May 20, 2007
Remove Spoke.com From the Internet
I stumbled on this website the other day, Spoke.com, while checking the web logs. Spoke.com seems to have lifted my profile and contact information from various networking and websites and listed it on their website as “validated” profile and contact information. I have a couple of problems with this.
First, I have never signed up with this website, nor submitted my information to them; thereby making this a violation of my privacy to list information about me on their website without my approval. Additionally, since the information that they have listed in both outdated and incorrect, I am interested in knowing what the purpose of the site is.
Also, I did a search on the internet for Spoke.com and found that Symantec had issued a Security Warning against this organization for gleaning information from Outlook address books including private phone numbers and personal email addresses and listing them on their site for spam mailer and lazy sales/marketing departments to use.
I found another blog, Phil Yanov, where someone had posted an email from a a Spoke representative that said:
“Spoke combines information from multiple sources, including published data, information available on the Web, and information validated by members. In most cases, information about a person, such as their name, title and company, has come from multiple sources and is not protected by copyright or trade secret laws. Spoke does not publish direct contact information such as a person’s direct e-mail address or direct-dial phone number.
When requested, Spoke will remove information about a person if it is proven to have been added in violation of the law, a non-disclosure agreement, or an employment agreement. Since Spoke regularly combines information from multiple sources, including the Web, Spoke cannot guarantee that information removed will not be recreated by another independent source.”
Who gives you the right to take our information that we have listed on our corporate websites and on membership only networking groups and use it for your personal gain?
Organizations like this need to be bounced off the Internet as they have no place in the business world.
Sphere: Related Content
I think we need to file a class action. Their privacy policy violations are disgusting.
Better Business Bureau:
http://www.bbb.org/greater-san-francisco/business-reviews/data-processing-service/spokecom-in-san-mateo-ca-195578
[...] BTCHD: Remove Spoke.com from the Internet [...]
I also have the same problem with “my” profile. It is wrong, I never created it. There is no another person with my name in the U.S.A. I agree that organization like this need to be bounced off the Internet as they have no place in the business world! What can we do? I suggest that we organize Meetup for people who whants to claim a lawsuit against Spoke.com. I hope some lawyers will join this Meetup to help with the legal part. Please go to Meetup.com. Can anybody organize this MeetUp?
Spoke has been billing me $24.95 for 7 months now for what should have been a one-time charge. Cannot get them to respond to phone calls, or emails. Won’t stop biling me, either! I tried their search/email service one month which was ineffective. Never again.
Hi Sarah,
First, you start here -Truste Watchdog Service
Once Truste logs the complaint, you will get an email from one of their representatives asking for more information about your complaint. You do have to keep after the representatives so that your case keeps moving. I think it took them about 2 months to get my information off.
Hope that helps!
Khalid, can you explain re security certificate and what exactly you did? Thank you.
This is ridiculous !!!
Not only my info is without my consent, but it is all false as well. I emailed to customer care, but no resolution. Just imagine a prospective employer doing a google on my name.
Any solution as to how we can remove our profiles from spoke?
Spoke.com claims to have 40 millions profiles, I randomly check 5 of them, you know what, all of them are fake ones.
This is crazy, there must be a why to file a lawsuit against them? I mean no one gave them permission and it is dangerous to have our information out in the open like that.
Would be nice to see a class action lawsuit brought against them for this. That would drive them out to business really quick.
They are clearly evil and not in compliance with even basic privacy rules. I claimed my profile, updated the privacy preferences and still have a page appearing in search results. I have repeatedly requested Spoke to remove my information and page from public searches, but they continue to leave it up there. Spoke’s solution was to deactivate my account so I can no longer access it. But all my information continues to be completely available in web searches.
They violate even the most basic standards of privacy and are truly evil in their handling of private personal information. May they rot where all evildoers do!
Hello out there in the Internet! My story is very similar to spoke probems. I have an x boyfriend who posted my name as his contact. We broke up in 2001 for crying out loud. He is jealous that I have a very successful business in online marketing and he is trying to slander me. I called spoke, no answer, I emailed the support at least 30 times. This has been going on since 8/7/2008. I have sent emails to all the vp, p and all their investors. STill no luck. These people are the axis of EVIL. They do not care about anyone or anything and they need to be stopped. I am also going to march down to San Mateo and file myself a lawsuit also. When is the Attorney General going to stop them is what I want to know?
Spoke Problems1
The spoke listing began showing up at the top of searches for my name. The information is outdated and posted without my consent. I called their customer service number and left messages for a week – no call-backs. So, I tried the ‘sales’ extension for the following week – no call-backs. Finally, I dug down through the HR extension/ service and after repeated attempts and messages reached a Kathy Franklin (sp?). I asked to have my name removed from their database – she asked me to call customer service – I said I tried w/ no luck – and she said she’d take care of it.
3 months later the info is still there. They did ‘suppress’ it (meaning details are available only to those who login) but didn’t remove me from their list. I even tried signing up to remove or edit my account – nope, that didn’t work either. Good thing I didn’t install their spyware ‘tool bar’ or I would’ve unknowingly given up all the addresses in my outlook (according to critics, the ‘toolbar’ grabs all the info when it installs). I’m seeking legal counsel to determine what can be done. These folks dug there own hole basing their business model on posting profiles without consent.
I am expereincing the same problem by having a profile on spoke.com without my consent.
How do I remove my profile from spoke.com?
Hey – if they want to pay me to use my name, I’m fine with it… oh wait, they haven’t offered that.
There are also rumors that spokes.com have a lot of faked profiles – of people never existed etc
Best is hand-off…..
But it seems they found a way in a grey-zone to make money….
Best
Michael
I’ll tell you what I did. First, I contacted Spoke, both through their “customer service” email address and the link that is supposedly checked for complaints. Neither worked so I wrote to their security certificate provider explaining the problem, my attempts to contact and the no-response from Spoke. They got me de-listed.