Below is the body of a reply I wrote to an email I received from AngelList. It was titled, "Get ready to be featured!"

I do not have much of a write-up here; the reply itself conveys the point. The context of the feature in question can be seen in their blog[1].

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To whom it may concern,

Today, I simply modified my profile with up-to-date information after having received a notification that my profile was viewed by a company. This was probably the first time I logged in to AngelList in about two years.

After today's updates, I left my job status as "Open to offers", which is relevant. I am not open to interviews, nor am I seeking new employment at the moment.

AngelList personnel, or its software systems have opted me into being Featured and updated my job status to "Ready to Interview." That is a really uncool move. I truly enjoyed the platform at one point, and I'm not alone. My own company was featured on AngelList in its early days, for the reputation boost (back then) of a start-up being featured there. It's still featured on AngelList, and the account is maintained by our CEO. It's not a far-fetched scenario that he or another cofounder might see my AngelList profile updates.

I understand the purpose for establishing a feature like Featured. This explicit opt-in for (seemingly) random users however, whether purposeful or accidental, is an abuse of the feature itself and carries the potential for uncomfortable conversations at the offices of the users subject to it. I have reverted my job status to "Open to offers", but would really love to hear an explanation for why I should trust this won't happen again in the future.

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[1] https://angel.co/blog/featured-faqs