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Stealth ninja connect.me service wants your personal details

Thousands sign up without knowing what it is
Thu Mar 10 2011, 13:23

A MYSTERIOUS 'SERVICE' called "connect.me" is asking people for their account information on Facebook and Twitter, and people are signing up to it even though nobody knows what it actually does.

A connect.me third-party app probably has thousands of people already signed up. A message is going around that reads "reserve your connect.me username", together with a link. If you click on the link, the connect.me service will ask to connect to your account.

The trouble is that nobody knows what they are connecting to, although there is a suggestion it is some kind of social notworking operation.

If you check out the connect.me website, all you are presented with is a space where you are supposed to reserve a username and connect your Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn accounts.

Sophos insecurity expert Graham Cluley said on his blog post about connect.me at Sophos that he is concerned that people are signing up to something in complete ignorance.

He asked, "Why should I trust these guys and grant them permission to post to my Twitter or Facebook pages? I don't even know what their product is supposed to be!"

In a description connect.me describes itself as two parts context, one part curation, one part social graph, dash of tiger blood - stir into winning. A nice Charlie Sheen reference, but it is also more than a touch weird.

Ironically, part of the message on the connect.me website reads, "We believe privacy, control, and portability are requirements, not features. And we believe there is a better way to connect you to businesses without spying on your data."

Even if that's so, this ninja stealth technique of luring people into revealing their personal information to connect.me might be effective, but it's not really the best way to start. µ

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Comments
Media Whore

@Hacker Wanted in Jobs Listing

Your definition of "hacker" is wrong. That most likely means they are looking for people who can "hack on code" to make something fresh/unique.

Read a dictionary. Jeez.

posted by : anon, 10 March 2011 Complain about this comment
Hacker Wanted in Jobs Listing

http://connect.me/co/jobs

"...we're always interested to hear from talented hackers."

That right there says it all.

posted by : asis, 10 March 2011 Complain about this comment
Rings a bell

It sounds pretty similar to http://xkcd.com/792/

posted by : raskolnikov, 10 March 2011 Complain about this comment
Or...

Where are we going, and why are we in this hand-basket?

posted by : YuppieScum, 10 March 2011 Complain about this comment
Or as people say in this wrecked country...

I don't know where I'm going, but I'll get there VERY quickly

posted by : zio winston, 10 March 2011 Complain about this comment
Queue

Me: Hey, this is a long queue.
You: It sure is. Best stand behind me before you lose your spot.

Me: Oh, alright. What are we waiting for?
You: I have no idea but with this many people it has to be good.

Me: You're right. I best call me mate to come down as well.

posted by : Someone Special, 10 March 2011 Complain about this comment
Its a social experiment is what it is

Like the Stanford prison experiment, or the Milgram experiment.

What the connect.me experiment (as we sociologists will one day call it) has proved is that some people will sign up to *anything*, even without knowing what it is.

(Early versions apparently followed up every email, post or tweet the user made with one saying "disregard that, I suck cocks" but humans rejected it. So now it just rapes all your bank accounts.)

HTH.

posted by : Anonymous Coward, 10 March 2011 Complain about this comment
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