New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said Monday that his office has stopped social networking site Tagged.com from misappropriating the contacts lists and identities of its members and from sending out millions of deceptive and unsolicited emails.

Through an agreement with Cuomo's office, Tagged will pay $500,000 in penalties to the state and take measures regarding the access and use of its members' personal information.

"Unsuspecting users had no idea that Tagged had hijacked the email addresses of their colleagues, families and friends for the purpose of blasting them with spam," said Attorney General Cuomo.

Andrew Cuomo

"This agreement holds the company accountable for its invasion of privacy and puts the proper safeguards in place to keep it from happening again."

In June, Cuomo announced his intent to sue Tagged for deceptive acts after his office became aware that the company had sent more than 60 million misleading emails to people stating that Tagged members had posted private photos online for their friends to view.

In reality, the photos did not exist and the email was not from their friends. When people tried to access the photos, they were required to become a new member of Tagged. The company would then gain access to their email contacts and send more fake invitations.

As part of the settlement, Tagged will now provide clear disclosures when asking for access to a new user's email contacts and will no longer access those contacts or send messages without the member's permission.
 

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