Quantcast

LEGAL NEWSLINE

Friday, March 29, 2024

Tagged.com hit by Texas attorney general

Greg Abbott (R)

AUSTIN, Texas (Legal Newsline)-The social networking site Tagged.com has agreed to pay Texas $250,000 in fines to settle claims that it raided consumers' private e-mail accounts.

The San Francisco-based company, under the terms of the settlement, also agreed to overhaul its business practices and add privacy features for its users.

The social networking Web site also entered into a $500,000 settlement with New York's state attorney general, Andrew Cuomo.

Tagged.com was accused by the attorneys general of raiding users' e-mail address books during their enrollment process and sent deceptive ad messages to the people listed under each user's name.

"To better protect subscribers' personal information, Tagged must designate a corporate level compliance representative and adopt a formal retention policy," a statement from Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott's office said. "The defendant also must allow subscribers to set their accounts to a "private" setting that blocks unauthorized access to their information."

Greg Tseng, Tagged's co-founder and CEO, said in a statement said the company has improved its registration processes.

"Despite differences of opinion about Tagged's intentions, we did acknowledge that the membership drive aggravated some customers," Tseng said.

From Legal Newsline: Reach staff reporter Chris Rizo at chrisrizo@legalnewsline.com.

More News