Data portability from social networks is going to become a huge tech industry issue in the new year. Why? Because well known tech blogger Robert Scoble has had his Facebook account disabled after he tried to pull out his 5,000 contacts (known as a social graph) from the site. This will fire the starting gun on all the debates about who owns your data on a social network, debates which – till now – have seemed rather theoretical, and could even lead to a revolt amongst some Facebook users. There is even now a Facebook group to get his account re-instated. Ché Scoble, anyone? Scoble ran an unnamed script over his account, breaking the site’s terms of use. As he says on his blog, he is appealing, and although he Twittered that will be taking the normal customer service route rather than contacting Facebook’s PR people, the storm that is brewing will not take long to reach Facebook’s most senior people. Scoble says he was using the script from an unnamed company since he is working with them to “move my social graph to other places and that isn’t allowable under Facebook’s terms of service.” Here’s the email he received from Facebook, which he has published on his blog. He now says he is joining Dataportability.org in protest.
Hello,
Our systems indicate that you’ve been highly active on Facebook lately and viewing pages at a quick enough rate that we suspect you may be running an automated script. This kind of Activity would be a violation of our Terms of Use and potentially of federal and state laws.
As a result, your account has been disabled. Please reply to this email with a description of your recent activity on Facebook. In addition, please confirm with us that in the future you will not scrape or otherwise attempt to obtain in any manner information from our website except as permitted by our Terms of Use, and that you will immediately delete and not use in any manner any such information you may have previously obtained.
We reserve the right to take any appropriate action in connection with any activities that violate our Terms of Use and/or applicable laws, including termination of your account and pursuit of legal remedies.
Please reply to this email.
Thank you,
Facebook Customer Support
That is screwed – and one of the reasons why 2008 is the facebook backlash. Not only are they trying to make money from our social graph and connections but also telling us that we don’t own the relationship information – they do!
If one were to run a script or something, and Facebook “terminated” your account, would that mean they deleted all the content you’ve ever posted? Maybe there’s a silver lining here for people wanting to de-facebook but don’t want to leave their data all over the place…..
Funny enough I’ve had several people who want to do the same thing I did so they can be totally deleted from Facebook.
So Robert, does this mean that you knew that you were likely to get dumped from Facebook by running this script?
If so, isn’t this rather like when you got banned from Second Life for publicly letting your son use your SL account, despite knowing (and having been warned) that doing so would get you a ban?
But either way, this raises interesting questions. Clearly, you should have the right to port any data that you put into a service out of it. But should you also have the right to take out data that your friends have allowed you access to, given that they’ve only really agreed to allow you access to it via Facebook?
Hey check out the new “Ché Scoble” picture on the story (just a little fun…)
For anybody interested in this I would recommend they Google “APML” and have a read.
This is in specific reference to: “Clearly, you should have the right to port any data that you put into a service out of it. But should you also have the right to take out data that your friends have allowed you access to, given that they’ve only really agreed to allow you access to it via Facebook?”
Facebook needs to realize that by allowing data portability, you are not limiting or marginalizing your uniqueness in the eyes of the user. Robert has talked long and hard about his love of FB, and his wish he could even have more friends on FB.
Facebook needs to open their eyes to oauth like Magnolia and other authors of the standard (twitter, jaiku, pownce, and others).
…and of course microformats like digg, twitter, pownce, last.fm and a bevy of others support.
Mr Scoble, knew it was wrong to scrape, so why the revolt?
hmmm let me guess:
1. He’s leaving his current job on Jan 15th.
2. He knows how to drum up some publicity
3. He knows its against facebook tos…
The way the current state of play is Facebook is the big boy on the block (In western market anyway)and no one can touch them.
Its a tricky catch 22 situation, people won’t go to competitors until they gain critical mass, so the only way that things will change is if someone sparks a major protest to turn the tide against facebook.
The only conclusion I can draw is ……
Tell me Mr Scoble, are you going to be buying/working for INSERT NAME OF OPEN SOCIAL NETWORK.
My bets on Michael Robertson+ Scoble+ xx= New social network.
So Open Social ISN’T such a bad idea then…
Grant: I am not going to comment on what I’m doing next until January 16th. It’s not a social network like what you think, though.
VIVA la Revolution!
You can’t hold Scoble down- what are you thinking?
May I suggest you add a big gap between (and possibly a random length) each contact download next time?
Love the Ché Scoble graphic!
Now, what ever happened to Ché?
My money is on Facebook making an apology and saying that our data is our data not theirs – the alternative is suicide for them. It’s amazing how quickly a cool startup can become a mistrusted monster….
Giles, it took only as long as it did for you to write those words : )
How long will it be until facebook gives him back his account?
If you are a VIP you get treated with a different level of service from Facebook than if you are a regular Joe it would seem.
I am curious to know what exactly the script that Scoble ran does. In working with the Faceboook API, I found that once you have the ID of one user (say myself), you can then spider through their relationships getting data along the way, until you run into someone with no friends, or (perhaps) Facebook notices and shuts you down for a violation of the TOS. If anyone here knows if this spidering is no longer a possibility, please correct me. I’m taking another look at the API.
He just told us: http://scobleizer.com/2008/01/03/what-i-was-using-to-hit-facebook/
pretty soon it is going to turn into a mircosoft/opera thing.
Rock On Scoble!!
It’s the Users that Create the Value to these Social Networking Sites! Facebook isn’t Valued @ $15 Billion for the Crap Site it is thass fer darn sure*
It’s the Eyeballs Stoopid!
I wouldn’t mind Running that Script on Flickr to not only get my 7,000 Contacts outta there but my 35,000 Photos + 40,000 Faves + 100,000 Comments + over 5 Million Views!!
Cheers!!
)
Facebook has created an environment where we only allow access to certain items that we want people to see. If I have let Scoble see my entire profile, meaning my education, my employment, my DOB, etc., and he takes any of that with him, to where ever he is taking it (and no one really knows where it is going), he is violating my right to privacy.
Not only does this affect the careful identity construction that I’ve done, but it also undermines my ability to only be a part of communities that I wish to take part in. He is porting my identity to sites unknown and using it in a way that I haven’t consented to.
If today it is Robert Scoble, who is to say that tomorrow it’s not someone stealing my identity and using it on sites that are unsavory?
Instead of jumping on a revolution bandwagon, we should be thinking about the overwhelming social issues here. I believe in portability for MY OWN identity. I don’t think that you should be allowed to take my information anywhere you want to go with it.
It will be interesting to see as to from which IP the comment by ‘dawn’ came from.
Let me guess:
1. IP address of one of the Facebooks PR Agencies
2. An anonymizer/proxy
Mike?
Ops, should have spell checked my comment before posting
Uhmmm … what part of breaking a TOS don’t people get? .. Robert got his hand slapped .. he got reinstated and he got a bunch od publicity .. with an added bonus we all have something to talk about over the weekend
http://www.winextra.com/2008/01/03/hey-robert-i-was-only-kidding/
I always lie on my profile so this info mining is relatively useless info. The guys I’m worried about are Facebook , not a user like Scoble. Yet ;- )
It’s a case of poster look after yourself and don’t be bloody daft enough to leave your identity all over the place. Robert Scoble allegedly was doing something that is possible but morally dubious depending on the use he puts alleged personal information to ..
Having said that FaceBook might be better called Farcebook or even Farse-book and without the “F” …..arsebook ….Its a crap site that has outlived itself …..Its only my deeply humble opinion though ….Others seems to like having their faces in arsebook …I mean farces in cakebook …Its no good I cannot even say Fuckbook ……Robert get a telephone directory …..And play ….
I love the irony in this: Facebook today has been named (along with Bebo) one of the best at maintaining your privacy and offering the ability to delete your data should you wish:
http://uk.techcrunch.com/2008/01/04/facebook-lauded-for-privacy-and-security-in-the-uk-what-gives/
@ dawn….
“If I have let Scoble see my entire profile, meaning my education, my employment, my DOB, etc., and he takes any of that with him, to where ever he is taking it (and no one really knows where it is going), he is violating my right to privacy.
If today it is Robert Scoble, who is to say that tomorrow it’s not someone stealing my identity and using it on sites that are unsavory?”
Wake up and smell the coffee – scraping is already happening on F/B, its just that Scoble got caught (ie he was a bit inept). This is a fact of life, and it will happen again and again – not sure if making it portable will assist, nor putting copyright on it.
Best is, if you don’t want stuff hauled off the net, don’t put it on – or just lie
Here we see facebook’s respect to it’s users
Here we see facebook’s respect to it’s users,without users there will be no facebook,
it seems facebook’s eyes don’t see anything rather then green dollars
now we see facebook is all about callect persons information and seel it
we saw this in project beacon before
I would recommend you to visit FacebookDisabled. It explains in detail how to get your Facebook account back if it was disabled.
I found out today, that I have had my account disabled. The only thing more ridiculous than it being disabled is the reason why. I posted on my friends wall. No innapropriate messages or content mind you, just a talk with a friend. NOTHING in their TOS says I can’t talk to my friends, NOTHING in their TOS says I can’t post on my friends walls. I have yet to receive anything close to an intelligent reason as to why I can’t post on my friends walls. All I get is, “you post too fast.” Well, what are the limits or rates at which we are allowed to post I ask, “Well, we can’t tell you that, but you exceeded it.” What kind of policy is this exactly? They can’t expect people to abide by the usage rules, when they refuse to make those rules available.
http://fascistbook.wordpress.com/