Lost Cousins newsletter

[JBee]

http://lostcousins.com/newsletters/latest.htm

[Kit]

Be careful if you are a member of lostcousins. In this newsletter David, the founder, states he used members email addresses to check their amazon wishlists. he hadn't set his own privacy details and wanted to see if he was the only one.

It is a breach of privacy and a misuse of members details and is against their own privacy policy.

[Velma Dinkley]

I can't understand why Amazon has to figure in a genealogy website newsletter anyway!! Apart from an early success, I haven't found LC particularly useful. Never paid a membership either - just used free periods to try to search.

[Kit]

He does things like that, how to save money on your bills etc.

I've not found the site useful either, although I had lived in hope. I've cancelled my free membership. I complained about the breach of privacy and he wrote a rather rude reply to me and refused to cancel my accounts. I replied again and insisted on the cancellation. He told me he has also searched for my email addy and found me of Rootsweb, a bit creepy actually, and another misuse of information given to LostCousins.

I posted his first reply elsewhere. Here is his complete reply for anyone who is interested.

Are you mad or stupid? I have just discovered a major security breach in Amazon's system that
affects millions of people, including thousands of LostCousins members, and you think I'm the
one at fault?

By all means tell everybody about the wonderful service I have done to you and other
LostCousins members - I am proud to have been the one who discovered this.

I look forward to your apology, and will keep your accounts open until you come to your senses.

Peter Calver
Founder - LostCousins

[Loopy Linda in La La Land]

How rude, who does he think he is..........


Linda

[Velma Dinkley]

I'm having trouble finding the right words to respond to that, considering I'm a moderator of this site...

Perhaps it might be safer for me to keep quiet on this one.

Although, many thanks for sharing.

[Kit]

I'm having trouble finding the right words to respond to that, considering I'm a moderator of this site...

Perhaps it might be safer for me to keep quiet on this one.

I couldn't help but laugh at this. I'm still sort of shocked by his emails, his stalking and finding me on Rootsweb. I needed a good laugh.

Although, many thanks for sharing.

Anytime. The more that know the better.

[BC]

Kit,

This is not only a rude reply but indicative of a man with an enormous ego !

[Kit]

Thanks BC. I hadn't thought of the ego bit, still can't believe the reply.

[PeteratLostCousins]

Amazon change 'Wish List' system

From the April 2010 LostCousins newsletter:

Amazon change 'Wish List' system
Another exclusive in my March 6th newsletter was the revelation that the 'wish lists' of millions of Amazon users were publicly viewable, even though the users concerned had never given their permission.

I'm delighted to report that within 3 weeks of my article appearing Amazon changed their system, so that it is now obvious whether a wish list is public or private - and they also changed the default setting for new wish lists from public to private.

(However, they don't seem to have changed the settings for the customers who had set up wish lists previously, so if you have an Amazon account you may want to check your settings.)

I think it's amazing that Amazon, a $60 billion company, changed their website as a result of pressure from LostCousins members.