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Source:CenterNetworks

I had a lengthy conversation this morning with Steve Poland about Robert Scoble getting banned from Facebook. Apparently Scoble was banned due to "stealing" user info and taking it outside the Facebook network. What we discussed was whether Robert had a right to take my data outside of Facebook without my permission - hence the stealing in quotes. Robert claims that he only took "Names and email address and birthday" from Facebook and planted it into some new function that Robert is testing for Plaxo.

During our conversation, Steve said, "when you add someone as a friend, that friend isn’t saying, "yeah, and feel free to export this info and use elsewhere".

When I think of open, I initially think of being able to take my data with me. My blog entries, my funwall posts, my links, my photos, etc. But to take my friend’s data seems to start a different conversation around openness. How much data is too much? Should Scoble be allowed to take my name/email and birthdate without my permission? For an identity hacker, that’s all they need to be able to wipe a person’s life which takes years to repair.

How does today’s news change our views on open social graph/networks? Looks like we need levels of openness with regards to social networks.

Here are some thought starters:

• If a friend can see it (re: data point), is it theirs to take?
• Should I be able to export my posts on other people’s network page?
• Should I be able to export posts left for me by others? What amount of information should a friend be able to take about me when they leave a network, if any?

Additional commentary on the topic I notice from Mike Arrington and Nick Carr.

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 3rd, 2008 at 4:32 pm and is filed under social networking, facebook, Insights, Plaxo. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.