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Gmail: Trap my contacts now (warning when exporting contacts to Facebook)

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Re: Gmail: Trap my contacts now (warning when exporting contacts to Facebook)

#31

Post by NolF »

nkassis wrote: post #23
illumin8 wrote: post #19

The warning says: "Here’s the not-so-fine print. You have been directed to this page from a site that doesn’t allow you to re-export your data to other services, essentially locking up your contact data about your friends." I think this is misleading - Doesn't Facebook allow you to download all of your data, just like Google? As much as I dislike Facebook's privacy policies, the mudslinging seems a little thick from…

Facebook to my knowledge does not let you export your friends email addresses in a way that they could be synced with your email service. I think that if they did, it would be beneficial to everyone. Their claim that email addresses are private is bogus. They could add buttons to the privacy settings that would allow a user to block their email from being access by friends. There is no valid, as in non anti competiti…

There already is an option not to show your email to friends. Just set the email field to 'Only Me'.

Re: Gmail: Trap my contacts now (warning when exporting contacts to Facebook)

#33

Post by NolF »

eiji wrote: post #16

Facebook could allow users to "Opt-in" an email export. If I'm not "Opt-in", only my name would be exported by me and my friends. We all know that Opt-in is like "does not exist", but they could at least say they are open. edit: They could even sell it as a privacy feature ...

Facebook already offers your contact information to Microsoft and Yahoo. However, I think friends who have emails set as "only me" or equivalent do not export. I tried the feature today and 10% of my contacts did not export to yahoo :/

Re: Gmail: Trap my contacts now (warning when exporting contacts to Facebook)

#35

Post by maggit »

atourino wrote: post #32

It seems to me that their wording pushes their anti Facebook data locking agenda, intimidating novice users. To me, this goes against their "don't be evil" company motto.

To me it embodies their "don't be evil" company motto. I think Facebook is being evil here, and Google is fighting the good cause.

However, I can see your angle as well. It seems that the world is not black and white after all :(

Re: Gmail: Trap my contacts now (warning when exporting contacts to Facebook)

#37

Post by turtle4 »

trevelyan wrote: post #27
joakin wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't get it wrong, facebook it's not protecting you against anything, they are just monopolizing your relationships so that you won't move on with ease to other services.

What does Facebook's motives have to do with anything? The question under discussion is whether a random stranger who can convince one of my friends to sign up for a virtual pet should suddenly be able to spam me. Facebook has good reasons not to open their social graph -- and Google's lecturing them about noblesse oblige on this front is silly. Google should make decisions about its data portability policy based on…

While I understand your point - businesses should act in ways that benefit themselves. I think that is simply a recipe for a business to succeed, but it is a short-sighted one. I think the guideline which Google is putting out is better for the system as a whole, our economy, and the end user. And that seems to be - businesses should act in ways that benefit themselves and their users. The fact that what Google is really saying do what is good for your end-users (and us) is irrelevant in terms of my support of their stance.

None of the existing companies have to let you leave freely or support the movement of your data, but to a large extent they have been willing to and it has benefitted the end users, the economy, and the web, in the form of new start-ups, new mash-ups, and interesting ways to view and share the data you've put into other systems. If one company wants to benefit from that sharing, but not return the favor, I think consumers ought to call them on it. The unfortunate fact that most users don't understand the effect means that other companies are going to have to make them aware, and Google is taking that step.

I hope they succeed, but it isn't because I think Google needs the graph access: it is because in the end it will benefit the end user in general and us (hn/new startups) to do so.

Re: Gmail: Trap my contacts now (warning when exporting contacts to Facebook)

#38

Post by stuartloxton »

dsplittgerber wrote: post #36

It allegedly registered my complaint without me being logged-in, so whatever they do, it's for show only? This reeks of a cheap shot.

Just because your not signed in doesn't mean it can't register a complaint - by not tracking username or personal details with the complaint the point of being signed in is reduced to nothing. They can't even make sure you do it twice without tracking your user ID (which they won't do because they could then get username or password).

Therefore being able to register a complaint not signed in seems odd but fine.

Re: Gmail: Trap my contacts now (warning when exporting contacts to Facebook)

#39

Post by ax0n »

spdy wrote: post #4
ukdm wrote: post #2

Is this a new warning page that has been added following Facebook's actions, or one that has been around a while?

This gets better and better. Time to grab some popcorn. And i really like this move from google.

I used it to register a complaint even though I have no blood in this game. In general, I agree with Google's stance on this one, despite the fact that the motives are anything but altruistic as their verbiage tries to imply.

Re: Gmail: Trap my contacts now (warning when exporting contacts to Facebook)

#40

Post by reledi »

joakin wrote: post #17
trevelyan wrote: post #10

Google is being silly. First because they're breaking the usability of THEIR own site out of an invented vendetta against a company that is just using the feature they created and made available. If they don't believe people should be able to export data from Gmail they should stop offering it generally and compete against other email providers with a more closed platform, not whine about reciprocity from sites that…

Don't get it wrong, facebook it's not protecting you against anything, they are just monopolizing your relationships so that you won't move on with ease to other services.

Google is trying to monopolize your relationships (i.e. they give you an option while advising which option you should take), while pointing out that Facebook is monopolizing your relationships. They're taking different paths to reach the same end.
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