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How can I never receive another Loopt SMS invitation ever?
I'm getting SMSs from Loopt users asking me to be their friend or whatever. I never asked for this. SMSs cost money. Like real money. Not popped collar polo shirt money.
How can I opt out of all contact from Loopt?
How can I opt out of all contact from Loopt?
I’m exhausted by emoticons
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You may STOP all SMS messages from Loopt by replying to any SMS with STOP, END, CANCEL, UNSUBSCRIBE, or QUIT. If you receive SMS invites from people you do not know or otherwise do not like, then replying to any invitation with these words will cease all future Loopt messages.
Loopt does not store users' address book information or use it to initiate messages itself. Messages relayed by Loopt are initiated by Loopt users who already have the recipients' contact information and never initiated by Loopt.
Please don't hesitate to contact us with further questions at support@loopt.com
The company says
this answers the question
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Hi guys,
Sam just made an update about invites and a new invitation process. Please read it on our blog:
http://loopt.typepad.com/loopt/2008/0.... We will continue to make updates here for the iPhone invites.
Your input is very important to us, and the whole team here is working hard to make sure that our service is useful and usable. Your feedback, without a doubt, is super important to us. Mistakes happen, and we are striving to assuage the invites confusion.
As always if you have any questions, don't hesitate to reach out via e-mail (support@loopt.com), or here.
Best,
Min
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Sam's note:
Sorry, everyone. Our bad.
We’ve received a lot of feedback over the past few days regarding the new Loopt friend-invitation process. Loopt takes privacy and user feedback very seriously, and we are especially sensitive to doing anything that makes our users unhappy.
The Loopt team has been working around the clock to respond to these issues, gather input and improve the Loopt service as quickly as possible. Thanks for letting us know what you do and don’t like.
Yesterday, we started hearing that people were unhappy with the way we sent invites to current Loopt users already in your phonebook. If a user clicked the "Who's on Loopt button", we checked his or her phone book for other Loopt users. The mistake we made was automatically selecting them, so if the user then hit Send, they might inadvertently send more invites than they meant to. We immediately disabled that feature. We don’t store your contact list, and it should go without saying we would never sell it or share it with a third party.
We now have a much better invite process. It’s beginning our testing process now and will be available soon. We’ve included a screenshot so you can see how it works.
The new iPhone invite:
With the first option, users can send an invitation text by directly entering the number of someone he/she knows. The second option allows you to see which of your contacts are already on Loopt, on a Loopt-supported carrier, or on a non-Loopt supported carrier. None of the contacts are automatically selected. If the friend is already on Loopt, the application allows you to send a friend request to him/her. The third option simply allows you to view your contact list without any Loopt labels about whether or not they are on Loopt or on a Loopt-supported carrier. As with option two, you select the contacts to whom you want to send text invites.
Finally, many people that don’t want Loopt have written that they’d like to stop receiving invitations to the service from their friends. Loopt itself never initiates an SMS to you, but if you don’t want to get any from your friends either, we’ve made it even easier to let us know you never want another SMS from us—just send STOP to any Loopt-related message you get. As always, you can email us at privacy@loopt.com and we’ll take care of it.
Thank you again for your feedback and please keep it coming. We hope you will continue to use Loopt. And thanks also to the people who write to let us know how much they love the service. For more information about Loopt’s privacy practices, please visit http://www.loopt.com/about/privacy-se.... If you have more questions, I’d love to hear them. Please drop me a note at altman@loopt.com .
Sorry again,
Sam
The company and 2 other people say
this answers the question
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Thanks for your patience with this issue. Loopt users may invite friends to the service from Loopt on their phone or Loopt.com. In both cases, users personally choose to which contacts they would like to send these Loopt invitations. After a user selects or inputs contact numbers to invite, Loopt routinely conveys invitations to the user’s intended recipients. Loopt’s “routine conveyance” of these invitations on behalf of users complies with relevant laws and best practices.
Loopt does recognize that many non-Loopt users would like to block receipt of such invites at the point Loopt conveys these messages. So, we must balance the desires of users to send messages to known contacts while respecting the desires of recipients to not receive invitations. Loopt is now completing a solution that allows any non-Loopt user to “blacklist” their phone number, to prevent receipt of future friend-invitation messages. Once it is available, we can add your number to the list. Just send an email to support@loopt.com. We do apologize for any unwanted invitations you have received from Loopt users, and encourage you to contact those sending the invitations to make them aware of your preference to not receive text messages of this kind.
Thank you for the feedback,
Loopt
support@loopt.com
The company says
this answers the question
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The invitation messages you are receiving are being sent by friends who have your phone number, and Loopt simply relays them to you. Since the messages aren't originating from Loopt, you'll need to contact the friends/contacts who are sending them to prevent them from being sent. If you have further questions, feel free to send them to support@loopt.com, and we'll get back to you ASAP.
The company says
this answers the question
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Inappropriate?The invitation messages you are receiving are being sent by friends who have your phone number, and Loopt simply relays them to you. Since the messages aren't originating from Loopt, you'll need to contact the friends/contacts who are sending them to prevent them from being sent. If you have further questions, feel free to send them to support@loopt.com, and we'll get back to you ASAP.
The company says
this answers the question
8 Comments Add a comment
This answers the question
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how about you just send confirmation email like other companies? DOes this transmission "that you aren't sending" really need to be an SMS? We don't want the SMS messages, really we don't. -
We definitely understand where you're coming from, and we're investigating alternative ways to route messages to customers.
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I love the "it's not our problem" response. Thanks for that. And if the sms comes just from the user's phone and not through your system (and through your app) from the user's phone, then why are both the invites I got from 2 different people under one conversation with a fake number as the source? Coincidentally, has anyone looked at http://getsatisfaction.com/loopt/topi...
You guys have worked out a great method to turn users off to your service before they even see what it is. -
Can I suggest you devise a way to let folks decline that "relaying" to their number?
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Yeah, this answer is really not satisfactory. Get it together, Loopt.
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Follow-up from me (the original questioner).
http://getsatisfaction.com/loopt/topi...
LooptChris, I don't consider this response a complete answer to my question -- esp. in light of reports that people are getting invitations from people they (apparently) don't even know.
I'd be grateful for a full explanation of how Loopt enables people to contact users via SMS. Where's that information coming from and under what terms is this functionality and access offered? Thanks. -
I'd also like to add, one of the people I received an invite from I never ever talk to, so I checked with him and he said he never sent me an invite, or at least never tried to. He's an iPhone user too, btw.
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Just to be clear, you can only receive invites from people who have your phone number, period. Loopt is a closed network. If you received an invitation, it was from someone who had your phone number in their address book or entered it manually.
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3 Comments Add a comment
This answers the question
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Thanks for the reminder. I forgot the double polo shirt was the guy from Loopt. I'm uninstalling the app from my iPhone right now. whhhhew. That was close.
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While I can understand anger at getting sent messages you feel you haven't asked for, I think it may be crossing into big-meany territory to post a picture of someone and call them names. Please know that we regularly remove posts like this that violate our community guidelines, specifically those seem to be "attacking people personally." Those guidelines are available here: http://getsatisfaction.com/community_...
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Com'on GS.com, go ahead and remove the poster's "inflammatory" statements, but please leave the awesomely hilarious double polo shirt picture. If that's how the Loopt guy chooses to appear in public, who are we to say no?
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Inappropriate?People get on the internet and all of a sudden forget about normal courtesy toward each other. They turn into the very douchebag they're trying to bash. -
Inappropriate?These messages are relayed through the short code '56678'. Why not follow convention and let me send 'STOP' or 'OFF' to 56678?
Currently sending either of these returns:
You're almost Loopt in! Follow this link to download and register for Loopt
I’m disappointed
1 Comment Add a comment
This answers the question
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This is now fixed. http://loopt.typepad.com/loopt/2008/0...
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Inappropriate?I didn't think solid state supported sms. Yes, that's an asinine invite method. Satisfaction denied.
I’m 2.0'd
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Inappropriate?From what I have heard, people installing the Loopt application have no idea that they are going to spam their friends with invites, especially via SMS. I wonder if that "feature" is a iPhone 2.0 "special".
I’m sick of spam.
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Inappropriate?The real problem here is that you are paying to receive texts. On a more helpful note, have you tried contacting your carrier, and having them block the number? -
Inappropriate?Not so. Firmware 2.0 just came out 2 days ago and I'm already getting spam from this "service". I don't give out my number to random people and I got loopt SMS spam on my iPhone, after midnight, from someone I don't even know! Replying stop or unsubscribe only gets you another invitation. Seems like all you guys did was buy a bunch of iPhone numbers. What you all are doing is costly for us and very unprofessional. Most users don't even know they'll be spamming thier friends.
I’m Asha and I'm annoyed
1 Comment Add a comment
This answers the question
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Just to be clear, you can only receive invites from people who have your phone number, period. Loopt is a closed network. If you received an invitation, it was from someone who had your phone number in their address book or entered it manually.
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Inappropriate?Not gonna lie.. I definitely freaked out when I found out a bunch of my friends were sent text message with an invite. I actually really liked the loopt service, but this is a huge downfall with the invites.
I've changed my number several times in the past year and there may or may not have been people who received a text from me that wouldn't have been privileged to my new number.
I’m sad
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Inappropriate?Yea, same thing happening to me. I don't even remember giving them my phone number.
I’m sad
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Inappropriate?As Aaron Landry pointed out, it is really a UI issue. It sucks that it uses SMS messages, but it does tell you in the account creation process that it will. They could have made it a bit clearer what they would be sending them for, but again, that's UI.
I’m disappointed in the backlash, but happy with the product.
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Inappropriate?Beyond privacy concerns, which are inexcusable, I don't feel like I should have to pay for unsolicited text messages. I am pretty sure this is against carrier rules.
I have contacted my carrier with a complaint and encourage you to as well. -
Inappropriate?Following up on my original question, based on others' comments here:
FWIW, I received a Loopt request from someone whom I never gave my mobile number to; someone I do NOT know at all.
I don't rule out the possibility that this person got my number from someplace else, but, based on other folks' comments along these lines, I'm curious about the functionality and data set that's at play here. Where, specifically, are these numbers coming from?
Would Loopt please point us to a full explanation of the process -- is this truly just mobile numbers obtained en masse out of the user's iPhone Address Book (which, I must say is already _pure cheese_), or is there any other information being used to contact us via SMS?
Finally, I'll note for the record that I am not a registered Loopt user, so my personal information was not obtained from any opt-in or consent on my part; I never agreed to any privacy statements, terms, or other sorts of agreements allowing Loopt to contact me at my expense.2 Comments Add a comment
This answers the question
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Thank you! I second the request for a full explanation, which I doubt is forthcoming since it seems to have been very poorly thought out and executed in the first place. Unsolicited SMS are NOT COOL, even if they're from people who happen to have my phone number. Loopt gets my vote for "First new app that needs to be completely boycotted and wiped off the face of the Earth."
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I third this request. I'm also not a registered Loopt user, and now, I never will be. And it's likely that all of my friends won't be either after they hear about all this.
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Inappropriate?I think all of this will go away soon after there are many updates to 2.0 and other software... I'm trying to be patient with all of this non sense.
BTW Merlin You Do Look Nice Today ! Snare! -
Inappropriate?Thanks for your patience with this issue. Loopt users may invite friends to the service from Loopt on their phone or Loopt.com. In both cases, users personally choose to which contacts they would like to send these Loopt invitations. After a user selects or inputs contact numbers to invite, Loopt routinely conveys invitations to the user’s intended recipients. Loopt’s “routine conveyance” of these invitations on behalf of users complies with relevant laws and best practices.
Loopt does recognize that many non-Loopt users would like to block receipt of such invites at the point Loopt conveys these messages. So, we must balance the desires of users to send messages to known contacts while respecting the desires of recipients to not receive invitations. Loopt is now completing a solution that allows any non-Loopt user to “blacklist” their phone number, to prevent receipt of future friend-invitation messages. Once it is available, we can add your number to the list. Just send an email to support@loopt.com. We do apologize for any unwanted invitations you have received from Loopt users, and encourage you to contact those sending the invitations to make them aware of your preference to not receive text messages of this kind.
Thank you for the feedback,
Loopt
support@loopt.com
The company says
this answers the question
1 Comment Add a comment
This answers the question
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I think you need something a tad more "heroic" at this point than a nice man in a shirt and tie coming to say "we're truly sorry". This is something that could make-or-break the company. You need something along the lines of removing tainted products off the shelves and being forthcoming with your customers, ala Tylenol, rather than trying to shuffle the problem under the carpet ala Intel with the Pentium release. You need to show up as knights in shining armor and not only admit you were wrong, but also make people feel safer and happier for using your product. If you care at all that people still use your product, you need to do nothing less of a full turn-around on this issue.
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Inappropriate?I just love the fact that the company says that their response answers the question, even though people have asked for a more thorough explanation of “routine conveyance.”
What's with the quotation marks anyway. They typically connote quoted speech, irony or altered-usage, but never emphasis.
I’m not installing that app right now.
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Inappropriate?It also gives no explanation as to why people we've never given our numbers out to somehow, invited us to Loopt. And I thought MPAA guidelines stated that all mobile advertisements must have a way to opt out in the same message?
I’m frustrated
1 Comment Add a comment
This answers the question
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Just to be clear, you can only receive invites from people who have your phone number, period. Loopt is a closed network. If you received an invitation, it was from someone who had your phone number in their address book or entered it manually.
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Inappropriate?Loopt is now completing a solution that allows any non-Loopt user to "blacklist" their phone number, to prevent receipt of future friend-invitation messages. Once it is available, we can add your number to the list. Just send an email to support@loopt.com.
So in order to protect my privacy and remove my data from your service, I have to supply you with my data so you can then store it in some huge database that will get pinged any time someone sends invites? That's like calling up my local evangelical religious organization, giving them my address, and asking them to "promise" they'll never visit me again unless something changes in their organization's bylaws that permits door-to-door harassment again. -
Inappropriate?So! I signed up for Loopt because I want a service to replicate the experience from Dodgeball (which lost many of its few users out in San Francisco around a year ago when Google bought it and let it stagnate). I specifically want to dip into a page that tells me where my friends are, so I can decide where to go when I feel like going out but have no plans of my own.
So I joined Loopt because it sounded like Dodgeball without the need to manually enter the name of the place I'm at. I don't want to be constantly tracked, but I do want to tap my phone once and have my location registered. Not everyone is into this; I am.
Loopt lets me invite friends. It marks all the people on my phone's contact list whose carriers support Loopt; it also marks the people who already use Loopt. The only people it automatically wanted to invite, as far as I could tell, were those already using Loopt. And even then I was able to uncheck some of those people before I sent an invitation. So far, the only people who've accepted invitations from me are people I know I invited.
A day or two later, people start complaining about getting a text message. Now I agree that this can be quite annoying, especially when it comes from several people, or from someone you don't particularly like. It also sounds more annoying to get it from a corporate shortcode than from the number of the recipient.
But really? Long-term, this is the tiniest possible blip. A few people will send Loopt invitations, then Britekite will release their app and everyone will switch (Loopt works fine but more of the "early adopter" crowd is already registered with Britekite), and no one will talk about Loopt again outside of terrible conferences attended by Seesmic and Mahalo and Plaxo and whatnot.
As for the cost, any amount is too much but jesus, it's what, ten cents? Is this not the very definition of Merlin's own term, the First World Problem?
So! Loopt is boring, whiners are boring, I'm boring myself here so I'm gonna go watch some videos of Merlin to cheer up.
I’m sticking a thumb in your private orifices
3 Comments Add a comment
This answers the question
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I believe most services are starting to charge $.20 per text message (without a plan, or over an existing plan) starting around September. This is some serious laundry money you're expecting your friends to pick-up.
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Maybe you shouldn't have chosen to participate in this discussion, if you're bored by it. FYI, text messages on AT&T are currently $.20 each if you don't have a text messaging plan or if you've already reached your message limit for the month. If 10 people send me an unwanted SMS via Loopt's asinine invite process, that's $2.00 for crap I never wanted in the first place. Would you like to be forced to pay $2.00 for something you don't want and that invades your privacy as a bonus?
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Conceded, 20 cents is way too much to keep getting charged. Hell, it's too much for a text message, especially considering the minuscule data that's being transmitted.
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Inappropriate?I'm with pretty much everyone else on this one. As we interact and share more personal information with all these exciting new technologies, its more important than ever to have super-strict, well thought out ways to control who has access to your and your friend's data.
Things were muddy enough when web-services started encouraging people to enter their email login info to scrape for people to invite, but especially considering 1) the real money cost of SMS and 2) the phone/sms is one of the last bastions of "old media" contact, and still plays by all the same rules.
Its one thing for Loopt to have made this mistake, its another to do nothing about it, and takes things to a whole new level of absurdity when they start blaming the user and making it our responsibility to opt-out of something many of us never wanted to be part of in the first place.
I’m annoyed
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Inappropriate?Hey all. If you're upset just report the issue to your carrier (AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, etc.). The shortcode will shortly be decommissioned and your problems will be solved. You might even get a refund for the TXT messages you received.
All other issues aside, failure to implement "help" and "stop" and "stop all" is cause for immediate cessation of service. In this case your cellphone company is actually your friend! :)
I know this b/c I've been through the process of getting a shortcode provisioned. Carriers are VERY serious about this stuff. SMS is their cash cow and they'll do anything to prevent it from turning spammy (and risk people shutting it off).
Good luck!
BT
I’m amazed the shortcode isn't disabled already.
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Inappropriate?(scribbles note to self ... do NOT send Loopt invite to Merlin.. scribble..scribble)
Well... I think a little message in the iPhone interface (I saw it someplace on the site I think) Please only invite folks that will want to join ... errr.. or something like that. I'm pretty sure that the only folks that received my invites were people that I had listed in my addressbook ... and only people that I had contact info.
Also, I pretty positive that you couldn't "accidently" give out your location. (You'd have to join... download the software ... start up the application ... check in ...etc.. etc..)
... adding an opt out of any further invites would be a good move.
KJB
I’m tired
1 person says
this answers the question
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Inappropriate?picture as a reference to some earlier comments.
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Inappropriate?Hey Loopt. Tell you what. For every message I get, I get to punch you in the balls. Fair trade, no? To make it equitable though, I'll let you opt out of getting punched in the balls, all you need to do is email me first. Of course, to also play by your own rules, since you don't know who I am until I punch you in the balls you don't know to opt out until after you've been punched at least once.
Do you see the ridiculousness of your opt-out program yet? To put it plainly, everyone in the world who wants to opt-out isn't going to know who you are until it's too late.
I’m pissed
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Inappropriate?You need to contact the person(s) sending you the invitations and tell them to stop inviting you. I just downloaded the Loopt application on my iPhone today and it could not have been made more clear to me that the people I sent invitations to would be receiving text messages, which is why I chose to invite people I already text (as they already have SMS plans).
While I do agree that Loopt should support a STOP reply, I think that is where their responsibility should end, and your friends should begin.
1 person says
this answers the question
2 Comments Add a comment
This answers the question
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That would be great if we knew who these people were. Many of us are recieving invites from total strangers we never gave our number out to.
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Your experience inviting friends to Loopt doesn't reflect a lot of earlier users because Loopt modified their application yesterday. It no longer auto-selects current users of Loopt from your address book when you hit "Invite Friends."
This auto-selection of people during the invitation process is what caused a lot of problems a few days ago. Any social networking application that pre-selects contacts from your address book is asking for trouble, as people will accidentally invite contacts they didn't mean to invite. Technically it is user error, sure, but it doesn't mean services shouldn't provide ways to prevent or recover from errors. That's what a well-designed service does.
Loopt announcement about functionality modifications:
http://loopt.typepad.com/loopt/2008/0... -
Inappropriate?As for being the responsibility of your friends and such, just so that people know how hard the entire process is:
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Inappropriate?hmm, does this same behavior happen on the blackberry?1 Comment Add a comment
This answers the question
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It does not.
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Inappropriate?Merlin, thanks so much for bringing this up. I have uninstalled Loopt on my phone. I hope I haven't spammed anyone with my naive use of the service.
I’m anxious
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Inappropriate?It seems clear to me here that the problem with the service lies with both the company (for not allowing the recipient to send STOP messages, for not displaying some kind of confirmation message, and for not being completely forthright in how it's possible for complete strangers to send Loopt invitations to people), as well as the user (for not paying enough attention that they're actually mass-sending text messages to people). Indeed, the bulk of the responsibility lies in Loopt's hands, but it's not like the users are completely off the hook either.
That said, I think the concept of the service is being crucified a little. There are indeed reasons for broadcasting your location on a public network -- it's been done before, on Dodgeball, on Brightkite, etc. The idea is to let your friends (as well as friends of friends) know where you are. Not everyone is into this due to privacy concerns, which is understandable. But it's a brave new era of mobile computing where connecting with people face-to-face is worth the potential stalker. In short, this is a feature that a lot of people want, and you're going to see more geo-tag friend-locate services like this.
Part of the problem seems to be that SMSes cost real money, unlike email. A couple of texts here and there is no big deal, but it adds up over time. The opt-out solution sucks (ANY opt-out solution sucks). A real Solution: Just quit the SMS invite altogether. The ONLY way for people to get your Loopt SMSes is if they're already on Loopt. That's it. Otherwise, it all goes to email. I'm not a big fan of email invites either, but at least it's "free." Don't know your friend's email address? Tough luck.
Whatever solution you choose, you really do need to address this problem as soon as you can before this bad publicity ruins you for good.
I’m not pleased with anyone.
1 Comment Add a comment
This answers the question
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Just to be clear, you can only receive invites from people who have your phone number, period. Loopt is a closed network. If you received an invitation, it was from someone who had your phone number in their address book or entered it manually.
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Inappropriate?Well put, Nicole. I think you're pushing toward a smart, sensible middle ground in this conversation.
I’m impressed
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Inappropriate?All SMSes from Loopt come from the Loopt shortcode 56678.
If Loopt does not have an opt-in/opt-out policy, that shortcode can be revoked.
In order to receive a shortcode from the CSCA, the entity that wants the short code needs to agree to the following (from usshortcodes.com):
Opt-in/Opt-out Policy for Carriers, Content Providers, Application Providers
As a registrant of a common short code, you must also ensure that your common short code partners have and abide by an Opt-in/Opt-out Policy. This policy must
* State that there must be a mechanism for end users to Opt-in, or assent to participating in your CSC program. All services and applications offered through a CSC must be on an opt-in basis.
* State that, once having agreed to participate in a common short code program, end users must be provided the opportunity to easily request that their participation in an application or service offered through a Common Short Code end at their discretion.
* Provide mechanisms for enforcement by you of the Opt-in and Opt-out provisions.
The Registry reserves the right to deny, limit, or terminate the lease of any CSC whose registrant does not have an Opt-in/Opt-out policy or does not enforce this policy.
From http://www.mmaglobal.com/shortcodepri..., page 13
Opt-out verbiage: Reply STOP to opt out must be included in all messages. If a user opt outs, an opt-out confirmation must sent to the user and include help verbiage.
a. Opt-in All Contacts: All contacts must receive an opt-in message and be required to reply with specified opt-in text in order to be added to the contact list for the campaign. Sending messages to contacts that have not opted in is considered Spam. Spam will not be tolerated and will result in immediate termination of the campaign.
However, in addition to a shortcode agreement with the CSCA, each entity that wants to use a shortcode also needs to negotiate a separate agreement with each provider (Verizon, Sprint, AT&T, etc). From what I can tell, if you as a customer of a cellular provider receive SMS spam you should report this directly to your operator's customer support in addition to complaining to the CSCA and FCC.
Call 800-331-0500 to reach AT&T customer service.
2 people say
this answers the question
2 Comments Add a comment
This answers the question
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I just tried the STOP message with another SMS service that I unwittingly subscribed to, and it worked. Thanks Kathryn. Hopefully Loopt will do the same.
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Super-useful into. Thanks, K.
FWIW, I called the AT&T number to complain that I had received a non opt-in SMS from this company, and AT&T weren't able to help me (and didn't seem to know anything about the CSCA rules).
That said, I'm going to continue exploring what my options are and will share what I learn with folks when I get more info. But, great post. Many thanks. -
Inappropriate?Hmmm, perhaps first line AT&T customer support isn't the best, although they should be able to tell you something in regards to SMS spam. Odd.
Oh, and you can contact the CSCA via the following channels: CSCA Customer Support at 1- 866-623-2272 or send an email to support@USshortcodes.com.
I couldn't find a easy way to specifically report abuse of a shortcode though.
Additionally, I found that some carriers allow you to block PC-to-mobile phone SMS spam, but not SMS spam coming from an approved short code.
http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/0...1 Comment Add a comment
This answers the question
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Yep. CSCA directed me to Loopt's connection aggregator, SinglePoint.com. They're my next stop this week. Then Sequoia. Then, who knows?
I work at home and have a lot of minutes on my phone. -
Inappropriate?Hi guys,
Sam just made an update about invites and a new invitation process. Please read it on our blog:
http://loopt.typepad.com/loopt/2008/0.... We will continue to make updates here for the iPhone invites.
Your input is very important to us, and the whole team here is working hard to make sure that our service is useful and usable. Your feedback, without a doubt, is super important to us. Mistakes happen, and we are striving to assuage the invites confusion.
As always if you have any questions, don't hesitate to reach out via e-mail (support@loopt.com), or here.
Best,
Min
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Sam's note:
Sorry, everyone. Our bad.
We’ve received a lot of feedback over the past few days regarding the new Loopt friend-invitation process. Loopt takes privacy and user feedback very seriously, and we are especially sensitive to doing anything that makes our users unhappy.
The Loopt team has been working around the clock to respond to these issues, gather input and improve the Loopt service as quickly as possible. Thanks for letting us know what you do and don’t like.
Yesterday, we started hearing that people were unhappy with the way we sent invites to current Loopt users already in your phonebook. If a user clicked the "Who's on Loopt button", we checked his or her phone book for other Loopt users. The mistake we made was automatically selecting them, so if the user then hit Send, they might inadvertently send more invites than they meant to. We immediately disabled that feature. We don’t store your contact list, and it should go without saying we would never sell it or share it with a third party.
We now have a much better invite process. It’s beginning our testing process now and will be available soon. We’ve included a screenshot so you can see how it works.
The new iPhone invite:
With the first option, users can send an invitation text by directly entering the number of someone he/she knows. The second option allows you to see which of your contacts are already on Loopt, on a Loopt-supported carrier, or on a non-Loopt supported carrier. None of the contacts are automatically selected. If the friend is already on Loopt, the application allows you to send a friend request to him/her. The third option simply allows you to view your contact list without any Loopt labels about whether or not they are on Loopt or on a Loopt-supported carrier. As with option two, you select the contacts to whom you want to send text invites.
Finally, many people that don’t want Loopt have written that they’d like to stop receiving invitations to the service from their friends. Loopt itself never initiates an SMS to you, but if you don’t want to get any from your friends either, we’ve made it even easier to let us know you never want another SMS from us—just send STOP to any Loopt-related message you get. As always, you can email us at privacy@loopt.com and we’ll take care of it.
Thank you again for your feedback and please keep it coming. We hope you will continue to use Loopt. And thanks also to the people who write to let us know how much they love the service. For more information about Loopt’s privacy practices, please visit http://www.loopt.com/about/privacy-se.... If you have more questions, I’d love to hear them. Please drop me a note at altman@loopt.com .
Sorry again,
Sam
The company and 2 other people say
this answers the question
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Thank you, Min, for this response. I hope that it will change some minds or smooth out some rough edges.
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Thanks, Eric. :)
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FWIW: I'm not sure where you guys picked it up, but in my circle, "my/our bad" is usually associated with someone not actually caring that they've done wrong (IE - Lindsay Lohan rear-ending you then continuing on to get her double venti latte). Might I suggest future missives use a more undeniably sincere phrasing?
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Inappropriate?How about this: HOW CAN I STOP RECEIVING GETSATISFACTION.COM EMAILS??!?!?!!
The stupid "stop following this question" link in the emails isn't working, and I can't find another unsubscribe option.7 Comments Add a comment
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you should contact http://getsatisfaction.com/satisfaction
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Very sorry you're having a problem, Nathan. Not intentional. If this is a bug let me know and I will do my best to help. Feel free to contact me at any time at eric [at] getsatisfaction [dot] com or reach me at the aforementioned page.
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I completely agree. The only reason I registered is because it was required to post my two comments above, and I've received about 15 e-mails from this web site. I guess it doesn't to matter to anyone else here though because I received them at no cost. ;-|
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maverick, we only intend to send you replies to this conversation, and we encourage you to stop following a conversation if you don't want to participate. I will also ask our developers to make sure there is no bug related to this, and I hope you will tell us more in the Get Satisfaction section: http://getsatisfaction.com/satisfaction
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I'm working on the bug right now, will get the fix out ASAP. In the mean time, if you click on the 'follow' tab on the right side of the screen, and then 'stop following' it will work. Its just the link in the email address that is fucked up.
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Thanks, Scott!
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The 'unfollow' link in emails coming from getsatisfaction.com should now be working. Sorry for screwing things up everyone.
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Inappropriate?Thanks for the quick updates to the iPhone Loopt application, as well as the invitation SMS itself (which now tells recipients how to opt out of Loopt).
Basically, what I am hearing from Loopt is that Loopt is complying with the standard "double opt-in" or "confirmation opt-in" requirement because Loopt is not sending text messages out, it is rather other users who are triggering these messages.
The double opt-in for Loopt is working in this fashion:
1. User A registers for Loopt and gets instructions to wait for an SMS from Loopt to complete registration.
2. User A receives opt-in invitation message via SMS (part one of the double opt-in).
3. User A confirms participation in Loopt, thus completing the double opt-in.
4. User A then invites user B to join Loopt via SMS.
5. User B gets the Loop opt-in invitation message via SMS (part one of the double opt-in).
6. User B can then stop all Loopt messages by replying STOP, thus opting out of Loopt. User B will then only ever receive one message from Loopt.
However user B may be unhappy because a) they're paying for each SMS b) they've never even heard of Loopt c) they may not want to join Loopt and d) they may not like/know the person who invited them to Loopt but somehow that person has their phone number.
What's to prevent a malicious user from inviting a user like user B over and over? What if 50 different people try to invite user B to Loopt at once? What if I'm on Loopt, I deny someone's friend request, can they keep inviting me over and over again (triggering lots of text messages)? What safeguards are in place so that someone doesn't abuse the SMS invitation functionality?
I just signed into Loopt.com and was presented with the Invite Friends screen. I don't currently see:
- any explanation of what typing in a friend's mobile number will do (trigger an SMS invitation)
- any message preview of the SMS invitation my friend will receive (though there's a preview of the email invitation)
- any disclaimer that standard text messaging rates will apply (and my friend will be charged)
- any disclaimer that someone who opted out of Loopt will not receive the SMS
- any limits to how many times/how often I can invite someone to Loopt
For example, I just logged into Loopt using another account, and from the home screen, invited my myself. Then I went to the Invite Friends page and invited myself again. Then I went back home and invited myself to Loop. Then I went to the Invite Friends page and invited myself again.
On my phone I soon received 4 invitation text messages to Loopt within the space of two minutes.
I’m frustrated
2 people say
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Stunning. Good detective work, K.
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Wow, Kathryn. That's some awesome due diligence on your part! Thanks so much for testing this stuff out and reporting the results. I appreciate that Loopt is finally making an effort to address concerns; I hope they will respond to your latest update.
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Hi All. It’s Loopt. Kathryn, thank you for such a thorough response – really appreciated. The following should cover the items you mentioned. If it does not, then just let us know and we’ll keep working at it. Thanks again.
1. Yes, Loopt does convey SMS Loopt friend invitations from User A to User B.
2. Yes, friend invitations and broadcasts are sent from Loopt subscribers to their contacts. These messages are never initiated by Loopt. These same people of course could send you SMSs from their phone, without using Loopt.
3. Yes, people may STOP all SMS messages from Loopt by replying to any SMS with STOP, END, CANCEL, UNSUBSCRIBE, or QUIT. If folks receive SMS invites from people they do not know, or otherwise do not like, then replying to any invitation with these words will cease all future Loopt messages.
4. If someone you don’t know has your mobile phone number, then this situation is unfortunate, but not related to our service.
5. Loopt does not store users' address book information or use it to initiate messages itself. Again, messages relayed by Loopt are initiated by Loopt users who already have the recipients' contact information and never initiated by Loopt.
6. Great suggestions re: user education copy for our Website. Point taken, and we’ve emailed new text copy to our Web development team to post as soon as possible. -
Inappropriate?Has anyone had this kind of experience with any other mobile social networks? For example I signed up with Loopt, Whrrl, and a few others with my blackberry but I haven't added any friends yet due to this kind of horror.
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Inappropriate?What I'd *like* to see, and haven't seen so far from Loopt's postings on their UI changes, is a very large "Are you sure you wish to send an invitation via SMS to the following people?" with a list of the addressees *and the number that will be used* confirmation dialog.
I’m disappointed in the whole thing
1 person says
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Seconded.
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Inappropriate?Loopt - can you just add a regex that if a contact's mobile number matches ((\(\d{3}\)?)|(\d{3}))([\s-./]?)(\d{3})([\s-./]?)(\d{4}) your service won't contact them ?
I’m sad
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Until our first iPhone application update comes out that's exactly what we've done, just more efficiently: if(true) { return; } See blog.loopt.com.
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Inappropriate?For the love of God, can you give Loopt a chance to fix the issues before slamming the crap out of them again? If I have you right, then Loopt are a bunch of idiots if they have a problem, idiots if they state the problem and idiots if they fix the problem. I get your frustration, but don't get beating the crap out of them while they fix it.
I’m annoyed at merlin
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Inappropriate?You may STOP all SMS messages from Loopt by replying to any SMS with STOP, END, CANCEL, UNSUBSCRIBE, or QUIT. If you receive SMS invites from people you do not know or otherwise do not like, then replying to any invitation with these words will cease all future Loopt messages.
Loopt does not store users' address book information or use it to initiate messages itself. Messages relayed by Loopt are initiated by Loopt users who already have the recipients' contact information and never initiated by Loopt.
Please don't hesitate to contact us with further questions at support@loopt.com
The company says
this answers the question
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Inappropriate?I'm completely and utterly pissed off at receiving txt messages from Loopt itself saying "hey just checking in" ..Well, stop it !! I'll use it if and when i want to ..Stop texting! .. I even uninstalled the damn app as it got so annoying .. Now I have no app and STILL get the damn text messages... last time ..STOP!
(and yes Sending Stop to the text messages gets you ANOTHER text message saying go to the web site - something about their privacy policy but nothing about canceling anything) _ then when you go you must have logged in to loopt on your phone or you cant get access to cancel anything .. Sheesh!!!
STOP STOP STOP..
Geddit?
I’m pissed
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Hi Pooky, the messages you're talking about aren't an attempt to increase usage of the application, but rather a way to notify the owner of the phone that their location is being sent to Loopt. It's not always true that the person who installed Loopt is the owner of the phone. We care about the privacy and safety of our users, and are simply trying to do our best to offer a useful and safe service.
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Also, we're working on a way for users to delete their accounts on the web without needing to log in. Sorry for the trouble.
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Inappropriate?...oh yeah - you are gonna need an angry faced icon on this site if you go on like this...
I’m still pissed
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You could always click on the ":(" icon 3 times to add three exclamation marks to how you feel. Not quite as entertaining as an angry faced icon, but it's as close as you'll get. :)
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