Isles Tech

I can't believe what kind of monkeys are deciding how to market WAYN.com. As I've written yesterday, I finally signed up after months of being pestered with spam-like emails because my close friend Mr. Beem Fabriga has a profile in their site.

Well, at 1:30 AM today, they just sent me this email:

The profile photo which was uploaded to your membership on May 1 2008 4:04AM has been removed as it was deemed inappropriate for the WAYN Profile.

To avoid photos being removed in future please do not upload images which are of an explicit nature, indecent, or could be seen as offensive in any way. Images which are obviously bogus, of celebrities, children, cartoons/animations or inanimate objects may also be deemed inappropriate.

Your profile image should be a true representation of yourself. For further info please refer to the please review the WAYN Photo Policy available at http://www.wayn.com/photopolicy.html

Regards,

WAYN

http://www.WAYN.com

Just like that. No warning, no request that I change it myself, none whatsoever. Perhaps the picture on the right, which they are referring to, offends you, dear reader? You may want to report my blog to Blogger.com, which hosts it, because I have an offensive photo on the blog.

Do these people at WAYN think that they will be the next Larry Page or Bill Gates? Well, at least Page's Google does not just delete your picture on their hardware without your consent. (Gates' problems has something to do with his software, so I wouldn't deal with that.)

What's funny was that within ten minutes after I received that email in my GMail mailbox, I received the spam email that they routinely send to contacts of new members through my Yahoo mailbox:

[My friend's name] has added you as a friend on WAYN.

Connect with [friend's name] and confirm how you know each other

Keep track of each others whereabouts, friends and meet people around the world.

You also have 11 unread messages

Thanks,

The WAYN team

_____

What is WAYN?

WAYN (Where Are You Now?) is the global meeting place.

Meet people from different places
Share your traveling experiences
Make a difference on global issues

Learn more

----------------------------------------------------
To stop receiving add friend requests from [friend's name], click here
To stop receiving add friend requests from any of your friends, click here

What nerve. They just deleted my pic which took me two hours to work on using Splashup, and now they're trying to convince me to create a new account? What do they think of me, an idiot?

So what am I going to do now? For those who know me personally, I'm not the kind of person who stands on the byside waiting for the train to roll by. Here are my proactive steps to fight this malpractices of WAYN.com:

1. First, I am going to delete that account of mine at WAYN. I don't need it, certainly not since the website uses spam-like techniques, and treats its users as if they are idiots.
2. Second, I will send an email to remove@wayn.com to have all my registration information removed. A sample letter is provided below.
3. Third, I'm going to send an apology to all my contacts from my GMail account, and ask them to ignore the WAYN emails, and just click on the spam button of their mail client when they receive that email so that they system will learn to recognize it as spam. The actual letter that I will be sending a few minutes from now will be something similar to the draft below.
4. Fourth, if WAYN.com will not remove my registration information within 48 hours, as specified in their privacy policy, I'm going to complain to TRUSTe.org since I feel that WAYN.com is misrepresenting its accreditation with that organization, violating the consent provision in their agreement, to wit: "Consent: Except in cases where the Where Are You Now? Ltd. has an existing business relationship with a consumer, Where Are You Now? Ltd. may not send commercial or promotional email to consumers without explicit consent".
   
5. Fifth, I am going to learn more about this malpractice. A few links are included below for your reference.
   

And to think all of this started just because they deleted a picture I worked on for two hours. :)

Remove registration letter

Dear Sirs,

I would like to have all registration information regarding my WAYN account "islesv" deleted from your database within 48 hours from now, as stipulated in your privacy policy. This includes your copy of the email address of the contacts in my address book which I had inadvertently provided you.

I don't want the contacts in my address book to continually receive unsolicited email messages from you in the same way that you are still sending unsolicited email messages to another email address of mine (not the one registered with your service).

If I am not satisfied that my concerns had been addressed properly within 48 hours from now, I will elevate this issue to TRUSTe, which we understand verified your privacy policy.

Good luck with your business, and always remember, people don't want to be bothered when they're bothered enough.


Respectfully yours,


Vincent Isles
Philippines

Sample apology letter
A sample apology letter if you accidentally enrolled your contacts in WAYN.com's massive database:

Hi,

I would like to offer my apology on inadvertently enrolling your email address with WAYN.com. In the case that you will be receiving invitation from that website, please click on the "Spam" button of your mail client so that the system could adjust itself and consider future emails from the address as spam.

I had already requested them that they remove your email address(es) from their system; please inform me if you are still receiving email from their system 48 hours from your receipt of this email.

I have collated my experience on this issue at [URL]


Respectfully yours,


Vincent S. Isles

More resources:

• Wikipedia article
  
• WAYN - Where Are You Now warning
• Stay Away from WAYN.com bad practices - FRAUD
• Be Aware of WAYN