Contractors?

[Pathfinder1]

Someone approached me and offered contract status, so I've been trying to find out what it is. All the person said was at allows someone to land on your planets without getting shot. ok, I see how that would be good for hauling, but thats not what they offered. What exactly (other than that) is it good for?
The only posts I could find with search were ideas for various applications and not an actual definition, and theres nothing in the starpedia.
I'm not sure why I would want to allow a stranger access to my stuuf.

[-Renegade-]

Its a sign of trust between two people or corporations, and makes it so you cant shoot the person your contracted with, this is useful in multiple corp wars. Basically its a sign of a NAP(Non Aggression Pact) or an alliance

[Pathfinder1]

ok, I get that. But reading some of the posts I did on search, Can they access my controls if they land on my planet? Also, could they use this just to check out the colony to see if its worth taking? In other words, whats the down side of doing this?
and thanks

[-Renegade-]

they only have access to the refinery, and many including me wish that you could toggle what contractors can access so you can supply them with nukes in a war, but the only real downside is they can look at your col or jet your ore, but no, not any real negatives there, just contract your friends and allies, also its generally a nice gesture to offer your contract in return

[Luna]

Be careful whom you contract. Anyone contracted CAN see where you are when online. If you suddenly have a change of alliances make sure you remove contractors that might cause you issues. In general don't contract anyone you aren't sure you can trust. If you have issues with tampered colonies cancel all contractors you can't be sure of.

Watch the "hail" feature often people will try to contract you when trading other commodities.

[Woots]

Apparently there's a limit of how many corps you can be contracted to? I wasn't allowed to be contracted to more than 3 corps on Rise of the Pirates.

[Luna]

The amount of people you can contract depends on the corp size of the galaxy.