Avoid Friendster and its clones, warns security expert:
The ‘social network’ sites present opportunities for ruthless marketroids and stalkers. Plaxo, the most notorious example Clarke cites, encouraged users to upload their entire address books to the servers.
“Every IP-address, every email, and every social-network relationship that arises appears to be entirely free of any express contractual constraints.”
The YASNSes are rife with unsetlling issues of privacy, security, and gradations between public and private.
Note, another service Phil Wolff mentioned during our nearly three-hour interview Monday is called “The Spoke” or “Spoke.”