Okay, if I don't care about the privacy part of this, why would Nokia even do this? I mean what info is sent and what do they use it for or can it be used for? I bet Nokia is not using the sms info for anything. So is this just a really bad decision made by some really stupid-idiots that like the feeling of having the power to display some sort of "power" over a fairly large user base? "heheh, look how many people we managed to annoy with our extremely limited power"

Imagine I am right about this, what type of company would let this pass and even worse, officially and publicly protect and support this behavior.

A company with extremely bad leadership and no control over employees and projects?

I have no information but my guess is that they want to be able to claim (internally and externally) that My Nokia has lots and lots of subscribers! Internal corporate politics is, I am sure, involved.

The ability to send people periodic SMS messages is definitely very useful to Nokia -- even the messages which just remind people about features on their phones. Studies have shown that most people do not know most of the features on their phones (let alone how to use them). And if they don't know the features exist they can't be differentiators can they?

By the way, the latest news is that I have heard that this issue has been escalated to one level below the Nokia CEO and is being looked at. There are a number of good people inside Nokia who are working this. Good news, although still no guarantee they will get the right decision.

This could have been solved a million times more elegantly if they just got a tracker package in that includes a checklist of features you use and not use. If it gets the idea after a month or so that you don't use <insert feature here>, then it might get you a tip of the day the first time you unlock the phone after 6 AM.

Message would be email-like, with sender being "your phone" or somesuch invalid initiator, where it gives you a hint that -say- POP mailing isn't used, but available, and they support this and that and it's cool and they have a free POP service and would you like to know more?

Knowing more would open a page with a tutorial, links to OVI messaging etc etc.

Every added feature with new PRs have their tracker event. E.g., newly added feature of searching for an address from contacts. If after <insert days here> you still don't have addresses in your contacts, a message pops up. Did you know that if you store addresses, clicking on them opens up Maps and automatically search?

Once issued, the message should have an "Keep reminding me" button and an "shut up, I don't wanna" button. Dismissing the message disables further hinting of that feature.

Whole shebang can be nixed in options.

Could be a useful part of that N900 guide thing they install and I remove immediately because it does nothing.

At least we were heard. Hm, they have ears.

Studies have also shown that receiving periodic unsolicited SMS annoys many people.

Just FYI to everyone. I updated to PR1.2 after first using the NotMyNokia app and no message was sent, so hooray for this community

Attn Graham Cobb, possible bug in notmynokia:

I've just been looking in /var/log/syslog (I'm not sure, but this file may only exist if you install the ksyslogd app). Near the top I see:

Nov 22 18:18:27 Nokia-N900-02-8 init: Unable to execute "/usr/sbin/NotMyNokia.sh" for notmynokia: No such file or directory
Nov 22 18:18:27 Nokia-N900-02-8 init: notmynokia main process (706) terminated with status 255

The file /usr/sbin/NotMyNokia.sh does exist, and is a symlink to /opt/maemo/usr/sbin/NotMyNokia.sh. Maybe /opt isn't mounted that early on in the start up sequence?

Oh dear, this so loved thread is in vain.

Yes, this all could have been handeled more elegancy via email and not forced sms, but not all phone users use email, but they definetly uses sms.

So, take moment to think and tell, now much better competitors does this same thing, as I can assure, they do this one way or the other.

It should have been done by HTTP. All "My Nokia" users will have HTTP at the point where they first use any of the Nokia/Ovi services... And there is no point in being registered with My Nokia, not even for Nokia's benefit, until/unless you want to use the services.

Quite right. Do they do it preemptively, or when you first launch an app that needs one of the services? For example, I haven't used Android, but I've been told that you don't have to subscribe to Google services to use it (altough it's more functional if you do).