The Names Database is a social network, owned and operated by United Online, the parent company of Classmates.com, with headquarters in Orem, Utah. Unlike most social networks, it requires that new registrations include five email addresses of friends or acquaintances. The site immediately checks the validity of the addresses, disallowing fraudulent information.
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While it is owned by Classmates Online, the Names Database is kept under a separate web name. To obtain the full access to the site, users must submit more than 20 e-mail addresses or buy a US$12 subscription. As of July 28, 2007, the site boasts over 33 million users.
The company was acquired by Classmates.com for $10 million from creator, Gabriel Weinberg (founder of Duck Duck Go), in March 2006, transferring responsibility and duties to a larger company. The database had about 20 million users at the time of sale, meaning the email addresses were bought for about 50 cents per user. Despite the acquisition, the site still relies on word of mouth and friend referrals to grow.
To initially access the database, one must supply five valid email addresses, usually belonging to friends or family. After registration, the names of all people in the database are fully searchable. However, contact with these members is limited until 25 addresses are supplied or a subscription fee is paid. As of October 2006, subscriptions can be purchased for one or three year periods. A non-searchable static version of the database is also available, which lists names and high school affiliations.
The word of mouth method operation of the database has caused it to grow rapidly. In 2006, the home page reported a membership of over 30 million. Additionally, the database contains information about more than 50 million people, ranging from world leaders to high school students.
The site provides option of removing one's listing in the database. The removal process does indeed remove all information from the static database as claimed by the website. It does't even give you an option to delete. It on the other hand ask for around 24 people to be refereed before unlocking the account.[1]
Before entering data one should be aware of the privacy risk: "You grant Opobox a non-exclusive, worldwide, perpetual, irrevocable, transferable, royalty-free right to (a) use, copy, distribute, transmit, publicly display, publicly perform, reproduce, edit, modify, translate and reformat Your Information in any media now known or not currently known..."
The data collection policies of Names Database allow the data to be used for spamming. There is also some concern about the posting of the personal information of children, though the site forbids such actions.
When entering other peoples information such as their email address, you then become personally liable for the use of that information and you have most likely not asked permission to use said information in such a way. To avoid problems, always have written permission from those people whose email addresses you are submitting. It may be a paid service, but on the site there is no information to confirm payment and the service provider supplies no site contact that may remedy any disputed payment.
Apart from privacy risks, confidence tricksters are now also using the Names Database in an attempt to achieve their obscure goals. Any new e-mail address can actually afford a fraudster any identity on the database. By registering e-mail addresses at any of the free e-mail facilities such as Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo! Mail, etc., they create duplicate identities or identities that closely resemble actual people on the database. Unsuspecting users trying to reconnect with old friends or schoolmates can thereby actually contact a fraudster, thinking they are sending a message to a known person. The confidence trickster then tries to solicit further private information, and is known to use 419 Nigerian Letter or Advance-fee fraud methods to further entrap their victims.