We create stuff online everyday and everywhere — Google apps, Flickr, Zooomr, Facebook, LinkedIn, Backpack, Twitter, Pownce, Delicious, Second Life, you name it — but do we really own our data?
None of these services propose an easy way to backup your data on your computer; some of them provide an API but that’s not what I call accessing your data — and if you can’t move it, it’s not yours.
Locking users in applications it’s not something new, it’s been the Microsoft strategy for years. We fought hard for having interchangeable file formats on the desktop and we never won. Now we’re facing the exact same problem with interchangeable data on the web — history is repeating in a bad way.
This time, the threat is more important than having a bunch of documents you can only read with Microsoft Word — you’re entire online life is being locked in.
Facebook’s terms of service clearly state that even if you’re responsible for the content you post on the site, you grant them all the rights to dispose of your data.
[…] By posting User Content to any part of the Site, you automatically grant, and you represent and warrant that you have the right to grant, to the Company an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license (with the right to sublicense) to use, copy, publicly perform, publicly display, reformat, translate, excerpt (in whole or in part) and distribute such User Content for any purpose on or in connection with the Site or the promotion thereof, to prepare derivative works of, or incorporate into other works, such User Content, and to grant and authorize sublicenses of the foregoing. You may remove your User Content from the Site at any time. If you choose to remove your User Content, the license granted above will automatically expire, however you acknowledge that the Company may retain archived copies of your User Content.
Some argues that it will be the challenge of the Web 3.0 — whatever it means — but I don’t think it will happen anytime soon because it’s a vital strategy for online businesses.
UPDATE (04-01-08): Robert Scoble in trouble when his Facebook account was erased; he was trying to move its data.
UPDATE (01-01-08): Chris Bogan’s Have the Data Wars Begun.
Comments
Roberto Di Cosmo said that in 1998 about Microsoft (his book is excellent). Now, alternatives can read/write the word format even if the latest word 2007 is another story (the new docx format suffers from a very poor design). The big question now is more about apps which stores your document online, not on your computer. That’s why I would rather say: if you can’t take it back offline, it’s not yours. While this is easy and obvious for some online services (yahoo mail), other - like LinkedIn - will never make this possible (they would even be wounded by such features). This is the case of any other online service daily fed with our pretty fingers.
What if a web service was able to convert online personal data to some standardized PDF documents that, once printed and folded correctly, turn to handy small-scale easy-to-pack palmbooks. Paper is still the best backup solution we have @ a personal level.
[…] Publié 22 octobre 2007 Chaud devant Allez zou, je prolonge en français une interrogation récente de Fred Brunel au sujet de la propriété concrête des données que nous confions, plus nombreux chaque jour, aux […]
Hi Fred,
Thanks for your comment.
Absolutely, PDF export would be a good-enough solution and I’m sure there is tons of solutions. Unfortunately, the problem is not technical. Being able to move the data to a competitor would threaten their business — and even PDF can be decoded.
Cases in electronic voting and public markets submissions show that the printed counterparts of digital pieces of information are a way to keep some grip on digital property by opposing proof. But, as you said, 1/ everything can’t be printed and 2/ a greedy attitude towards customer information is yet a difficult business model to beat. (at least until we are all perfectly profiled)
Leave a comment