Comments on: With FriendCSV, Data Sneaks Out Facebook’s Back Door http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/10/23/with-friendcsv-data-sneaks-out-facebooks-back-door/ Startup and Technology News Sun, 20 Jul 2008 05:58:51 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 By: Never mind the Facebook - Open Social and the future of social networks « Jay by Jay Fresh http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/10/23/with-friendcsv-data-sneaks-out-facebooks-back-door/#comment-2396829 Never mind the Facebook - Open Social and the future of social networks « Jay by Jay Fresh Thu, 03 Jul 2008 19:50:47 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/10/23/with-friendcsv-data-sneaks-out-facebooks-back-door/#comment-2396829 [...] very easy to get your information into Facebook, but it’s pretty tricky to get it out. Some people have built screen-scrapers that are exposing a chink in Facebook’s armour, but using these [...] [...] very easy to get your information into Facebook, but it’s pretty tricky to get it out. Some people have built screen-scrapers that are exposing a chink in Facebook’s armour, but using these [...]

]]> By: Business News Research » Hacking The Facebook Platform For Data Portability http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/10/23/with-friendcsv-data-sneaks-out-facebooks-back-door/#comment-2395841 Business News Research » Hacking The Facebook Platform For Data Portability Thu, 03 Jul 2008 02:19:47 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/10/23/with-friendcsv-data-sneaks-out-facebooks-back-door/#comment-2395841 [...] we got our heads around the Platform back in October, 2007, we hacked together FriendCSV as a demonstration. This is an app that allows you to export your full social graph (and all friend [...] [...] we got our heads around the Platform back in October, 2007, we hacked together FriendCSV as a demonstration. This is an app that allows you to export your full social graph (and all friend [...]

]]> By: Hacking The Facebook Platform For Data Portability http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/10/23/with-friendcsv-data-sneaks-out-facebooks-back-door/#comment-2391572 Hacking The Facebook Platform For Data Portability Sun, 29 Jun 2008 21:20:05 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/10/23/with-friendcsv-data-sneaks-out-facebooks-back-door/#comment-2391572 [...] we got our heads around the Platform back in October, 2007, we hacked together FriendCSV as a demonstration. This is an app that allows you to export your full social graph (and all friend [...] [...] we got our heads around the Platform back in October, 2007, we hacked together FriendCSV as a demonstration. This is an app that allows you to export your full social graph (and all friend [...]

]]> By: Plaxo Flubs It http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/10/23/with-friendcsv-data-sneaks-out-facebooks-back-door/#comment-2302417 Plaxo Flubs It Sat, 17 May 2008 01:49:09 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/10/23/with-friendcsv-data-sneaks-out-facebooks-back-door/#comment-2302417 [...] could have done most of the work via the Facebook API (and in fact we covered a startup called FriendCSV that does just that). But the Facebook API doesn’t allow exporting of a crucial piece of [...] [...] could have done most of the work via the Facebook API (and in fact we covered a startup called FriendCSV that does just that). But the Facebook API doesn’t allow exporting of a crucial piece of [...]

]]> By: Facebook Working On Jabber/XMPP Support for Chat http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/10/23/with-friendcsv-data-sneaks-out-facebooks-back-door/#comment-2294941 Facebook Working On Jabber/XMPP Support for Chat Wed, 14 May 2008 01:21:08 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/10/23/with-friendcsv-data-sneaks-out-facebooks-back-door/#comment-2294941 [...] more control over just how data flows in and out of their system (it’s bound to happen anyway). CrunchBase Information Facebook Information provided by [...] [...] more control over just how data flows in and out of their system (it’s bound to happen anyway). CrunchBase Information Facebook Information provided by [...]

]]> By: Jarrett House North » Blog Archive » FriendCSV: Your data doesn’t stay in FaceBook http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/10/23/with-friendcsv-data-sneaks-out-facebooks-back-door/#comment-2233379 Jarrett House North » Blog Archive » FriendCSV: Your data doesn’t stay in FaceBook Tue, 29 Apr 2008 15:29:17 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/10/23/with-friendcsv-data-sneaks-out-facebooks-back-door/#comment-2233379 [...] didn’t take long. TechCrunch is reporting about a FaceBook application called FriendCSV, which allows dumping selected pieces of data about [...] [...] didn’t take long. TechCrunch is reporting about a FaceBook application called FriendCSV, which allows dumping selected pieces of data about [...]

]]> By: warren http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/10/23/with-friendcsv-data-sneaks-out-facebooks-back-door/#comment-1725460 warren Sun, 04 Nov 2007 01:57:14 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/10/23/with-friendcsv-data-sneaks-out-facebooks-back-door/#comment-1725460 Getting friends data is actually documented. http://developers.facebook.com/documentation.php?doc=fql Getting friends data is actually documented.
http://developers.facebook.com.....hp?doc=fql

]]> By: Jay Fresh http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/10/23/with-friendcsv-data-sneaks-out-facebooks-back-door/#comment-1721749 Jay Fresh Fri, 02 Nov 2007 16:11:49 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/10/23/with-friendcsv-data-sneaks-out-facebooks-back-door/#comment-1721749 <strong>Never mind the Facebook - Open Social and the future of social networks...</strong> The thing about Facebook, for all its yummy and addictive gloriousness, is that it’s been around a while. This is worrying. Friendster, MySpace have both experienced a huge and short-lived boom period, followed by customers migrating to the next,... Never mind the Facebook - Open Social and the future of social networks…

The thing about Facebook, for all its yummy and addictive gloriousness, is that it’s been around a while. This is worrying. Friendster, MySpace have both experienced a huge and short-lived boom period, followed by customers migrating to the next,…

]]> By: Simon McManus http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/10/23/with-friendcsv-data-sneaks-out-facebooks-back-door/#comment-1702236 Simon McManus Fri, 26 Oct 2007 15:13:00 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/10/23/with-friendcsv-data-sneaks-out-facebooks-back-door/#comment-1702236 ]]> By: Simon McManus http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/10/23/with-friendcsv-data-sneaks-out-facebooks-back-door/#comment-1702231 Simon McManus Fri, 26 Oct 2007 15:09:07 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/10/23/with-friendcsv-data-sneaks-out-facebooks-back-door/#comment-1702231 A non facebook app which lets you extract your info back from facebook and into a TiddlyWiki. A very simple poc but you get the idea. http://simonmcmanus.wordpress.com/2007/10/23/facebook-screen-scraping-get-your-friends-back-from-facebook-and-into-tiddlywiki/ A non facebook app which lets you extract your info back from facebook and into a TiddlyWiki. A very simple poc but you get the idea.

http://simonmcmanus.wordpress......iddlywiki/

]]> By: Dan Birdwhistell http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/10/23/with-friendcsv-data-sneaks-out-facebooks-back-door/#comment-1699812 Dan Birdwhistell Thu, 25 Oct 2007 18:35:31 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/10/23/with-friendcsv-data-sneaks-out-facebooks-back-door/#comment-1699812 Adrian - it's working now. FB made a bunch of changes to the API that screwed us and a lot of other apps up yesterday and this morning. Give it another try. Adrian - it’s working now. FB made a bunch of changes to the API that screwed us and a lot of other apps up yesterday and this morning. Give it another try.

]]> By: Adrian http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/10/23/with-friendcsv-data-sneaks-out-facebooks-back-door/#comment-1698846 Adrian Thu, 25 Oct 2007 10:44:50 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/10/23/with-friendcsv-data-sneaks-out-facebooks-back-door/#comment-1698846 Doesn't work. Doesn’t work.

]]> By: Heady http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/10/23/with-friendcsv-data-sneaks-out-facebooks-back-door/#comment-1698540 Heady Thu, 25 Oct 2007 08:09:22 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/10/23/with-friendcsv-data-sneaks-out-facebooks-back-door/#comment-1698540 #42: "I you post you information so that only your friends can see it, and one of your friends uses this App to export to csv and then import to somewhere else… such as MySpace then you’ve lost control of your information. It could be argued that you lost control of your information when you posted it on Facebook." Indeed, in such instances the app is irrelevant - if your friends have permission to view that information on Facebook, there's nothing to stop them copying and pasting it into MySpace "by hand." Of course if it allows your friends to access data they *don't* usually have permission to view, then it's a different story. #42: “I you post you information so that only your friends can see it, and one of your friends uses this App to export to csv and then import to somewhere else… such as MySpace then you’ve lost control of your information. It could be argued that you lost control of your information when you posted it on Facebook.”

Indeed, in such instances the app is irrelevant - if your friends have permission to view that information on Facebook, there’s nothing to stop them copying and pasting it into MySpace “by hand.”

Of course if it allows your friends to access data they *don’t* usually have permission to view, then it’s a different story.

]]> By: Dan Birdwhistell http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/10/23/with-friendcsv-data-sneaks-out-facebooks-back-door/#comment-1696906 Dan Birdwhistell Wed, 24 Oct 2007 18:52:32 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/10/23/with-friendcsv-data-sneaks-out-facebooks-back-door/#comment-1696906 Hey all - given that I'm also a commenter on Facebook (and the developer of ths app), I wanted to add some more items: + The app was covered or linked to on 1,130 blogs: http://www.google.com/search?q=friendcsv&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a, but no mainstream media. + We've had a total of 1064 installs thus far, but hard to tell how many actual exports at the moment + 4 TOS complaints were sent in that were forwarded to us, though only one of them held any merit, and that was tied to the temporary leakage we had. + The app is still up and running, but there has been a major outage with the API since 9:42am in that apps that do big data calls are experiencing instant timeouts. The issue is here: http://forum.developers.facebook.com/viewtopic.php?id=596. + We received about a 100% increase on traffic on bigsight.org from this coverage. + We received 60 new installs on our other app, Backstory. We'll likely add more data levels to the export tonight. Hey all - given that I’m also a commenter on Facebook (and the developer of ths app), I wanted to add some more items:

+ The app was covered or linked to on 1,130 blogs: http://www.google.com/search?q.....=firefox-a, but no mainstream media.

+ We’ve had a total of 1064 installs thus far, but hard to tell how many actual exports at the moment

+ 4 TOS complaints were sent in that were forwarded to us, though only one of them held any merit, and that was tied to the temporary leakage we had.

+ The app is still up and running, but there has been a major outage with the API since 9:42am in that apps that do big data calls are experiencing instant timeouts. The issue is here: http://forum.developers.facebo.....php?id=596.

+ We received about a 100% increase on traffic on bigsight.org from this coverage.

+ We received 60 new installs on our other app, Backstory.

We’ll likely add more data levels to the export tonight.

]]> By: Blake Brannon http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/10/23/with-friendcsv-data-sneaks-out-facebooks-back-door/#comment-1696792 Blake Brannon Wed, 24 Oct 2007 17:15:35 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/10/23/with-friendcsv-data-sneaks-out-facebooks-back-door/#comment-1696792 Is Facebook aware of this? They might get mad that you are not increasing their page-views to get information about your friends. Is Facebook aware of this? They might get mad that you are not increasing their page-views to get information about your friends.

]]> By: Justin http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/10/23/with-friendcsv-data-sneaks-out-facebooks-back-door/#comment-1696497 Justin Wed, 24 Oct 2007 13:37:10 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/10/23/with-friendcsv-data-sneaks-out-facebooks-back-door/#comment-1696497 Thanks for the update, Dan. Just to clarify, I'm not looking to dog your app, in fact a couple of my pals have been noodling this same sort of thing for some time and I'm impressed that you've pulled it together. The "leakage" issue is a big concern and I'd echo a number of statements by other commenters regarding owning your own social graph etc; however, if you put it out there, be prepared to have it consumed by someone. Congrats on the app and the notoriety you've no doubt achieved. This is a pretty poignant event in the social conversation. Thanks for the update, Dan. Just to clarify, I’m not looking to dog your app, in fact a couple of my pals have been noodling this same sort of thing for some time and I’m impressed that you’ve pulled it together. The “leakage” issue is a big concern and I’d echo a number of statements by other commenters regarding owning your own social graph etc; however, if you put it out there, be prepared to have it consumed by someone.

Congrats on the app and the notoriety you’ve no doubt achieved. This is a pretty poignant event in the social conversation.

]]> By: Daniel Feygin http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/10/23/with-friendcsv-data-sneaks-out-facebooks-back-door/#comment-1696483 Daniel Feygin Wed, 24 Oct 2007 13:28:59 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/10/23/with-friendcsv-data-sneaks-out-facebooks-back-door/#comment-1696483 This actually uncovers a huge loophole in Facebook's developer TOS, which I was thinking about for a while. If nothing stops an app from exporting users' Facebook data, then you could have one that provides programmatic access to such data to any other third-party service. That third-party service would then be free to store data for any period of time it deems necessary with no obligation to Facebook. In this case, such third-party service is just the user's mail server, but it could be anything else. Granted, the user would first have to add the proxy Facebook app, but that is not an insurmountable challenge given the potential benefits. This actually uncovers a huge loophole in Facebook’s developer TOS, which I was thinking about for a while. If nothing stops an app from exporting users’ Facebook data, then you could have one that provides programmatic access to such data to any other third-party service. That third-party service would then be free to store data for any period of time it deems necessary with no obligation to Facebook. In this case, such third-party service is just the user’s mail server, but it could be anything else.

Granted, the user would first have to add the proxy Facebook app, but that is not an insurmountable challenge given the potential benefits.

]]> By: David Keech http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/10/23/with-friendcsv-data-sneaks-out-facebooks-back-door/#comment-1695922 David Keech Wed, 24 Oct 2007 07:35:10 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/10/23/with-friendcsv-data-sneaks-out-facebooks-back-door/#comment-1695922 It's not like this information isn't available already to any of your friends on Facebook, this App just makes it easier to aggregate and import into another application. The breach of privacy happens when this third-party application doesn't have the same access controls as Facebook. I you post you information so that only your friends can see it, and one of your friends uses this App to export to csv and then import to somewhere else... such as MySpace then you've lost control of your information. It could be argued that you lost control of your information when you posted it on Facebook. As mentioned before, if you want your personal details kept private, don't post them on a website. It’s not like this information isn’t available already to any of your friends on Facebook, this App just makes it easier to aggregate and import into another application.
The breach of privacy happens when this third-party application doesn’t have the same access controls as Facebook.

I you post you information so that only your friends can see it, and one of your friends uses this App to export to csv and then import to somewhere else… such as MySpace then you’ve lost control of your information. It could be argued that you lost control of your information when you posted it on Facebook.

As mentioned before, if you want your personal details kept private, don’t post them on a website.

]]> By: Dan Birdwhistell http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/10/23/with-friendcsv-data-sneaks-out-facebooks-back-door/#comment-1695543 Dan Birdwhistell Wed, 24 Oct 2007 03:45:42 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/10/23/with-friendcsv-data-sneaks-out-facebooks-back-door/#comment-1695543 Pete - Bring the heat! We really just built this as a quick one day experiment, and I'd be happy to have someone take it off my hands. There's not a single one of the flamethrowers there who has a full grasp on the ToS, as far as I can tell. Pete - Bring the heat! We really just built this as a quick one day experiment, and I’d be happy to have someone take it off my hands. There’s not a single one of the flamethrowers there who has a full grasp on the ToS, as far as I can tell.

]]> By: Steve Ballmer http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/10/23/with-friendcsv-data-sneaks-out-facebooks-back-door/#comment-1695500 Steve Ballmer Wed, 24 Oct 2007 03:33:32 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/10/23/with-friendcsv-data-sneaks-out-facebooks-back-door/#comment-1695500 Once the MS - FaceBook deal is complete we will fix all of this! FaceBook will work as well as any other MS app! http://fakesteveballmer.blogspot.com Once the MS - FaceBook deal is complete we will fix all of this!
FaceBook will work as well as any other MS app!

http://fakesteveballmer.blogspot.com

]]> By: Pete W Goldstein http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/10/23/with-friendcsv-data-sneaks-out-facebooks-back-door/#comment-1695470 Pete W Goldstein Wed, 24 Oct 2007 03:23:27 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/10/23/with-friendcsv-data-sneaks-out-facebooks-back-door/#comment-1695470 This is pretty funny. The developer who made it is trying to sell it on the Developer Discussion Board and is taking some heat (I guess you have to add the developer app and login to see this): http://forum.developers.facebook.com/viewtopic.php?id=551 This is pretty funny. The developer who made it is trying to sell it on the Developer Discussion Board and is taking some heat (I guess you have to add the developer app and login to see this): http://forum.developers.facebo.....php?id=551

]]> By: Alex Barnett http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/10/23/with-friendcsv-data-sneaks-out-facebooks-back-door/#comment-1695236 Alex Barnett Wed, 24 Oct 2007 01:48:40 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/10/23/with-friendcsv-data-sneaks-out-facebooks-back-door/#comment-1695236 Dan, thanks for the explanation. My reponse here: http://alexbarnett.net/blog/archive/2007/10/23/facebook-export-wtf.aspx Dan, thanks for the explanation. My reponse here: http://alexbarnett.net/blog/ar.....t-wtf.aspx

]]> By: Ludite Tim http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/10/23/with-friendcsv-data-sneaks-out-facebooks-back-door/#comment-1695024 Ludite Tim Wed, 24 Oct 2007 00:20:37 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/10/23/with-friendcsv-data-sneaks-out-facebooks-back-door/#comment-1695024 Hi, through all this discussion, one factor I believe is overlooked. If you don't want your data out there - don't put it there! If that makes me a social networking ludite then so be it. If it is out there then it will be accessible, ask the banks who have way more stringent requirements on security. Once it's out there, then it should be yours to move around as you see fit. AS for the point of other peoples data...even your friends. Me think not. If they want to move it, excellent. An extension to this for a commercial model is to "opt-in" to allow others to have some or all of YOUR data. I think you will find without this the PRIVACY laws in many countries start to be violated. This isn't a technical challenge in the end - but rather - an ethical and legal one. Hi,

through all this discussion, one factor I believe is overlooked.

If you don’t want your data out there - don’t put it there!

If that makes me a social networking ludite then so be it. If it is out there then it will be accessible, ask the banks who have way more stringent requirements on security.

Once it’s out there, then it should be yours to move around as you see fit. AS for the point of other peoples data…even your friends. Me think not. If they want to move it, excellent.

An extension to this for a commercial model is to “opt-in” to allow others to have some or all of YOUR data.

I think you will find without this the PRIVACY laws in many countries start to be violated. This isn’t a technical challenge in the end - but rather - an ethical and legal one.

]]> By: Betty http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/10/23/with-friendcsv-data-sneaks-out-facebooks-back-door/#comment-1695002 Betty Wed, 24 Oct 2007 00:10:55 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/10/23/with-friendcsv-data-sneaks-out-facebooks-back-door/#comment-1695002 To: Mark Hendrickson I almost forgot. Very well written story. To: Mark Hendrickson

I almost forgot. Very well written story.

]]> By: Garrett http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/10/23/with-friendcsv-data-sneaks-out-facebooks-back-door/#comment-1694995 Garrett Wed, 24 Oct 2007 00:09:20 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/10/23/with-friendcsv-data-sneaks-out-facebooks-back-door/#comment-1694995 Another application that recently launched on Facebook is called Digitbook. Like this app, it pertains to your friend's contact information. With this app, you simply fill out your contact information that you want to share, and then any of your friends can see your latest info. You can get the app here: http://apps.facebook.com/digitbook/ Another application that recently launched on Facebook is called Digitbook. Like this app, it pertains to your friend’s contact information. With this app, you simply fill out your contact information that you want to share, and then any of your friends can see your latest info.

You can get the app here:

http://apps.facebook.com/digitbook/

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