But rumors abound about Grouply and how it operates. Some reports are that when you sign up for it, it changes all your membership emails to be username@grouply.com and then any mail in the groups you subscribe to are indexed and resourced by Grouply. This means that anyone else on those groups has, without their permission, had their assumed privacy removed.

Now, everyone should realize that there is no real privacy on the web. None. And the memory of the web is pretty darned infinite. But we’ll ignore the fact that illusions of privacy are just that.

But my most basic issue with Grouply is very simple – it requires you to disclose your Yahoo username and password to a third party service. At that point, you’ve lost all control. You have no idea what, how or when the third party will use that information. You certainly have no control over it.

So the basic security advice applies. Never give out your username and password.