A member asked me today, "What happens when I change my Plaxo card information?".

I get this question from time to time, and each time I hear it, it makes me realize it's not always clear to people exactly how Plaxo works and how we solve the problem of staying in touch. After all, when it comes to staying in touch, there are really two sides to the problem.

On one side, you want to stay in touch with people you know by being updated each time they change their information. Preferably, this updating occurs automatically, so you don't have to bother with manually updating entries in your own address book when your contacts change their information.

On the other side, you want to update people who know you each time YOU change own information. Presumably, you'd want to update these people automatically whenever your information changes so as to NOT require manually informing and updating these people.

The two sides work hand-in-hand, and in the case of Plaxo, are highly dependent upon your Plaxo card Privacy settings. Your address book gets updated automatically when another member changes their information because that other member has allowed you to be automatically updated. Plaxo can only update entries in your address book if that respective contact (who is also a Plaxo member) grants you access to their updated Plaxo card information. We refer to this as "Card Sharing".

I find that people generally understand that Plaxo helps solve the first part of staying in touch. People often say to me, "It's great - Plaxo helps me to keep entries in my address book updated automatically!!!". But perhaps it's less evident that Plaxo also keeps others updated automatically when you change your own information. This takes us back to the original question, "What happens when I change my Plaxo card information?".

When you update your Plaxo card information, those other Plaxo members that you have permissioned to view your Plaxo card will be automatically updated with your new information. Before Plaxo will automatically update another member:

• The person must be a Plaxo member,


• They must have permission to your Plaxo card(s) based on your Privacy settings,


• and they must know you (ie: have you in their address book)

The final thing to understand is how your Privacy settings affect who will be automatically updated.

• If your Privacy Setting is set to "Members", you will automatically update any other Plaxo members who know you (ie: have you in their own Plaxo address book). The Plaxo member being updated does not need to be in your own address book
  
• If your Privacy Setting is set to "Contacts", you will automatically update other Plaxo members who know you (ie: also have you in their own Plaxo address book) if the member is ALSO in your own Plaxo address book.
  
• If your Privacy Setting is set to "Private", you will only automatically update those Plaxo members who you have previously sent your Plaxo card to directly (ie: you sent them an update request message).
  

Note: a greater explanation of Plaxo Privacy settings is available here:

Hopefully this sheds greater light on how Plaxo works and how we help solve the problem of staying in touch. If you have any further questions, please let me know.

'till next time,

Stacy Martin
Plaxo Privacy Officer
privacy @t plaxo.com