>Does Path actually say "We're going to invite all your friends via SMS", even in fine print?
Should it? More importantly, will anyone download the app in the first place if it did?
No one -- in their right minds -- would suddenly want to share (non-existent) photos with all their contacts. Seems like an odd way to say "We're going to invite all your friends via SMS". Your address book doesn't consist primarily of your Twitter followers. It doesn't matter if they intended it to be a feature; someone at the company should have raised a Big Red Flag and made any such SMS feature explicitly opt-in-only. With a big fonts, high-contrast colors, dancing bananas or whatever else you can use to grab attention to that fact.
"I think it's be more appropriate if the box bore a great red label: 'WARNING: LARK'S VOMIT!!!’"
— "Our sales would plummet!”
— "Well why don't you move into more conventional areas of confectionary??!!"
Without addressing the opt-in point, which I agree with...
You're also assuming there is no "continue without doing this" button, which of course, I was assuming there would be...
Many users just mash on the "next" button on app intro screens. Again, it's all just speculation until someone takes the time to start researching and documenting the facts instead of just yelling "KILL IT"! :/
I agree, we're just all shooting the breeze here until we get a proper word from Path, and/or a journalist does a proper investigation into what exactly did happen.
I'm not unsympathetic when someone says "oh, I didn't read that bit" (I'm guilty of that too), but surely they have usability experts who would have warned them about it. The original author is technically inclined to make an informed decision. That's a big deal to me. That tells me, they never gave the guy any settings options to begin with or hid it in an obscure panel.
What's worse, according to the author, texts were sent possibly after he uninstalled the app. Which means they still keep the data!
Classy. Interning at a company and having not been there for 9 months (see above) obviously counts for nothing.
For what it's worth, I disagree with Path and Me1000's arguments. Doesn't mean us here at HN should be attacking him or ignoring his points because of that, nor does it mean that doxing him is acceptable.
No one -- in their right minds -- would suddenly want to share (non-existent) photos with all their contacts. Seems like an odd way to say "We're going to invite all your friends via SMS". Your address book doesn't consist primarily of your Twitter followers. It doesn't matter if they intended it to be a feature; someone at the company should have raised a Big Red Flag and made any such SMS feature explicitly opt-in-only. With a big fonts, high-contrast colors, dancing bananas or whatever else you can use to grab attention to that fact.
This is an order of magnitude beyond sleazy.