Friends don't let friends use Frienditto.

[poltr1]

Been hearing a lot of buzz about Frienditto in the past several hours. On the surface, Frienditto appears to be a benign internet archive service. Where it really gets insiduous is that when people post restricted entries (such as a friends-locked LJ post) and provide Frienditto with their LJ password, it allegedly doesn't do the honorable thing and discard the password. Instead, it hangs on to it, uses it to riffle through a person's LJ account, and can see other people's friends-locked posts. This is a serious breach of confidentiality. Whether or not it actually does this is not known. But the potential for this is enough for me to raise the red flag. Especially considering allegations that Frienditto is affiliated with ljdrama.org.

While nothing on the internet is 100% private, people should do whatever they can to be in integrity with the trust that other people have given them.

My rule on friends-only posts: Whatever is said here stays here. Occasionally, people (including myself) slip up and make references to, or quote from, other people's friends-only posts. Depending on the intention, the amount quoted or referenced, and the frequency, my response would be anywhere from forgiveness to indignation.

And if you have used Frienditto, notify me and I will take appropriate action.

I got the scoop from redaxe, jslove, and bikergeek.

Spread the word.

Comments

If you don't want people ot know

[celticferret.livejournal.com]

I did apas and zines for several years. If you don't want people to know about it, don't publish or put it on the net.

I spend a lot of time in health news groups because I know somebody has been there before me and I can learn, and maybe help others down the road.

There are numerous things you can find out about me on the net if you wnat to google my name and wade through close to 10 yrs worth of posts. You could probably skip all the ferret, dog, mink and rabbit ones.

I've got things I don't want open for discussion about me. I'm pretty frank about many things, but not all things.

KG

Re: If you don't want people ot know

[poltr1]

Um... what makes you think I don't already know this? "Internet privacy" has been an oxymoron for some time now.

As you're probably aware, the stuff that I'll mark friends-only usually pertains to my health, my job (or lack thereof), strong language (yes, I cuss -- it's every programmer's second language), religion, politics, future travel plans, or adult topics (sex, drugs, rock-and-roll, y'know?). These are things I'll discuss with close friends or the next tier down, but not with complete strangers, mere acquaintances, or most co-workers.

If someone was really determined to get the 411 on me, there's a lot out there. I've got stuff on the Web that goes back 20 years -- back before the days of the Web. Back then, all we had was telnet, ftp, mail, and news. I didn't expect that someone would have the foresight to archive everything back then, and make it available today via Google Groups. (I'm embarrased to say that I used one of my "magic phrases" in one version of my signature file back then. In retrospect, I should have left that out.)

Oh yeah -- if someone were to look up my last name on Google, they'd get a bunch of Italian websites featuring furniture. And some of the things I've contributed to the online super-community.