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Ask HN: Twoo.com creating accounts on invite, how legal is this?

3 pointsby cyberfartover 7 years ago
Following some friend invite, I received an e-mail from twoo.com, something like:<p>&quot;Congratulations, you&#x27;re now a twoo member. Welcome to twoo, here are your login details. E-mail: &lt;my email&gt; Password: 8-character random hex&quot;<p>Is this legal?

6 comments

celticninjaover 7 years ago
All they have done is create an account linked to your email address, essentially just a string of text. Not sure what you think is illegal exactly.
troydavisover 7 years ago
What celticninja said. I’d be surprised if any jurisdiction had a law preventing this; the US does not.<p>Their SMTP or Internet transit provider’s terms of service is another story. Some allow single opt-in subscriptions and memberships, some don’t, and some (most?) don’t mind unless it generates complaints.<p>Twoo is known for this (<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;techcrunch.com&#x2F;2013&#x2F;08&#x2F;03&#x2F;a-year-of-spam-twoo&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;techcrunch.com&#x2F;2013&#x2F;08&#x2F;03&#x2F;a-year-of-spam-twoo&#x2F;</a>), so if you don’t like it, their SMTP or transit carriers are probably the only recourse, and probably doesn’t care.
borplkover 7 years ago
As another person said it&#x27;s just &quot;semantics&quot; so it&#x27;s going to be legal.<p>They can&#x27;t pretend that you checked the &quot;I agree to the terms of service ...&quot; checkbox just yet.<p>So technically they can&#x27;t &quot;make you a member&quot; against your will they are just bringing you very close to becoming one.
claudiulodroover 7 years ago
That part is probably legal. Not sure what their TOS is, but their TOS might be unenforceable since you never had an opportunity to inspect or accept it before your account was automatically created for you.<p>(Disclaimer: Not a lawyer. Don&#x27;t know much about law.)
glorkkover 7 years ago
Yes, facebook is doing the same thing (google shadow profiles). Really scummy practice, but nothing illegal there.
1000unitsover 7 years ago
They&#x27;re free to record whatever data they&#x27;ve gathered about you. Whether you become a &quot;member&quot; of their service is semantics.<p>I suspect this thread is an act of guerrilla marketing.
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