13 Comments »Friday I posted that it is time to start asking questions about Facebook Beacon. I wrote that “while I don’t necessarily think that Facebook’s Beacon program is the ultimate test of individual privacy, I do believe that we are rapidly moving in a direction where some of us need to stand up and ask where the line will be drawn. While I will not suggest where that line falls in this post, we do need to figure it out.”
It looks like a few people are also feeling the same way. The line that I spoke of appears to be allowing users to have ownership of their own data. Honestly, I don’t see this happening though. Do you think Facebook is going to let you create a profile add a bunch of information, pictures, wall posts and more and then flip a switch and leave and take all of your data with you?
No way! Howard Lindzon does have a point though, something has got to give. At a minimum, I think Facebook should make Facebook Beacon an opt-in service. This concept of owning all the data that I enter is a significant one but I don’t see it happening. If I choose to use someone else’s service and enter data into it, they own it. That’s why I call it “someone else’s service.” If you want to own a bunch of data, go create your own service and get people to use it.
Suggesting that Facebook let a user export all of their data in XML or CSV format as Jason Calacanis suggests, is slightly ridiculous. I can understand having ownership of my own social graph but that’s where it ends. Even that would be a huge step for Facebook. Dave Winer suggests that other sites enable users to own their data as well. He wants Netflix to know what I rated various movies.
In theory this makes a lot of sense but personal user data is a competitive advantage for many services. If a user invests hundreds of hours rating movies, books or anything else, they aren’t going to want to go somewhere else. Letting users own their data will force competing sites to compete on services alone. This could be a good thing but it also could be a bad thing when the technologies developed by many of these sites are ultimately commodities. Letting users own their data could be the downfall of many web 2.0 sites. Do you think Facebook should give users ownership of their data?
So, is last.fm doing it the wrong way (the data about almost everything is published under a CC licence, except for your own, which you can do whatever you want with it, and everything under an XML format) ?
So, is last.fm doing it the wrong way (the data about almost everything is published under a CC licence, except for your own, which you can do whatever you want with it, and everything under an XML format) ?
Thats a great point Alexandre. I guess I should have included community in there.
“Do you think Facebook should give users ownership of their data?”
In many discussions about Facebook, I've seen people talk about everything on their Facebook, such as the News Feed, as “their data.” But with a social graph, one has to remember that much of what you see is your friends' data. So while the above question is a good one, I think the reality of what many people have in mind is a bit more complicated.
Thats a great point Alexandre. I guess I should have included community in there.
“Do you think Facebook should give users ownership of their data?”
In many discussions about Facebook, I’ve seen people talk about everything on their Facebook, such as the News Feed, as “their data.” But with a social graph, one has to remember that much of what you see is your friends’ data. So while the above question is a good one, I think the reality of what many people have in mind is a bit more complicated.
[...] response to the commotion Nick O’Neill from AllFacebook writes: If I choose to use someone else’s service and enter data into it, they own it. That’s why I [...]
“Suggesting that Facebook let a user export all of their data in XML or CSV format as Jason Calacanis suggests, is slightly ridiculous.”
It's not ridiculous at all.
I remember using Blogspot in the early days and when I moved to Typepad i was able to export all of my posts off the service. This was 5 years ago!
So, the precedent for a user owning their data is ingrained in Web 2.0 culture.
“Suggesting that Facebook let a user export all of their data in XML or CSV format as Jason Calacanis suggests, is slightly ridiculous.”
It’s not ridiculous at all.
I remember using Blogspot in the early days and when I moved to Typepad i was able to export all of my posts off the service. This was 5 years ago!
So, the precedent for a user owning their data is ingrained in Web 2.0 culture.
Eventually, users will become sophisticated enough to understand that their personal usage data/clickstreams have value and they'll want compensation for it. Facebook, like Google, is simply taking advantage of the fact that people are all gaga about getting the service 'free' (which of course, they aren't- they're paying with their personal data). Once people really think about it and realize that companies like facebook and google are making massive amounts of money off of their aggregated personal data, the game changes. Some people won't care, some will. It'll be an interesting thing to watch evolve.
Just give it time.
Personally, I think someone's going to create a service that enables people to own their personal data/clickstreams. Several have tried and failed, but eventually, someone's going to figure out the formula that works.
THEN… the advertising world changes. In a big big way.
Eventually, users will become sophisticated enough to understand that their personal usage data/clickstreams have value and they’ll want compensation for it. Facebook, like Google, is simply taking advantage of the fact that people are all gaga about getting the service ‘free’ (which of course, they aren’t- they’re paying with their personal data). Once people really think about it and realize that companies like facebook and google are making massive amounts of money off of their aggregated personal data, the game changes. Some people won’t care, some will. It’ll be an interesting thing to watch evolve.
Just give it time.
Personally, I think someone’s going to create a service that enables people to own their personal data/clickstreams. Several have tried and failed, but eventually, someone’s going to figure out the formula that works.
THEN… the advertising world changes. In a big big way.
I actually went and read a ton of privacy policies and terms of use statements at sites I use. Across a number of major sites, there’s a pretty wide-ranging set of policies. Results posted here: http://www.emaildashboard.com/2007/11/how-priva...
I actually went and read a ton of privacy policies and terms of use statements at sites I use. Across a number of major sites, there’s a pretty wide-ranging set of policies. Results posted here: http://www.emaildashboard.com/2007/11/how-privacy-and.html