Shoutbox

Seriously, where did you get that privacy policy quote from??

http://www.plusnetwork.com/privacy.php

Under 'Use of your personal details'.

quote:

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Originally posted by Chrissy
http://www.plusnetwork.com/privacy.php

Under 'Use of your personal details'.

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It does say "Our database of personal details (however we collect these details) is used by us, and third parties acting on our behalf, for administration and marketing related purposes." there. Nowhere does it say "We can sell..". If fact it says: "We do not rent, sell or disclose your contact details to any other third party."

The policy you are supposedly quoting from is for plusnetwork.com and plusfun.com. On Plusnetwork.com the only personal data you're giving them is what your browser is automatically sending to every site you visit, and the search queries you enter in the searchbox. The search queries, if you want to consider them personal details, are indeed used by Ask.com as a third party acting on their behalf for marketing purposes (contextual advertising). Plusfun.com (although personally not a fan of it) only links out to third party sites directly, which have their own policies.

Plus! Games (PG), where this thread was originally about, has its own privacy policy which doesn't state anything like you quoted. In fact it says:

quote:

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Originally posted by http://www.plusgames.com/welcome/privacy_policy/
PG does not sell, license, lease or otherwise disclose personal information to third parties, except as described in this Privacy Policy.

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For the "except as described" part I suggest you read the full policy yourself.


Other Yuna Software have their own privacy policies too:

• The Messenger Plus! Live software has its own privacy policy which is displayed during installation of the software. It makes no mention of sharing/selling personal information.
  
• The Messenger Plus! Toolbar privacy policy states:

  quote:

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  Originally posted by http://messengerpluslive.ourtoolbar.com/privacy/
  the Application does not collect or transmits personally identifiable information and does not monitor your personal use of the Application.

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• The Messenger Plus! website privacy policy states:

  quote:

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  Originally posted by http://www.msgpluslive.net/privacy/
  MP!L collects no personal information about who visits the site.

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Again, nowhere your quote of "We can sell.." can be found. Please don't make things up. And next time you do find something, please quote full sentences and link to the source directly so everything can stay in context.

We can sell was actually meant to be put out with the quote. Sorry about that, I apologize.

On the other hand, it says, if they want they can send us emails related to our interests to 'advertise' their products. If no information is collected why would the terms say we may give your details to XYZ?

Also, there must be more information than just that collected as you are playing with millions of Plus! users. How can they be identified?

quote:

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Originally posted by Chrissy
On the other hand, it says, if they want they can send us emails related to our interests to 'advertise' their products. If no information is collected why would the terms say we may give your details to XYZ?

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That's a good point. Neither plusnetwork.com or plusfun.com can collect emailaddresses as far as I can see, except from the third parties they link to from those sites, but those have their own policies anyway.
The policy doesn't mention how (or even if) emailaddresses are collected. These policies tend to be written by legal people who like to cover every aspect even if they aren't directly relevant to the current situation. In the sense of "if we would be collecting emailaddresses we will use them newsletters and other related matters". Also how emailaddresses would be collected is the important part, and unfortunately not mentioned. As long as it is done in an opt-in way with a method to opt-out afterwards it is perfectly fine. For example a form people can optionally fill in to subscribe to a Messenger Plus! Newsletter so they can receive news about new versions is legally a way of collecting emailadresses. Collecting user's emailaddresses without their explicit permission is something completely different and depending on how you do it illegal in several countries.

The license agreement when installing the Messenger Plus! software does refer to http://www.plusnetwork.com/privacy.php so you could interpreted it as that policy being valid for the Messenger Plus! software too (as well as for plusnetwork.com or plusfun.com). That would explain why it mentions "contact details". But I know the Plus! software isn't collecting any email addresses either. Usage statistics for Plus! are sent as unidentifiable number. Think of it as an MD5 hash on your emailaddress. It's not actually MD5, but irreversible nonetheless.

quote:

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Originally posted by Chrissy
there must be more information than just that collected as you are playing with millions of Plus! users. How can they be identified?

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Than just what? Haven't checked, but I assume PlusGames is using some kind of non-personal session ID stored in a cookie if you're playing as guest. When you decide to register it's either email address or Facebook Connect. But don't confuse plusnetwork.com/plusfun.com with PlusGames.