Hi Dominic:
Thanks for your question. My name is Debbie Curtis-Magley and I’m the community manager for Ariba Exchange.
I wanted to follow up on David's reply with a few more details. As he mentioned, Ariba Exchange is an open community and discussions that occur in our main community areas (such as Sourcing) are accessible to anyone who comes across the site including search engines, which index all public content. Content in private groups is not accessible in this way.
Along with participating in discussions, a member log-in allows you to join a group and to view details listed in a member’s profile (such as e-mail address and company). This is both to create a degree of transparency within the community and a measure to ensure an honest exchange. Registration also prevents automated programs from spamming the community with inappropriate content.
When members wish to exchange contact information with each other, using the direct message option is the best approach to keep contact information private. To do so, click the community member’s name that you want to send a message to and select “Direct Message” on the right-side of the screen.
You can also control who is able to see your information within Ariba Exchange in the “Privacy Settings” tab of your profile.
Please let me know if I can offer any further assistance.
Regards,
Debbie