This story is about being spied on by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations prior to my interview with them as a software developer, and finding that out using the Gmail Rapportive tool. Prior to this I was involuntarily committed for 20 days after committing no crime.
My mail to Rapportive asking for more info. They then respond & stop using Rapleaf immediately.
Andy Triboletti <andy.triboletti@gmail.com>Wed, Feb 2, 2011 at 12:01 AM
Hi, I was twittering with someone from rapportive today. I noticed 2
weird things on rapportive that I’d like more info about including how
the location was set and the dates, for these users if possible. I
attached 2 screenshots.
1) I was Moneygramming money to Vietnam to pay a contractor for Java
web development I found through vworker.com (but was paying directly
upon his suggestion) — I installed rapportive and saw this user was
from Max, Minnesota and also his avatar was of Osama Bin Laden! I did
report this to the FBI in person, by calling, and also on the online
tips system twice. Not sure if it’s related but I was involuntary
committed to a mental hospital in Philadelphia a few days after this
on 9/29 with no internet access for 20 days. I was physically dragged
and put in restraints because I wouldn’t agree to be committed. I
thought I was sane and didn’t want to be there for the whole 20 days.
2) A user that has blocked me on twitter because I stopped following
her after she asked for $10 to buy some food has their location set as
‘East Coast Statistical Area, Chatham Islands’. It’s not there
anymore, but I have a screenshot. This user blocked me a couple weeks
before I was committed, and I had an interview with the FAO
organization today for a job. A former coworker asked me if I wanted
to join her in working for the FAO in Italy on 6/21, the same day this
user started following me. I wasn’t interested initially, but after I
got out of the hospital I sent her my resume. If you search that
location it looks like it is a FAO site. Unrelated, but I did send her
a donation of $10 after I got out of the hospital.
Ok, thanks, I am curious and you have alot of data I guess. Your
software is very surprising — I wish I had it installed from the very
beginning and maybe I could have avoided this injustice.
Andy
Conrad Irwin <conrad@rapportive.com>Wed, Feb 2, 2011 at 5:40 PM
Reply-To: supportive@rapportive.com
To: Andy Triboletti <andy.triboletti@gmail.com>
Hey Andy,
Thanks for getting in touch,
The photo of the first account came directly from Hi5 — though I
notice that that user account has been suspended
(http://hi5.com/friend/p12276717--Hang_Huy--html). I imagine it was
someone having a joke — it’s so hard to tell on the internet…
The location on the second profile came via Rapleaf
(http://rapleaf.com/), and unfortunately they don’t tell us where they
got that information from (we’ve since stopped using them as a source,
which is why the location disappeared from @SandwichPolice yesterday).
Due to the automatic way we collect information we can’t guarantee
that it’s accurate, though we do try hard — I’d recommend trying to
verify information you see on Rapportive, particularly if it has
important real-world consequences.
Please let me know if you need anything else,
Conrad
[Quoted text hidden]
Link to PDF:http://greenrobot.com/andy/rapportive_stops_using_rapleaf_day_of_my_email_to_them.pdf
Here’s a screenshot of my sending a message to @rapportive on twitter in 2011.
https://greenrobot.com/andy/twitter_at_rapportive_2011_02_01.png
If you search for “East Coast Statistical Islands, Chatham Islands” in Google you will see a result containing the FAO.
I have done this search today 6/19/2016 and saved this full screen image:
https://greenrobot.com/andy/east_coast_statistical_area_chatham_islands_google_search.png
You can also see this is consistent with what I noticed in 2011 in the below blog post.
You may be interested in this post with more information:
Please send any questions to andy@greenrobot.com
