Social Networks

Did I wrong Facebook? Maybe. Facebook has replied to the accusation it was storing user data even if users weren’t logged in to it while being on a Beacon affiliated site. It says that data was deleted from its servers. However should I trust Facebook (again)?

Why has Travelocity not started using Beacon yet? Why has Overstock suspended it? Beacon has become a PR disaster for Facebook. It should have made its policy on storing (and deleting) data clear earlier. Also that there is still no general opt-in rather than opt-out of Beacon is still questionable. To put it bluntly, I am not convinced anymore that the company is able to manage privacy concerns properly. Not now, not in the future.

Why can’t users delete their accounts; they can only be deactivated. Facebook even explains that users can log in later with their username and password to reactivate accounts. This means that all data is still on its servers: mini feed, contacts, profile data, and what have you. I think that’s really personal data which shouldn’t be on a company’s server anymore when users decide to leave. What is happening with this data in the meantime?

[via Henry Blodget]

Despite being a walled garden Facebook is close to be the perfect social network for me. I don’t work in an industry where I had to look for new business partners, contractors or job opportunities. So there is no way I could leverage professional networks like Xing and LinkedIn; I would abandon my account rather quickly, I guess. Though I am probably too old for joining other popular networks like hi5, Xanga, et al. as well. So Facebook seems to be right for me. While being serious - but not overly business-like - it is also fun, although I could do without all those zombies and vampires (actually I hate them).

Yes, everything could be perfectly fine, if it wasn’t for Beacon, Facebook’s advertising system. If you don’t know about Beacon already have a look at Technorati or Techmeme. Anyway, people supposedly can opt out of Beacon now so that their purchases on sites like Overstock and Blockbuster don’t show in the mini feed. Good? Not really, Facebook still collects information about its users even if they are not logged in to it:

They pale, however, in comparison to the third case, where Facebook was receiving data about my online habits while I was not logged in, and was doing so silently, without even alerting me to the cross-site communication.

I recommend reading Stefan Berteau’s complete post. What’s even worse, Facebook doesn’t admit it.

Today I had a look at a rather unknown feature of Facebook (see below) more than once. It’s probably just a matter of time before I delete all information and hit that link. Though will my account information, friends’ data, and mini feed information be deleted from Facebook’s servers? It’s called Deactivate, not Delete, right?

Over the past couple of months some buzz has been created about Social Network Portability and all it implies. I can’t stress enough that it is important to have control over my own data. I feel uncomfortable that one company - and if you’re active on more than just one social network, there are even more - is collecting very private data about me and is storing it on its servers. I won’t have the chance to export the data to my computer or to another network and it’s even unsure if all data will be deleted once I decide to delete my account.

There are several efforts by some smart people around the world to change this and build portable social networks. Though one might get confused by talk about protocols and formats which could help build those networks. So it’s highly welcome to see a site like dataportability.org. There is not much content there at the moment but it is describing all tools necessary and even assigning functions to them. So if you’re still wondering what’s needed for syndication purposes or user authentication you will find the answers. And you will also notice that all those standards are open. No proprietary stuff that’s owned by just one company.

Hopefully the site will evolve into a comprehensive resource on the topic.

[via notizBlog]

There have been some voices in the German blogosphere who were disappointed by the Web 2.0 Expo in Berlin held last week. Though seeing David Recordon’s presentation on open platforms I wish I could have managed to change my schedule and attend the conference. David talks about the importance of open standards like OAuth, OpenID, and microformats to build portable social networks. It’s a very good presentation, I think, because it clearly shows how those standards relate to each other. Recommended.

The slides of the presentation are up on Slideshare while Christian Scholz recorded a video of it. The video is available as Flash as well as Quicktime.

[via Christian Scholz]