In what seems to us to be an obvious violation of end-user privacy, it appears that also-ran social network service Quechup is sending out unsolicited e-mails looking for new members. What's worse, they appear to be harvesting the target invitees' e-mail addresses from current members' address books and sending them invitations. In the last week, non-members started to get messages like this in their inboxes:

"Jon Doe (jondoe@gmail.com)
has invited you as a friend on Quechup...
...the social networking platform sweeping the globe
Click here to accept Jon's invite

You can use Quechup to meet new people, catch up with old friends, maintain a blog, share videos & photos, chat with other members, play games, and more. It's no wonder Quechup is fast becoming 'The Social Networking site to be on'."

Interestingly, it appears that we're not the only ones this has happened to. Make sure you read that privacy policy when you sign up, or you could be giving away your friends' e-mail addresses.