Review Freecharge - sells user data to spammers

[Crazy_Eddy]

I use Yahoo's email alias system, to create a different alias for each site I sign up at, so I can quickly bump a site that starts spamming. It's mostly been quiet, except for the occasional Indian company with no ethics.
For the past few weeks I've been consistently receiving spam on the alias I made exclusively for Freecharge.
Just a heads up for anyone considering opening a Freecharge a/c.

I sent a complaint to Freecharge CC and the only response received was 'Thanks for the feedback'

With the GOI's push on a Cashless economy, one would have hoped they would've put in some better regulations on user privacy.

 

[sharktale1212]

Actually the issue is also with the way apps are setup. A good writeup to understand the issue from a technical perspective:
https://mjg59.dreamwidth.org/46403.html

 

[RakaKaKaka]

is it for some users only as i dont get spam in my email thats registered with freecharge. what emails did you get ?

 

[6pack]

Its probably mentioned in their TOS on the site. By signing up with us, you agree that some of your data will be shared with 3rd party providers etc. 3rd party providers could be anyone or anything that is ready to buy the data.

 

[Crazy_Eddy]

Actually the issue is also with the way apps are setup. A good writeup to understand the issue from a technical perspective:
https://mjg59.dreamwidth.org/46403.html

Shockingly, their ToS openly states that they will be reading your contacts:-

Consent to use Contact Information
You agree that we may collect, use and share certain information regarding the contacts contained in Your device’s phone book (“Contact Information”) for promotional and marketing purpose and also share it with any third party in accordance with the Privacy Policy. By allowing Contact Information to be collected, You give FreeCharge a right to use that Contact Information as a part of the service provided by FreeCharge and you guarantee that you have any and all permissions required to share such Contact Information with us.

Thankfully I never used their app, only the website.

is it for some users only as i dont get spam in my email thats registered with freecharge. what emails did you get ?

Perhaps since I don't use their service anymore, they've decided to monetise my email ID instead. I mostly get spam about Jabong and ICICI.
The joke is I had made an email alias for Snapdeal as well, and when Snapdeal started converting Snapdeal accounts to Freecharge accounts, it created a second freecharge account for me. I have been receiving the exact same spam twice on each alias, so there really is no doubt.

Its probably mentioned in their TOS on the site. By signing up with us, you agree that some of your data will be shared with 3rd party providers etc. 3rd party providers could be anyone or anything that is ready to buy the data.

Unfortunately yes, all these privacy policies are intentionally gimped with this 3rd party loophole. Why they bother calling this a privacy policy is beyond me.

 

[vivek.krishnan]

Its because of the way the OS is - Android, or for that matter iOS does not have very fine permissions, just broad ones. iOS is better than Android, but the latter is playing catchup quickly.

Coming to the email ID - that is a sad state of affairs.

 

[swatkats]

Thanks Eddy for pointing it out.