At no time did I intentionally click on anything that gave Tagged the right to spam my contacts. Still, unbeknownst to me, a message with the subject line "Sean sent you photos on Tagged :)" went out to every single address on my list.

I'm not alone. Over the next few days, I heard a dozen or so complaints from people that Tagged had spammed their entire contact list.

The company calls itself a "premier social-networking destination focused on 'Social Discovery,' " whatever that means.

"We did not intend to cause people to invite contacts by accident," Schleier-Smith wrote. "The recent backlash hurts, and we want to ensure our continued growth helps people rather than creating problems for them."