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Tsunami · 9 Oct 2018, 07:22 AM

Dutch article on a popular social network

Translated:

In a study by University of Cambridge, Badoo scored lowest in a study comparing 45 social networks.
If someone joins Badoo, (s)he can count on it that private contacts from an email account of Facebook account will be notified/kept updated on this membership (of Badoo). Badoo even searches for contacts on other email accounts and Facebook accounts of its members. This probably occurs via similar passwords.

I realise that Wikipedia is not Always true, and in the English language page there are other criticisms but none going as far as contacts from an email account or Facebook account being notified of one's membership.

Is it really possible that upon joining a social network, the social network (doesn't matter which) can access one's email account in order to send invites to all contacts in that email account used for signing up? I mean, unless one is clumsy enough to use identical passwords, the social network for which one signs up may know the email address used to sign up by the new member, but the social network doesn't have the actual password of that email account. So how is it possible that they'd send invites and thus know which contacts are in that email account? That'd require actually logging in to the email account used to sign up, which should be impossible without knowing that email account's password.

9 Oct 2018, 07:22 AM	#1
Tsunami The "e" in e-mail Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: in between the bright lights and the far unlit unknown Posts: 2,341	How can social networks access your contacts in email? Dutch article on a popular social network Translated: In a study by University of Cambridge, Badoo scored lowest in a study comparing 45 social networks. If someone joins Badoo, (s)he can count on it that private contacts from an email account of Facebook account will be notified/kept updated on this membership (of Badoo). Badoo even searches for contacts on other email accounts and Facebook accounts of its members. This probably occurs via similar passwords. I realise that Wikipedia is not Always true, and in the English language page there are other criticisms but none going as far as contacts from an email account or Facebook account being notified of one's membership. Is it really possible that upon joining a social network, the social network (doesn't matter which) can access one's email account in order to send invites to all contacts in that email account used for signing up? I mean, unless one is clumsy enough to use identical passwords, the social network for which one signs up may know the email address used to sign up by the new member, but the social network doesn't have the actual password of that email account. So how is it possible that they'd send invites and thus know which contacts are in that email account? That'd require actually logging in to the email account used to sign up, which should be impossible without knowing that email account's password.