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Facebook Sued Over Data Access 73

Posted by Soulskill
from the your-information-wants-to-be-free-but-not-ours dept.
Late last year, a web service called Power.com launched with the aim of allowing users to unify their use of multiple social networks. Facebook quickly filed a lawsuit, objecting to the (user-authorized) gathering of their data. Reader sufijazz writes with news that Power.com has now countersued Facebook, saying, "Facebook improperly restricts its users' access to their private information," and that Facebook's own data scraping makes their lawsuit an attempt to stifle competition. According to TechCrunch, "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."
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Facebook Sued Over Data Access

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  • Re:Well (Score:2, Informative)

    by AlexBirch (1137019) on Friday July 10 2009, @10:22PM (#28657163) Homepage
    I think you didn't RTFA, they are being stingy to you with your data.
  • Re:Really? (Score:3, Informative)

    by mysidia (191772) on Friday July 10 2009, @11:18PM (#28657421)

    Because of the obvious abuses that can be committed with those credentials under your name. And you are responsible if you release those credentials.

    It's not even allowed [facebook.com] to release, it's a specific violation of the contract that you have agreed to when you signup for an account on facebook.

    • 4. You will not use Facebook if you are a convicted sex offender.
    • 5. You will keep your contact information accurate and up-to-date.
    • 6. You will not share your password, let anyone else access your account, or do anything else that might jeopardize the security of your account.
    • 7. You will not transfer your account to anyone without first getting our written permission.
  • Re:Really? (Score:2, Informative)

    by Ansoni-San (955052) on Saturday July 11 2009, @01:33AM (#28657905)

    If you want a copy of any information that you post on facebook, keep a copy on your own computer. Facebook provides a free service, and if they don't think there's any value in you being able to take that data out, then that's their perogative.

    I don't know where you are but in the UK there's this thing called the Data Protection Act [wikipedia.org][wikipedia.org]
    So at least here it's not their perogative as to if you get to take your data out. The most they can charge you for it is £10.

  • by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 11 2009, @11:41AM (#28660465)

    Seriously. Facebook, Myspace, WAYN, Twitter, all of that garbage.

This fortune is false.

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