Warning - Click On An Ad In An SSN Email, Your Entire Contact Info Sent To Advertiser
Did you know that?
Those trade magazine emails you get? When you click on an ad, not only does it record that you did it, it triggers your complete contact information, including email, name, company and job title to be sent to the advertiser. More than you were likely expecting for?
Indeed, SSN promotes this as lead generation:
I am quite sure SSN is not alone. Multiple manufacturers have told me that this occurs with other trade magazines, though this is the first time I found confirmation directly from the magazine itself.
This is not something that any mainstream website, like Google, Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn does.
But the next time you cannot figure out why your are being emailed by some random manufacturer, now you know.
What do you think? Vote in the poll:
You should post a tutorial on building "disposable" email addresses. You can do this with gmail and other providers. Don't just use your regular business email for everything you sign up for, use a custom one so you can track where those surprise emails come from.
And remember, if you're getting something for free, you're not the customer, you're the product.
I use Ghostery to give me granular control over what trackers are blocked per site.
More work but there are some sites that have useful info and are very bad actors.
Phil Schaadt
03/03/14 12:36am
Some of the huge hosting sites (like GoDaddy, which I use) allow for 'catch-all' email addressing. This means that emails sent to literally anything@'mydomain'.com reaches me at my main account.
Using this functionality, I don't need mutiple addresses - but I still get the same benefit mentioned above of being able to track where anyone sending me unsolicited junk got my pertinents and such.
SSN? Like the graphic notice that when allowed has no graphic. Similar to this email???
Ghostery? Hadn't heard of it. Til now. Did a search |Ghostery review| (my normal search |item plus review| then problem, then fix if the first warrants them) Scanning through was a mention of NoScript as similar. Which I've been using for a long while. That and Ad Block plus. More searches and then |NoSript vs Ghostery|. Bottom line for me, Like a lot of tools, adding another may help or may hinder. I feel comfortable with what I have. So I'm not ready to trial and change.
From ghostery reviews:
https://purplebox.ghostery.com/post/1016023994
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghostery
http://blog.privacychoice.org/2010/03/04/credibility-gap-what-does-ghostery-really-see/
Ohh Noo. Who bought whom when?
http://blog.privacychoice.org/2013/05/21/privacychoice-avg/ <----- AVG???
Don't use 're'active anti virus software. Way too much overhead. I have an arsenal of tools if I suspect any problems.
Email Spam solutions: Multiple email addies, while a pain sometimes, helps manage Spam. That and the ISP spam blocker that comes with. Currently? Search |roaring penguin|
Else most I see in traps 'appears' to be 'Russian'. Literally!
No luck searching parts or all of this:
"Talk back with S.A.S.S. - Slammers against Spammers... and get the Junk out of the Trunk!" Something more definitive?
...Cal
John, are you following a link to the ssn newswire from your inbox or logged in as a member when browsing ssn for that to happen? Curious as to how they are obtaining your email.
03/06/14 10:05pm
Easy fix is to not enter this info into your mail client, or even easier, copy the link, then just paste that link into a browser.
03/07/14 12:08am
John, if the link contains all of the data prior to you clicking the link, then they ALREADY have your data and could already share it. How is clicking it going to further add more data?
03/07/14 01:49am
John, I'm unaware what/who SSN is, so this might be funny or not. Do they use pics of muscle freaks or hot chicks to lure your clicks?
03/07/14 02:01am
Rukmini, if the click through is gathering your info other than the email address, which is evident that it has it, then not offering that data is my offering.
But, that isn't the case, as John pointed out more recently. They ALREADY have all of your info. The click doesn't GATHER data, which is what I thought the OP meant. It is actually already known what your info is, but that by clicking the link, you are giving permission for the sender to now share your info with their partners.
I guess I don't see the big deal.
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