Nextdoor Neighbour Website

We have been contacted today by a couple of residents that have received letters from Nextdoor Neighbour, asking them to join their networking site. 

Earlier this year we were contacted by two other residents who also received similar letters.

There is a social media site called Nextdoor Neighbour that allows residents to share local information within a closed group; incidents, events, good news stories, etc.

We understand that if you register with the site you will join an online community that is wider than Fairfield, it includes Bournheath, Clent, Hagley & Belbroughton. 

We also understand that if you sign-up you will agree to the collection of your data for marketing purposes that will be shared with third party organisations. 

Searching the internet, there are complaints about “SPAM” letters from Nextdoor Neighbour, and people are claiming that letters are being sent to their neighbours from them but they were not aware that they had given their consent – this was the case earlier this year, the person that received the letter passed it on to FVCA and when we spoke to the person whose name appeared on the bottom of the letter, that person said that they had joined the site but was unaware that letters were being sent out in their name.   Nextdoor Neighbour have challenged these comments by saying:

“The invitation you have received is from a neighbour that has verified at their address and chosen to send invitations to other residences in their neighbourhood to grow their Nextdoor network.”

“To be clear, we will never send out neighbour invitations on behalf of the member without the explicit permission of the member. Members are presented with the option to invite their neighbours when they join and through emails from time to time, however, members may choose to either ‘skip’ this step or choose not to click on the ‘send postcards” button in the email. There is additionally an option to cancel postcards from the email if the member has accidentally sent invitations they no longer wish to send. “

“We are deeply committed to the privacy and security of our members, if this member doesn’t believe they have sent invitations from their account, we would like to review their account with them directly and are available on help@nextdoor.co.uk.”

FVCA encourages people to think carefully before joining sites and to do their research before subscribing and sharing personal information.