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Facebook Finds A New Way To Liberate Your Gmail Contact Data

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Re: Facebook Finds A New Way To Liberate Your Gmail Contact Data

#71

Post by mikebo »

indigoviolet wrote: post #69
mikebo wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fair point. Once I've imported my gmail contacts into Facebook though, I then should be able to import them out of Facebook by that logic?

Why can't you just get them from Gmail?

My point is that data portability should be transitive. If by manually entering a friend's email address I 'own' that data, and it is thus valid for me to export, any service that imports that data should also allow exporting it. Otherwise it's lossy if I want to move on to another service.

In the FB case it's perfectly reasonable to prevent me from exporting data that I didn't provide, especially if another user provided it and has set privacy controls around it.

Re: Facebook Finds A New Way To Liberate Your Gmail Contact Data

#72

Post by andreyf »

yariv wrote: post #60
andreyf wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah, but if I remember correctly, the terms of that OAuth usage explicitly state that while data may be accessed and used , it can't be stored indefinitely (with good reason, sometimes I don't want some app toy to indefinitely store all the information I trust Facebook with). So if a third party uses that API as an export mechanism, their API access should be (rightfully) shut down. BUT - what if I actually want to ex…

It used to be the case that apps could only store your data for 24 hours, but we removed this restriction in the last f8 conference. You can definitely export all your photos into SomeApp.com using the graph API and they can store your photos indefinitely. These APIs are documented at http://developers.facebook.com/docs/api .

Oh, cool! Big misconception on my part, thanks for clearing it up :)

Re: Facebook Finds A New Way To Liberate Your Gmail Contact Data

#73

Post by patrickaljord »

kmavm wrote: post #59

Some points that are getting lost in the discussion below. I work at Facebook. 1. Facebook lets you export your data. It has been possible to do so ever since the graph API debuted in April '10. Since the market wasn't filling the gap, we even built a "download your information" product ( https://register.facebook.com/editaccount.php -> Download Your Information). It gives you a zip file with all your contact info, p…

> The ability to export my friends' email sounds good, but as with so many social product ideas (e.g., themed backgrounds for profiles), it stops sounding so good when you realize everybody has the same power.

Then why does Facebook allow this very feature to yahoo mail users??

Re: Facebook Finds A New Way To Liberate Your Gmail Contact Data

#74

Post by IChrisI »

chopsueyar wrote: post #41
gabea wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google could also block any facebook links from appearing as google search results if things become more tenuous. I highly doubt this would ever happen since they might face a heavy duty backlashing, but the thought is intriguing.

Facebook is not really optimized for SEO (walled-garden), so this would not be the strategic crowbar to their kneecap. IMHO, the better solution would be to blacklist all associated Facebook IP addresses and domain names from the Android OS.

Facebook could block all users that have an @gmail.com email address. I think Facebook has the bigger crowbar.

Re: Facebook Finds A New Way To Liberate Your Gmail Contact Data

#75

Post by theclay »

ck2 wrote: post #64
henrikschroder wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Joining and locking down the account by disabling all the notifications would make them stop spamming you. Dunno what's more important to you, getting rid of the spam, or the principle of not having an account there?

Wait, cave-in to their bullying that I join their nonsense is a solution? Was that a joke? How about a class action lawsuit for unsolicited spam and data scrapping? Much longer to wait for results but much more satisfying.

Sounds to me like the "spam" you are complaining about is a communications service for your friends. No lawsuit there, unless every email you get from your friends but didn't ask for is also considered spam.

Would an invite to gmail by a friend be considered spam?

Nor is this "data scrapping[sic]" you mention anything of the sort if your friends deliberately requested, or passively acquiesced, to Facebook reading their address books.

Re: Facebook Finds A New Way To Liberate Your Gmail Contact Data

#76

Post by kmavm »

mikebo wrote: post #61
kmavm wrote: post #59

Some points that are getting lost in the discussion below. I work at Facebook. 1. Facebook lets you export your data. It has been possible to do so ever since the graph API debuted in April '10. Since the market wasn't filling the gap, we even built a "download your information" product ( https://register.facebook.com/editaccount.php -> Download Your Information). It gives you a zip file with all your contact info, p…

If you agree it's wrong to allow a friend to export my e-mail address, why should Google allow it either? It seems like Facebook wants to have its cake and eat it too.

They are different services. Facebook is a third-party platform in a way that GMail has never been. If your email address becomes your friends' Facebook data, your email address will be distributed to many companies that you have no direct relationship with. Who knows what those companies will choose to do with it; we choose not to find out.

GMail simply does not have this problem: there are essentially no "GMail apps", and users realize that their email addresses are exposed to their contacts when they use the service. There are no fly-by-night "GMail games" that will sell anything they can get their hands on to RapLeaf. This has its ups and downs, but one of its consequences is that "transitive trust" must have its limits.

Re: Facebook Finds A New Way To Liberate Your Gmail Contact Data

#77

Post by [deleted] »

kmavm wrote: post #59

Some points that are getting lost in the discussion below. I work at Facebook. 1. Facebook lets you export your data. It has been possible to do so ever since the graph API debuted in April '10. Since the market wasn't filling the gap, we even built a "download your information" product ( https://register.facebook.com/editaccount.php -> Download Your Information). It gives you a zip file with all your contact info, p…

[deleted]

Re: Facebook Finds A New Way To Liberate Your Gmail Contact Data

#78

Post by [deleted] »

kmavm wrote: post #76
mikebo wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you agree it's wrong to allow a friend to export my e-mail address, why should Google allow it either? It seems like Facebook wants to have its cake and eat it too.

They are different services . Facebook is a third-party platform in a way that GMail has never been. If your email address becomes your friends' Facebook data, your email address will be distributed to many companies that you have no direct relationship with. Who knows what those companies will choose to do with it; we choose not to find out. GMail simply does not have this problem: there are essentially no "GMail ap…

[deleted]

Re: Facebook Finds A New Way To Liberate Your Gmail Contact Data

#79

Post by justinchen »

kmavm wrote: post #76
mikebo wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you agree it's wrong to allow a friend to export my e-mail address, why should Google allow it either? It seems like Facebook wants to have its cake and eat it too.

They are different services . Facebook is a third-party platform in a way that GMail has never been. If your email address becomes your friends' Facebook data, your email address will be distributed to many companies that you have no direct relationship with. Who knows what those companies will choose to do with it; we choose not to find out. GMail simply does not have this problem: there are essentially no "GMail ap…

Isn't there a distinction between letting a single user export the emails of his/her friends and having an API method for this?

Re: Facebook Finds A New Way To Liberate Your Gmail Contact Data

#80

Post by kmavm »

justinchen wrote: post #79
kmavm wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are different services . Facebook is a third-party platform in a way that GMail has never been. If your email address becomes your friends' Facebook data, your email address will be distributed to many companies that you have no direct relationship with. Who knows what those companies will choose to do with it; we choose not to find out. GMail simply does not have this problem: there are essentially no "GMail ap…

Isn't there a distinction between letting a single user export the emails of his/her friends and having an API method for this?

Google is specifically demanding an API, and further making demands about performance, uptime, availability, etc. of the API. They're being perfectly clear that exporting the emails to .csv file that then gets uploaded is unacceptable.

And again, it's their service, and their servers, and I'm libertarian enough to say that they should be free to do what they want with them. However, I'm also free to question their "Love is Hate, War is Peace, Closed is Open" syllogism with respect to Facebook, and I find it preposterous.

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