Plaxo's Personal Card: Plaxo's Approach to Handling Abuse

[09.22.04] Plaxo's Approach to Handling Abuse

From the desk of the Privacy Officer�

Given the recent discussion on Plaxo�s Yahoo! Group, I'd like to take the opportunity to reiterate Plaxo's approach for identifying and handling potential abusers of the Plaxo Service. We've found our current approach to be successful in the past and we continue to refine and improve the process as time goes along.

I'd also like to provide a few comments to Plaxo members on proper Plaxo etiquette and usage. And finally, I'd like to provide a few suggestions on how you can help us to ensure the integrity of the Plaxo Service.

Plaxo Terms of Service:
Plaxo is intended for the personal usage of Plaxo members to update and maintain their address book information with known contacts and business associates. When a member joins Plaxo, they agree to the Plaxo Terms of Service, which in part states:

You may not use the Software, Site or Services to send unsolicited, promotional mass electronic e-mail messages or notifications to one or more recipients or systems (known as "spamming"). Any promotional electronic messages, which are sent in an unsolicited manner to 10 or more recipients, or any series of unsolicited promotional electronic messages to a single user, will be considered as spamming. Spamming also includes (i) sending messages to distribution lists, newsgroup aliases, or group aliases, and (ii) sending messages to recipients who do not know you or who are unlikely to recognize you as a known contact.

You may not use the Software, Site or Services to upload, post, e-mail, otherwise transmit, or post links to: (i) any unsolicited or unauthorized advertising or promotional materials; or (ii) content which is harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, tortious, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, pornographic, libelous, invasive of privacy or publicity rights, hateful, or racially, sexually, ethnically or otherwise objectionable.

Identifying and Handling Abuse:
Our Abuse Department monitors and investigates the Plaxo activity of accounts that show characteristics of potential abuse, including aspects such as:

exceptionally large number of contacts being managed,

excessive number of Update Requests messages being sent,

and significant number of abuse reports and/or opt-out responses being received.

We may take steps to ensure the Plaxo member is unable to send further messages through Plaxo to the recipient filing the abuse report, as well as request on behalf of the recipient that they be removed from the Plaxo member's local address book. We may also send a friendly reminder to the Plaxo member regarding the proper usage and etiquette of Plaxo before reenabling their account. But should our investigation find an obvious violation of our Terms of Service, we will remove the user from Plaxo immediately.

Plaxo Etiquette and Usage:
In general, we recommend to all Plaxo members they only send Update Requests through Plaxo to contacts they truly know and wish to stay in touch with. Sending messages to recipients who are unlikely to recognize the Plaxo member as a known contact may be viewed as an unwelcomed intrusion by the recipients and lead them to filing an Abuse Report against the Plaxo member. A significant number of abuse reports for the same Plaxo member may result in the removal of the member from the Plaxo Service.

In addition, we also encourage members to personalize their Update Request messages before sending them to their contacts through Plaxo. As a rule of thumb, the message content included within Update Request messages may include some business reference or updated news. But this content should not change the tone of the message as to make it commercial in nature, nor overshadow the primary purpose of the Update Request message, which is to stay in touch with the contact.

Reporting Abuse:
Members and non-members can help to ensure the integrity of Plaxo by reporting suspected abuse to our Plaxo Abuse Department. Users may contact our Abuse Department at abuse@plaxo.com. All reports will be investigated and followed up on.

I hope this helps to provide a better understanding of Plaxo's position and approach. If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions regarding our policies, please let me know.

�til next time.

Stacy Martin
Plaxo Privacy Officer
privacy @t plaxo.com

Posted by Stacy Martin at September 22, 2004 @ 06:55 PM | permalink

From the desk of the Privacy Officer� Given the recent discussion on Plaxo�s Yahoo! Group, I'd like to take the opportunity to reiterate Plaxo's approach for identifying and handling potential abusers of the Plaxo Service. We've found our current approach to be successful in the past and we continue to refine and improve the process as time goes along. I'd also like to provide a few comments to Plaxo members on proper Plaxo etiquette and usage. And finally, I'd like to provide a few suggestions on how you can help us to ensure the integrity of the Plaxo Service. Plaxo Terms of Service: Plaxo is intended for the personal usage of Plaxo members to update and maintain their address book information with known contacts and business associates. When a member joins Plaxo, they agree to the Plaxo Terms of Service, which in part states:

You may not use the Software, Site or Services to send unsolicited, promotional mass electronic e-mail messages or notifications to one or more recipients or systems (known as "spamming"). Any promotional electronic messages, which are sent in an unsolicited manner to 10 or more recipients, or any series of unsolicited promotional electronic messages to a single user, will be considered as spamming. Spamming also includes (i) sending messages to distribution lists, newsgroup aliases, or group aliases, and (ii) sending messages to recipients who do not know you or who are unlikely to recognize you as a known contact.
You may not use the Software, Site or Services to upload, post, e-mail, otherwise transmit, or post links to: (i) any unsolicited or unauthorized advertising or promotional materials; or (ii) content which is harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, tortious, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, pornographic, libelous, invasive of privacy or publicity rights, hateful, or racially, sexually, ethnically or otherwise objectionable.

Identifying and Handling Abuse: Our Abuse Department monitors and investigates the Plaxo activity of accounts that show characteristics of potential abuse, including aspects such as:

exceptionally large number of contacts being managed,
excessive number of Update Requests messages being sent,
and significant number of abuse reports and/or opt-out responses being received.

When our Abuse Department receives an abuse report, we may temporarily disable the member's account while we further investigate. We may also attempt to contact the member in order to better determine the circumstances surrounding the abuse report. In many cases the abuse is unintentional or the result of the recipient forgetting how they may know the Plaxo member. We may take steps to ensure the Plaxo member is unable to send further messages through Plaxo to the recipient filing the abuse report, as well as request on behalf of the recipient that they be removed from the Plaxo member's local address book. We may also send a friendly reminder to the Plaxo member regarding the proper usage and etiquette of Plaxo before reenabling their account. But should our investigation find an obvious violation of our Terms of Service, we will remove the user from Plaxo immediately. Plaxo Etiquette and Usage: In general, we recommend to all Plaxo members they only send Update Requests through Plaxo to contacts they truly know and wish to stay in touch with. Sending messages to recipients who are unlikely to recognize the Plaxo member as a known contact may be viewed as an unwelcomed intrusion by the recipients and lead them to filing an Abuse Report against the Plaxo member. A significant number of abuse reports for the same Plaxo member may result in the removal of the member from the Plaxo Service. In addition, we also encourage members to personalize their Update Request messages before sending them to their contacts through Plaxo. As a rule of thumb, the message content included within Update Request messages may include some business reference or updated news. But this content should not change the tone of the message as to make it commercial in nature, nor overshadow the primary purpose of the Update Request message, which is to stay in touch with the contact. Reporting Abuse: Members and non-members can help to ensure the integrity of Plaxo by reporting suspected abuse to our Plaxo Abuse Department. Users may contact our Abuse Department at abuse@plaxo.com. All reports will be investigated and followed up on. I hope this helps to provide a better understanding of Plaxo's position and approach. If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions regarding our policies, please let me know. �til next time. Stacy Martin Plaxo Privacy Officer privacy @t plaxo.com