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ETpro's avatar

Anybody know anything about the talent.me Facebook App for Professionals?

Asked by ETpro (34605points) July 4th, 2012

I got an email invitation, apparently from a fellow Web professional I know, to join the talent.me Facebook App for Professionals. Having been burned in the past by apps I downloaded that proceeded to take over my computer, redirect search to some fly-by-night search engine, and add tracking cookies faster than I could find and delete them; I thought I’d better Google the App. What I found raises concerns. I have Norton Site Advisor installed to let me know about SERP links to sites that are potentially harmful.

Nearly two thirds of the links Google showed on the first two pages of SERPS had question marks (safety unknown) or orange flags (potential security threat). None had red flags (serious virus threat) but more than half of them were orange flagged. Perhaps one third or less of the SERPS showed a green flag, and they all appeared to be people talking about the App without any knowledge sufficient to judge its safety—just blog and twitter posts by people displaying no depth of technical understanding of the Web.

Is anyone familiar with this app? Is it safe, or some exploit that data-mines Facebook and sends bogus invites? I did email my friend to ask him if he sent the invite. He may be out for the Fourth of July. I haven’t hard back from him. I’m not installing it till I am sure of two things.
1—It has to be completely safe.
2—There has to be a compelling reason to use it.

Can anyone advise on the safety and/or utility of the talent.me Facebook App for Professionals?

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4 Answers

the100thmonkey's avatar

I just looked at the talent.me website.

It can go die in a fire.

It looks like it’s trying to be LinkedIn, but with a graphic designer that seems to like GIFs from the 90s.

Frankly, given how amateurish the front page of the website looks, I’d just avoid it and any associated apps.

Besides, any site that exploits the .me domain to be, like, cool and “on trend” can just fuck off and die. But that’s just .me

ETpro's avatar

@the100thmonkey You’re brave to even look. The site was one of those with an orange caution flag from Norton Site Advisor. Thanks, and do scan your system for tracking cookies or exploits it might have dropped on your drive.

the100thmonkey's avatar

No problem!

I’m not so worried about exploits – I run Linux on the machine I visited the site with and my browser is set to delete cookies on exit.

ETpro's avatar

@the100thmonkey You’re fine, then. Glad to hear it. Oh, and my friend got back to me this evening. He did not send the invite, so it’s definitely being sent out through some form of data-mining.

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