Any time you build a network, you have to help users find their friends. And that entire experience is designed to suggest people who you’re close to.” In other words, it’s the whole point of the app itself.
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Sorry my ass, all these mobile companies know that any feature that starts reading your personal info should be opt-in only, meaning "hey we're gonna pull this and this info from your phone to make this feature work better, do you want us to do that? Y/N" is it really that hard?
But noooo its only when you're caught you play the sorry game, pathetic. At least on android you get an idea on what permissions an app requests before you install it.
 
I know and will readily admit that I am getting older and that I probably am not in the best of moods today for no particular reason at all. But why does this guy, Dave Morin, look every bit of 15 friggin' years old to me? Did he start shaving like--last Wednesday? Argh-h-h-h-hhhhh!

And, too, it is probably because deep down inside I am an old curmudgeon, and enjoy it, that I can recall so clearly when the only "social media" I needed was someone's email address. Usually, I had a "list of friends" lying on my desk somewhere, or else simply memorized, and my "social friends and I" would simply email comments, witty comments, I might add, back and forth, and even attach the occasional picture and whatnot.

Sample correspondence from The TIme Before Social Media:

WaltC: Hey, where have you been hidin, jackass?

Social Friend: Shut up. Where are you at?

WaltC: Behind the at--you idiotic, pompous, preening, soon-to-be-posthumous excretion of Mao Tse Tung's left cancer-ridden nipple!

Social Friend: Cut the shite, sprite. I bought a Mac today. Image attached. Take a look, twerp. I knew you would never believe it--so pic. Enjoy.

**Of course then I'd actually have to *shriek* "open the attachment" *gasp, choke!*, and of course there was a glorious technicolor shot of a chocolate-brown, three-foot-high mound of (real) Horse Manure (suitably steaming in the early morning dawn.) With the word HaH! scrawled in red magic marker.

Ah...yep, seems to me we got along fine without Mr. buy-me-a-razor-next-Christmas Dave Morin and his fancy-pants, "social media" monstrosity, Path. And yep, his apology just makes it all the more obvious that just about everything about this "path" is paved with good intentions...if ya' know what I mean...
 
They only say sorry after they get caught... I call a giant pile of bullshit on their sorry. If they weren't discovered they'd still be happily doing it. I don't use Path, and I certainly won't be doing so now, irregardless of any opt-in or opt-out features they may add. You get one chance at honesty when it comes to my personal data and then I'm forever not interested.
 
Further to my comment above... you can't tell me that at some stage during the development process the question of ethics didn't come up with regards to taking the users address books and storing them on their servers, without informing the user.

If it did come up then they chose to ignore it. If it didn't come up then why would you ever trust them as clearly they're not interested in your privacy.

Either way it's a titanic-sized fail.
 
Well, even if it was buried in the ToS somewhere (it wasn't), that entitles you to MY information. Did the 84 people on my contact list (complete with names, e-mail addy, home address, cell phone numbers and photo) give consent to them storing and using their information? :eek:
 
Cobalt35 said:
Further to my comment above... you can't tell me that at some stage during the development process the question of ethics didn't come up with regards to taking the users address books and storing them on their servers, without informing the user.

If it did come up then they chose to ignore it. If it didn't come up then why would you ever trust them as clearly they're not interested in your privacy.

Either way it's a titanic-sized fail.
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Can't believe this guy, the system is so rotten that writing and distributing Malware or trogens is perfectly legal, in their eyes as long as you say your sorry, when your caught.
 
Throw this guy in jail. What he did is a crime (I sure as **** hope) with victims.

It might make FB straighten up and fly a little righter, too.
 
The real issue is why apple doesn't protect the address book by default... oh yeah because apple considers its customers chattel. Spoken from someone who has a iphone and an air. It's amazing what OSX sends back to apple as well...
 
Aluisious said:
Isn't that pretty close to what Facebook does anyway?
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+1

What's with all the nerd rage? Basically the path saved you the time of importing your data. It just didn't ask you first. So yes that was bad, but it's not using it like Google and Facebook to share with advertising companies it's just using it iternally.

Give the nerd rage up. Go yell at Google and Facebook!
 
Steve, he doesn't care if you or anyone for that matter, does not believe in his sincerity. Its minimalist damage control...

1) do something for as long as possible
2) get caught
3) fake apology
4) profit from illegal activities if no legal actions were used. Which who knows if any will happen.
 
Typical. Just do it and if they get caught apologize, then right back to doing it some more.
 
WaltC said:
I know and will readily admit that I am getting older and that I probably am not in the best of moods today for no particular reason at all. But why does this guy, Dave Morin, look every bit of 15 friggin' years old to me? Did he start shaving like--last Wednesday? Argh-h-h-h-hhhhh!

And, too, it is probably because deep down inside I am an old curmudgeon, and enjoy it, that I can recall so clearly when the only "social media" I needed was someone's email address. Usually, I had a "list of friends" lying on my desk somewhere, or else simply memorized, and my "social friends and I" would simply email comments, witty comments, I might add, back and forth, and even attach the occasional picture and whatnot.

Sample correspondence from The TIme Before Social Media:

WaltC: Hey, where have you been hidin, jackass?

Social Friend: Shut up. Where are you at?

WaltC: Behind the at--you idiotic, pompous, preening, soon-to-be-posthumous excretion of Mao Tse Tung's left cancer-ridden nipple!

Social Friend: Cut the shite, sprite. I bought a Mac today. Image attached. Take a look, twerp. I knew you would never believe it--so pic. Enjoy.

**Of course then I'd actually have to *shriek* "open the attachment" *gasp, choke!*, and of course there was a glorious technicolor shot of a chocolate-brown, three-foot-high mound of (real) Horse Manure (suitably steaming in the early morning dawn.) With the word HaH! scrawled in red magic marker.

Ah...yep, seems to me we got along fine without Mr. buy-me-a-razor-next-Christmas Dave Morin and his fancy-pants, "social media" monstrosity, Path. And yep, his apology just makes it all the more obvious that just about everything about this "path" is paved with good intentions...if ya' know what I mean...
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That's all pretty quaint Gramps, but here in the 21st century we like companies to organize our social lives for us.
 
Guess this is how my Viber app always knows when someone else installs the program...
 
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