So the new iPhone came out, and with it the new update to the iPhone operating system. I haven’t bought a 3G iPhone yet (I’ll probably wait until next month), but I did update my iPhone to 2.0 and start exploring the app store. I found lots of cool apps for free and installed a few of them.
Over the weekend, I got an SMS from an unknown short code. In fact, I got two of them. Now I don’t like getting unsolicited SMS messages from people I don’t know - I’m a cheapie and currently have the default no-charge text plan that lets you send/receive 200 a month. When I upgrade my phone I’ll probably pay $5 to continue with this amount of texts. I only send and receive from a few people and I don’t want to end up paying the $.20 per text if I go over my 200.
Turns out the unknown text that I got was from Loopt. Specifically, a friend of mine (who shall remain nameless, because I doubt he realized this would happen) signed up for Loopt and wanted me to sign up too, so he put me in as one of his contacts. I don’t think he knew I’d get two unsolicited text messages from some weird code reminding me that I should install and sign up for Loopt (at least I hope he didn’t!). I guess I was kind of lucky, because some other people have gotten many of these unwanted, unsolicited, and potentially expensive text messages through Loopt, some of them from people they don’t know, and certainly many of them from people that they don’t normally text message with.
It’s turning into a real shitstorm, mostly because of the bland, blame-the-user attitude of the people behind Loopt. And here is where I provide you some documentation:
One of several complaint threads on Get Satisfaction
Merlin Mann’s well-written summary on Kung Fu Grippe
Justine’s summary of her own experience
A story on iPhone Alley
A CNet piece questioning the appeal/risks of the application itself
Loopt gets a big thumbs-down from me. I really don’t like these kinds of applications anyway - do I want people to be able to track my location on a map? Frankly, no. Not even my friends. That’s a little too much invasion of my privacy, so even if they hadn’t annoyed me with their spammy SMS, I definitely wouldn’t have used Loopt. Their kind of pathetic response to complaints just cements it - not only will I not install Loopt, but I’ll recommend to my friends and family that they don’t either. And you, Internet, here’s some free advice for you: don’t install Loopt. If you’re into that kind of stuff, wait for one of the other apps to be ready, and make sure they’ll handle the invite process responsibly.
