funsec mailing list archives
[privacy] ReputationDefender ...
From: "Rob, grandpa of Ryan, Trevor, Devon & Hannah" <rMslade () shaw ca>
Date: Sun, 18 Mar 2007 22:24:12 -0800
On another list, someone asked a question about a mailing received promoting the services of a particularly vendor. I must admit that, at first, I paid it scant attention. However, something in the posting caught my attention:
We at ReputationDefender wanted to thank you for your important and useful website regarding Internet safety.
Uh huh. They are searching and harvesting, targetting a specific market ...
Given your focus on Internet safety, we thought you or your readers might be interested in learning about our MyChild services: http://reputationdefender.com/mychild.php
Haven't looked into this part yet, but:
As our website states, ReputationDefender is dedicated to helping parents ensure that the Internet is a medium where their children can pursue their passions, apply to school, stay connected with friends and family, apply for jobs, etc.,
Obviously targetting the specific person, because what follows is quite different:
while knowing that their reputations, safety, and privacy are being protected 24 hours a day. We accomplish this goal by searching the Internet for any and all information about our clients,
I can't recall how long ago it was, but there was a flurry of these things for a while. They all purported to search out data and particularly queries about you. (In fact, that was part of their marketing spam: they'd send you a message saying that someone was asking about you. Of course, you couldn't see who was asking about you, or what they wanted to know, or who was reporting on you, or what they were saying, until you became a paying client ...)
presenting our clients with comprehensive reports of that information,
Like you couldn't search this out yourself. What's it called: vanity searching? Something like that.
and then destroying specific content, at the request of our clients, using proprietary techniques.
Now *this* part is new. Suppose I put up a notice on my Website that somebody is an extremely bad person, and we should all march on his/her house with pitchforks, and etc, etc. This person, buying into RepDef, sics them on me, and they ... what? DDoS my ISP? Poison my ISPs DNS? Break into my computer and deface my site? Now, given that I'm an extraordinarily nasty person, this may be justified. However, in the normal course of events, it could get you into a lot of legal trouble. I'd be *very* careful about shaking hands with these guys ... ====================== (quote inserted randomly by Pegasus Mailer) rslade () vcn bc ca slade () victoria tc ca rslade () computercrime org Self-respect: The secure feeling that no one, as yet, is suspicious. - H.L. Mencken Dictionary of Information Security www.syngress.com/catalog/?pid=4150 http://victoria.tc.ca/techrev/rms.htm _______________________________________________ privacy mailing list privacy () whitestar linuxbox org http://www.whitestar.linuxbox.org/mailman/listinfo/privacy
Current thread:
- [privacy] ReputationDefender ... Rob, grandpa of Ryan, Trevor, Devon & Hannah (Mar 18)
- Re: [privacy] ReputationDefender ... Valdis . Kletnieks (Mar 19)