Shoutbox

It does invade the privacy of people

quote:

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Originally posted by Jimbodude
then it will show you who your contact is talking to(their nickname and email)

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Which is exactly why this IS a MAJOR invasion of privacy!

Even only showing the nickname is actually an invasion of privacy of your contacts btw.

Everything you do 'publically' in Messenger (screenname, status, etc) is for your contacts eyes only.

If I want some stranger to know if I'm online or not, I would have add that stranger to my contactlist in the first place.

Even more breaching my privacy is that that stranger would even know my email address....

Please either remove that script or change it so it at least doesn't show the email.

As such this script has been reported.

Cookie

Not that I agree with either side but as far as I understood the other people they think that if you agree to show your contact's name and email.. it's not invasion of privacy.

But as you stated this might be for the person whose e-mail is shown. So maybe they should include a clause in the license that you would only use it if the people in your contact list agree that their email "could" be seen by anyone else in that list.

This is different than sending someonee a script that'll do the same thing but without the chat messages.. thus getting the contact's friends emails without even your contact knowing what you're doing.

Nobody who install such a script is going to bother and ask each and everyone on his contactlist for his/her confirmation.

And even if they did, then everybody need to give their permission, since such scripts do not check if that specific contact who you are showing the email of has given his/her permission...

Moreover, the people who want and use such scripts are quite often not even aware of privacy issues and just unknowing youngsters (no offense Chris4). I don't care if they make their email public to everyone and recieve spam and stuff, but I do care about my email which I gave to people in trust.

It also wouldn't be the first time that someone says "I promise I don't give out your email address" and yet run stuff like this script or run by accident a dodgy program/virus which harvests emails on their computer and mailbox, etc...


There is absolutely no difference between a script like this or a real spy script. Only that it is harder to let people understand that such a script like this is a big privacy invasion too...

quote:

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Originally posted by Deco
as I understood the other people they think that if you agree to show your contact's name and email.. it's not invasion of privacy.

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It doesn't matter what they think tbh. It IS an invasion of privacy... As I said, I do not want my email shown by my contacts to other people, it is as simple as that and this should, quite frankly, even not be a discussion but logical common (privacy) sense.

And this rant is mostly about emails, but even for a screen name and even a status this goes just the same.

Hmmm... not sure I 100% agree, for it to invade anyone's privacy the script has to be installed without the persons knowledge, and at that point, the person presumably has access to the "victims" pc, so they could look at their contacts anyway.

That said, it's a fair point, so I updated the script so that it does this:



The only quibble now is whether showing other peoples e-mails is an invasion of privacy, but since the person is DEFINITELY knowingly doing it, it's equivalent to just manually typing it anyway.  But just to make sure I also made it turn off sending of e-mails by default, it has to be manually enabled through the script menu everytime the script is run.

If there's any other way you think I could improve it to keep it legit, please feel free to let me know.

EDIT:  I suppose I could make it send a message to all the other chat windows telling them their stupid contact just sent out their e-mail, but that might be a bit much...


BTW, the email in that alert is my old one I use for testing and my real one is in my profile anyway, so please don't bother to add that.

I'm with cookie about this, this script invades the privacy of everyone that the person is currently talking to when the script sends the list.

Why would you want to know who your contact is talking to anyway? Just ask!

If anyone on my list would have this script I would block him/her.

quote:

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Originally posted by alexp2_ad
for it to invade anyone's privacy the script has to be installed without the persons knowledge, and at that point, the person presumably has access to the "victims" pc, so they could look at their contacts anyway.

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You completely miss the point I'm afraid...

Your script is installed and used without permission from the people who you are showing info from to strangers.

Also, privacy issues don't begin or end with "having access to a PC". In this case having access to a pc has got nothing todo with it. Also, if something or someone doesn't have access to a PC, it doesn't mean it automatically is not an invasion of privacy anymore.

quote:

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Originally posted by alexp2_ad
but since the person is DEFINITELY knowingly doing it, it's equivalent to just manually typing it anyway.

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Absolutely and utterly no.

eg: I do NOT know if my contact is using this script to show MY email to one of HIS contacts.


If one of my contacts installed and use this script, then my email, my screen name, etc is shown to one of his contacts, which is a stranger to me who has no bussiness in what my email, screen name or whatever else is.

- Showing the email shouldn't be an option, it should never be shown.
- Even a screen name is private to your contacts, and isn't meant for the contacts of your contact.
- Such a script should never have been released here in the first place, imo, sorry


To put it simply: your script is the exact equivalent of me posting your email address to anybody who request it. Did you gave your permission to me that I could send your email? No...

Fine, removed.

Well Cookie you have to consider that some people (if not most people) don't really care if their email is shown in a "Who-are-you-talking-to-script". Not only that but also that some people might actually want to use this script for some odd reason.

Even though I wouldn't use it and wouldn't want my email given away.. I wouldn't take out the script just because I don't think along the lines of it's creator.

I can totally understand taking out the script when it's something like a trojan and has functions that would harm the person's computer.. but taking out this one just feels harsh to me.

Just my opinion anyway

Erm, I don't know what to say. It was fine till the other day .

I only use the script with my girlfriend so we can quickly check who each other are talking to. We both have no problems with that.

I only wanted it for private use (only for myself) when I first asked for someone to make it. I see Cookie's point and it's fair enough, I agree.

I have also removed the script.

Thanks again, alexp2_ad.

I suppose it's the same as you hiding you email on these forums for example, only to have someone else ask one of your buddies for it

I agree that it should never have been posted, even if someone had already made a version for their own private use... Thats on their heads and they will suffer the consequences from their contacts