So I joined MySpace about a week ago and was already annoyed at the way they sent me my password over email. But then, just a few days later, I got an email with my first MySpace message / friend request from someone named Riley whose profile picture is a girl in a swimsuit. Originally, her (or his?) profile showed the same city and state that I live in, though now it’s been changed to Greenville, Ohio. Here’s the text of the message:
Tag: security
MySpace: Emails My Password But Says “Keep It Secret. Keep It Safe.”
Last month I picked on search engine Mahalo as an example of a company emailing its customers passwords. I mentioned how having your password floating around openly on mail servers can defeat the purpose of having a password in the first place. Mahalo’s founder and CEO, Jason Calacanis, joined the discussion and some good thoughts were shared from both sides of the issue.
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Bad Form: Companies Still Send Passwords via Email
Let’s face it; we all reuse the same password for login accounts all over the Internet. At best, some of us create a few passwords through which we rotate.
So why is it that some companies still insist on sending me my password via email right after I create my online account? The reason I have a password in the first place is so that it doesn’t flow back and forth openly in cyberspace only to reside peacefully on multiple mail servers.
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How Much Is All Your Email Worth? Answer: $50
This past week a national cable and high-speed Internet provider by the name of Charter Communications accidentally deleted all the contents of 14,000 active email accounts. A spokeswoman for the company explained that there is no way for them to retrieve anything that was erased. The spokeswoman offered this explanation and apology:
“We really are sincerely sorry for having had this happen and do apologize to all those folks who were affected by the error… During this maintenance we erroneously deleted active accounts along with the others. It’s never happened before. They are taking steps to make sure it never happens again.”
Data Privacy & Portability: Who owns what? Who can see what?
The privacy and portability of your online data may become more of an issue in 2008. News is out today of a Federal case which will investigate whether the use of a false identity could be considered Internet fraud under federal statutes. This was originally triggered by the October 2006 case in which a 13-year-old named Megan Meier committed suicide after receiving “cruel” messages on MySpace (messages allegedly received from the mother of a school rival who was posing as a 16-year-old boy).
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Pet Peeve: Why do companies still send me my password through email?
Let’s face it; we all reuse the same password for login accounts all over the Internet. At best, some of us create a few passwords through which we rotate. So why is it that some companies still insist on sending me my password via email right after I create my online account? The reason I have a password in the first place is so that it doesn’t flow back and forth openly in cyberspace only to reside peacefully on multiple mail servers.
Read More “Pet Peeve: Why do companies still send me my password through email?” »