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Author Topic: Prosper caught selling member's personal information  (Read 36346 times)

LoanChimp

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Re: Prosper caught selling member's personal information
« Reply #1 on: January 29, 2008, 10:39:52 pm »

This is troublesome...  :o
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traveler505

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Re: Prosper caught selling member's personal information
« Reply #2 on: January 29, 2008, 11:02:56 pm »

I had seen this earlier, but hesitated before posting a link because, quite frankly, the whole thing doesn't make a lot of sense to me. 

AFAIK, the only context in which Prosper would have "FANAFI Foundation" in its member database is that it was Jeff's Prosper ID from March 7, 2007, to January 11, 2008.  (He also used it for blogging and website purposes, but that wouldn't normally become part of his Prosper member data.)  It's possible that his group was named FANAFI Foundation (as opposed to FANAFI or FANAFI Financial) at some point, but I don't recall it (and there is no historical record of group name changes). 

Jeff is a borrower, as well as a lender and GL, so it's conceivable - though highly unlikely, since I doubt that FANAFI Foundation has generated much income - that he listed FANAFI Foundation as his employer when he listed.  (He didn't list as self-employed on the second listing.)

If Prosper were to sell member data for marketing purposes, it's hard to believe that they would include User IDs in the database, or that the buyers would want that data, IMO.  It just doesn't strike me as an industry norm.  This is particularly true, I would think, if the data was filtered through a third party (Experian, as Jeff alleges); I would expect that even if Prosper didn't adhere to list management industry norms, Experian would. 

Experian is certainly in the data marketing business.  I don't know if they serve as list broker for companies like Prosper, as opposed to collecting and selling their own data.  Because Jeff is a borrower, Prosper would have reported his payment history to Experian and, unless he opted out, Experian might sell that data (in some form) for marketing purposes.  But the data uploaded from Prosper, AFAIK, would not have included his User ID; the only Experian field I can think of where that could be provided is employer, and, again, I doubt that Jeff claimed to be employed by "FANAFI Foundation."

Like Jeff, I'm a borrower, lender, and GL, but I haven't gotten any junk (mail/phone/email) referencing Traveler505 or Comprehensive Borrower Services.   I doubt that anyone is manually cleaning the lists to differentiate between User IDs that sound like a business and those that don't.  (However, my main contact is a cell phone, which telemarketers tend not to call, and my other numbers almost always go to voicemail when the Caller ID suggests telemarketer.  But that leaves a physical address and unfiltered email mailbox which haven't gotten any junk like he describes.)

Color me confused.  I hope that some additional information surfaces about this report.
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Tokyo Joe

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Re: Prosper caught selling member's personal information
« Reply #3 on: January 29, 2008, 11:09:38 pm »

I once made up a phony name when I was moonlighting as a webmaster.  I'll not name it here (too much spam) but I'll just call it: Moonlighter Communications.

Just having the name on the website, and using that name when I signed up for stuff generated a ton of junk mail.  I've had Amex offers for Moonlighter Communications, car loan offers, all kinds of stuff...  Still now.  It was a whimsical name I haven't used on a website since 2001.

The troubling thing here is that the caller identified Prosper as the source.  Assuming this story is true, that doesn't look good.

Otherwise, if they ever used Fanafi on the web, even if signing up for newsletters and things, it'll eventually seep into the analog world...

So the essential question is: is the story true?

I have no reason to believe they'd simply make it up...?
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112233

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Re: Prosper caught selling member's personal information
« Reply #4 on: January 29, 2008, 11:10:58 pm »

wow .. and prosper is worried about their users sharing information with prospers.org? maybe prospers.org should warn the users here about sharing information with prosper.com.
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onthefence

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Re: Prosper caught selling member's personal information
« Reply #5 on: January 29, 2008, 11:42:22 pm »

Simple enough.  Prosper shared their data with a 'trusted' partner aka Experian.  Experian did what it does as a business & sold it for a profit.
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Fred93

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Re: Prosper caught selling member's personal information
« Reply #6 on: January 30, 2008, 12:46:22 am »

Simple enough.  Prosper shared their data with a 'trusted' partner aka Experian.  Experian did what it does as a business & sold it for a profit.

Possible, but Prosper's privacy policy says...
Quote
We have relationships with trusted third parties that perform services on our behalf. This includes credit bureaus, customer service agents, and collection agencies. We share information with these service providers in order to complete the transactions that you request. All service providers are bound by contract to maintain the confidentiality of your personal information.

Would be nice to see a response from Prosper.  Note to Prosper: Feel free to respond here.

112233

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Re: Prosper caught selling member's personal information
« Reply #7 on: January 30, 2008, 12:50:19 am »

Simple enough.  Prosper shared their data with a 'trusted' partner aka Experian.  Experian did what it does as a business & sold it for a profit.

Possible, but Prosper's privacy policy says...
Quote
We have relationships with trusted third parties that perform services on our behalf. This includes credit bureaus, customer service agents, and collection agencies. We share information with these service providers in order to complete the transactions that you request. All service providers are bound by contract to maintain the confidentiality of your personal information.

Would be nice to see a response from Prosper.  Note to Prosper: Feel free to respond here.

they only guarantee they have a contract, not that it's enforced
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traveler505

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Re: Prosper caught selling member's personal information
« Reply #8 on: January 30, 2008, 01:42:37 am »

Quote
The troubling thing here is that the caller identified Prosper as the source.  Assuming this story is true, that doesn't look good.

I wish Jeff's blog post had been a bit clearer and more detailed on the evidence.  Was he talking to a telemarketer/CSR, or someone in management?  Would a telemarketer know the difference between a list purchased from PMI and a list compiled by a third party but marketed as a list of Prosper users? 

OTOH, I don't know of any third party that has solicited enough personal information from users (real name, email, snail mail, phone number) to build a marketable list of Prosper users.  And no one, IMO,  is going to go to the effort of deep Googling to identify Prosper users just to sell their name to marketers.

Lists are sold by thousand names.  One would think that, if PMI were selling member data, we'd be seeing a lot more than this one report.  (There was, I think, one borrower report of increased spam immediately after joining Prosper, which was posted - and met with skepticism - on the old .com forums.)
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Tokyo Joe

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Re: Prosper caught selling member's personal information
« Reply #9 on: January 30, 2008, 08:26:27 am »

Prosper denies they sold the name:

Quote
Catherine Muriel said, on January 29th, 2008 at 7:07 pm
Prosper would like to confirm that under no circumstances have we or do we ever sell our member names or group names for marketing purposes. How this company - Direct Capital Corp. - obtained the FANAFI name and contact information is something we are looking into and will investigate fully, however, the information was not originated from Prosper.
Catherine Muriel - CMO - Prosper Marketplace, Inc.
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Tokyo Joe

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Re: Prosper caught selling member's personal information
« Reply #10 on: January 30, 2008, 08:31:28 am »

Regarding Direct Capital Corp...

If you Google the phone number (603-373-1900) you'll see they have been cold calling a lot of people too:

http://whocallsme.com/Phone-Number.aspx/6033731900

Maybe they're a spam-scam entity like FAN who trawled Prosper's forum/site for names?  I always said Prosper needed to keep scammy GL's off the site...
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zcommodore

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Re: Prosper caught selling member's personal information
« Reply #11 on: January 30, 2008, 08:45:40 am »

Many may remember when my group was named "Quality Assistance for Prosper" and that I registered a domain, QAPloans.com.  I have since received junk mail addressed to my group's former name due to that information.  I have since attempted to block that info from being publicly available but I'm not sure if it was too little, too late.

I don't know if FANAFI registered a domain but it is possible they could have used something like that and forgot about it.  I'm coming in late to the party on this one but I see that Prosper is responding and investigating.  I'm of the opinion there may be more to this story than what has been said so far.
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DakotahFury

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Re: Prosper caught selling member's personal information
« Reply #12 on: January 30, 2008, 09:11:35 am »

If Prosper were selling member's info, it would be especially juicy-news when you consider CL's history of Nader-esque crusading on behalf of consumer's financial-privacy. I'm guessing CL's blood-pressure is a bit elevated this morning.
« Last Edit: January 30, 2008, 02:22:45 pm by DakotahFury »
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ks6328

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Re: Prosper caught selling member's personal information
« Reply #13 on: January 30, 2008, 09:43:25 am »

Many may remember when my group was named "Quality Assistance for Prosper" and that I registered a domain, QAPloans.com.  I have since received junk mail addressed to my group's former name due to that information.  I have since attempted to block that info from being publicly available but I'm not sure if it was too little, too late.

I don't know if FANAFI registered a domain but it is possible they could have used something like that and forgot about it.  I'm coming in late to the party on this one but I see that Prosper is responding and investigating.  I'm of the opinion there may be more to this story than what has been said so far.

I get massive spam attempts to my domain registration email address.  I use special filtering, and also end up changing the email address about every year, to keep it out.

I also get some junk snail mail to the snail mail address, but not very much since the sender has to pay for postage.

I've never gotten a telephone call that I suspect came as a result of my domain registration, but that telephone number is on the national Do Not Call list.

ETA: My Prosper email address is a different email address, given only to PMI, and is unfiltered except for router blocks.  I've never received anything to it except from Prosper.  (I use a different email address for every company/organization.  I even used a different email for the old .com forums from what I use for PMI.)
 
« Last Edit: January 30, 2008, 09:46:35 am by ks6328 »
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RateLadder_com

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Re: Prosper caught selling member's personal information
« Reply #14 on: January 30, 2008, 09:47:27 am »

Many may remember when my group was named "Quality Assistance for Prosper" and that I registered a domain, QAPloans.com.  I have since received junk mail addressed to my group's former name due to that information.  I have since attempted to block that info from being publicly available but I'm not sure if it was too little, too late.

I don't know if FANAFI registered a domain but it is possible they could have used something like that and forgot about it.  I'm coming in late to the party on this one but I see that Prosper is responding and investigating.  I'm of the opinion there may be more to this story than what has been said so far.

I second this...  Use a private registration service.
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