The Data Portability wars just got a little more interesting. Power.com, the service that lets users aggregate their social networks into a single hub, is countersuing Facebook for restricting users’ ability to export and move their own data. The company is claiming that Facebook is unlawfully withholding the data that users own (as stated in Facebook’s own ToS), and is stifling competition by refusing to allow third party services like Power.com to access the data, among other things. This should be fun.
It’s been over six months since we last heard about these two duking it out, so here’s a quick refresher: Power.com launched last August, offering users the ability to import their latest updates and user information from Facebook, MySpace, and a number of other social networks. It did so by tapping into the social networks’ APIs when available, but also by scraping user data when they couldn’t access it through other means — a big no-no for most social networks, as we saw with the Scoble/Plaxo fiasco. It didn’t take long for Facebook to file suit against Power.com for scraping user data and storing user credentials (another violation of Facebook’s ToS). A week later we heard that the two parties might be close to a settlement, but apparently that didn’t work out — the suit is still pending.
Power.com CEO Steve Vachani likens the current situation with Facebook to one the cell phone carriers saw before they allowed for number portability. In the case of the cell phones, users were effectively locked into a certain carrier because they had spent so much time building up contacts and giving them their phone numbers, and it would be too much effort to switch to a new one. It’s an analogy that has been drawn since the data portability movement began, and while it may make sense, there’s no guarantee the courts will view phone numbers and a user’s social network data in the same light.
That said, Power.com is making some good points. The idea that users aren’t allowed to input their username and passwords into other services is particularly hypocritical, as that’s exactly what Facebook invites you to do to import contacts from services like Gmail and Yahoo Mail.
Facebook can point to its efforts with Facebook Connect, which lets you log in with your Facebook username at third party sites and import some select data from your profile, as evidence of its openness. But this isn’t true data portability, it’s just a new walled garden — third parties are generally only allowed to cache your data, which means that you’re still tethered to Facebook.
Of course, while we may not like the current situation, there may well not be anything illegal about it — that’s up to the courts to decide. We’ve all agreed to the Facebook Terms of Service, and there’s no question that Power.com breaks them. We’ll be following the upcoming case closely.
Facebook spokesman Barry Schnitt had the following to say about the suit:
Facebook is committed to its mission of providing people the power to share and make the world more open and connected. We have made numerous attempts to work with Power.com but, after making commitments to comply with our policies, they continued to put Facebook user data at risk. We filed the lawsuit against Power.com only after it refused to follow the rules that we have established to protect the privacy and security of our users’ data. Users rely on us to protect their data and enforce the privacy decisions they make on Facebook. We take this trust seriously and work aggressively to protect it.
We created Facebook Connect, a set of open self-service developer tools, to permit the sharing of user information in a controlled manner and that enforces the privacy decisions users make on Facebook. Facebook Connect has been very successful with more than 10,000 websites using Connect and our other APIs to build rich and robust experiences for their users, including the functionalities that Power.com has now alleged that we are trying to prevent. We continue to build more tools for developers to make Facebook even more open. The open streams API launched in April is a significant example.
The claims asserted by Power.com in its countersuit are without merit and we will fight them aggressively.
power.com is a Cayman islands corporation? What do they have to hide?
So I guess we can expect lawsuits on Orkut, Hi5, Myspace and Yahoo, since they all pretty much have the same 24 hour cache policy.
Perhaps this isn’t about data as much as it is about Power?
tmfceo
CollegeBanana
power has no legitimate countersuit. ability to export data? you kidding me?
very much true!
They are not kidding. Data Portability is important.
I think Facebook should stick to their Terms Of Service and shouldn’t let Power.com to export its users’ data.
it’s not about letting them. anyone can scrape it, and Facebook can do very little bit about someone who really wants to scrape them. it’s just whether facebook can win the case for them doing it or not. I hope they don’t. fuck facebook.
While it would be nice if Facebook allowed you to export your data to another site. They don’t have to let you, its their service and you choose to use it. Plain and simple, and from a business standpoint I understand why facebook would want to “lock” you to facebook.
@Chris
“They don’t have to let you” – that is what the court case is about
There is a very simple workaround. I wonder why Power people didn’t do it. Here’s what should be done:
1. Ask user to produce his credentials through FB Connect to the service.
2. Import the data.
3. Show THIS DATA to the user and ask him to make corrections and/or CONFIRM this data.
CLICK!
Since that moment this is an INDEPENDENT set of data, ‘edited’/'reviewed’ by user and the company OWNS it.
F…book is just ridiculous. Others are too, btw.
You obviously don’t know the connect terms.
You can not prefill any user data into a form for saving on your end. Review? Doesn’t matter. Edit? Doesn’t matter.
They are physically supposed to type in everything themselves.
Sure some people do this and get away with it but those that are caught get told to stop or get the boot, much like power would if they took your so call simply work around.
this argument is red herring. if facebook were not breaking anti trust laws to begin with this wouldn’t be an issue. facebook does not have the right to control information and censor at the monopolization level they are at. sadly the only information that seems to be free on facebook is Holocaust denial. when you allow a social network to horde technology this is what you get. it is a proportional relationship. once a company gets a certain size then it should be under regulation to keep information free. this is just another sign of abuse.
Facebook will meet their black swan very soon.
they sue him as individual.
“Of course, while we may not like the current situation, there may well not be anything illegal about it — that’s up to the courts to decide. We’ve all agreed to the Facebook Terms of Service, and there’s no question that Power.com breaks them. We’ll be following the upcoming case closely.”
How many people do you think actually read that when they create accounts? Actually…how many people actually really understand what happens to their content when they post it on facebook’s servers?
Just stay away from facebook and it’s all good.
You must not go outside cause google street cameras will record everything. I bet you have a bomb shelter and about 20 guns because the govt is spying on you… every single company on the web does the exact same thing facebook does… you can’t tell me google doesn’t have a profile on every user action that happens..
Everything we do online is recorded and if you solution is to not go on facebook then you know nothing about marketing because 200+million peoiple go on facebook.. you need to have a facebook fan page and you need to be in peoples feed if you want to have success as a business.
Hopefully both companies can work out some sort of a compromise.
i’ve just realized that there’s no way for me to export all my past comments from the techcrunch site and import them into scobleizer instead.
should i sue?!
Yes! You must.!
Scraping Techcrunch comments is trivial
Facebook is already losing young users fast.
But they’re doing well with the Geritol set.
Sounds like they’ve peaked. I told you.
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Loosing Young users fast?? I doubt so.. the young guys are just growing up..
My Question remains..Who owns my data on Facebook? Me or/and Facebook?
If you can’t export it, or give other sites / service permission to scrape it… then I’d say Facebook.
Depends.
If you upload material that infringes copyright, is ilegal etc, then it is yours.
If you want to move it around, then it theirs. Got it?
Power to the people
It is not yet clear from reading the pleadings whether either party will win in this escalating case (there are some key issues and concepts on both sides that a Court will have to wade through), but it is clear the issue of Data Portability comes center stage.
Regardless, Facebook will likely take a PR “black eye” over this — or, and wouldn’t this be nice: they switch positions and become the leading player on how to do it right! Users benefit, Facebook is crowned a friend to all proponents of Data Portability, and the lawyers find something else to do!
The Data Portability project is an ambitious one and I can see why companies such as Facebook want to keep hold of their data.
But this isn’t to export your data and move to a different platform, this is to enhance the Facebook experience along with your other social network activities through a social network aggregator.
I think Facebook should open up and it seems they are with the recent public status messaging. Society is gradually becoming more open and I think it’s a good thing.
Jason’s article inspired me to write a detailed perspective from the data portability side (thanks Jason!):
http://webtechi...r-headache.html
Nice follow up to the drama, Jason.
Quick fact check: Power officially “launched” in the US — with 5 million users (from Brazil and India) already in the system — in November 2008 not August.
Cheers,
Myles
I’d like to know how ppl I email, who have absolutely no connection to anyone I already know on FB are more frequently showing up on my “recommended” lists? It’s kind of freaking me out….(I never imported contacts or IM etc)
We’re providing the statement below on the suit. Jason, please drop us a line when you’re writing next time. That way, you won’t have to guess what Facebook’s position is, we can just give it to you.
Statement:
Facebook is committed to its mission of providing people the power to share and make the world more open and connected. We have made numerous attempts to work with Power.com but, after making commitments to comply with our policies, they continued to put Facebook user data at risk. We filed the lawsuit against Power.com only after it refused to follow the rules that we have established to protect the privacy and security of our users’ data. Users rely on us to protect their data and enforce the privacy decisions they make on Facebook. We take this trust seriously and work aggressively to protect it.
We created Facebook Connect, a set of open self-service developer tools, to permit the sharing of user information in a controlled manner and that enforces the privacy decisions users make on Facebook. Facebook Connect has been very successful with more than 10,000 websites using Connect and our other APIs to build rich and robust experiences for their users, including the functionalities that Power.com has now alleged that we are trying to prevent. We continue to build more tools for developers to make Facebook even more open. The open streams API launched in April is a significant example.
The claims asserted by Power.com in its countersuit are without merit and we will fight them aggressively.
Best,
Barry
Barry, it is a pleasure to meet you. I hope we have a chance to chat more soon. Power has a different perspective on this issue.
We believe that Facebook is now using False Security Concerns to distract from core issue of Data Portability
Facebook’s claim that this is an issue of data security has no basis in reality. Power.com has implemented industry-accepted best practices to protect every user’s data and privacy. Power.com has successfully integrated its technology to safely provide users access to their own data on today’s largest social networking sites, including LinkedIn, Twitter, HI5 and Orkut. The entry of user names and passwords to access user data from third-party websites is commonplace in the industry. In fact, it is a practice that Facebook itself employs to access user data from sites such as Yahoo!, AOL, Hotmail and Gmail.
Moreover, in January 2009, Power.com took down all direct integration with Facebook in an attempt to cooperate with Facebook and released a new version of the site using Facebook Connect, Facebook’s own protocol for third-party integration. However, after three days of launch, Facebook blocked Power.com’s ability to use Facebook Connect. Power.com has made numerous attempts to have meaningful dialog with Facebook to resolve this issue and discuss the core issue of giving users TRUE data portability but Facebook has rejected all such requests.
Facebook is attempting to distract from the core issue of users right to access and control their own data using tools and services of their choice. Phone companies once tried to block users from taking their phone numbers to other carriers and failed. Facebook terms and conditions states that users own their data, but they are blocking users from freely taking their data with them outside of Facebook.
Power.com is fighting to uphold its recently published User Bill of Rights:
Ownership: Users have the right to complete and total ownership of their content—including profiles, messages, media, contacts and all other data.
Control: Users have the right to access, disseminate, transfer or aggregate their content on any platform, or to authorize third-parties to do so for them.
Privacy: Users have the right to protect their content and personal information from other users and corporate entities alike.
See our Full Legal Briefing detailing these issues at
http://bit.ly/Hn3pY
So Facebook emphasizes the “privacy decisions users make on their site”. I’m assuming that there is no checkbox option inside FB to “allow company X [eg Power[ to export all of my data”?
It’s like a parking garage telling customers they are free to make decisions about where in the garage their car gets parked. Oh, but you are NOT free to take the keys and drive out of the garage.
Until FB gives users the keys to their car, all its talk about ‘privacy decisions’ will just be disingenuous spin.
Fb should allow the exporting of data for a fee to the exporter since there are bandwidth costs.
Sure, Power is using the opportunity to create massive amounts of publicity, but there are some real issues to be worked out here. Someone has to test these issues or else the big boys will continue to have their way with consumers and smaller companies.
go power.com! I hope you guys win this one.
I have never been a fan of AOL. Their walled garden approach from the beginning to me always smacked of surrounding the fort with a huge wall. Maybe we can protect our business model from eventual extinction. Now AOL feels like this largely ignored shrinking tumor in the Net. Why does Facebook remind me of AOL?