Google and Facebook, two of the sites that contain the most social content on the web announce they have joined the DataPortability Workgroup. DataPortability is a company which is dedicated in creating ways to share user-generated content and personal information created on social networks.
Computerworld reports, “The move by the two firms, which together store a huge amount of social content, comes less than a week after a blogosphere brouhaha erupted when well-known tech blogger Robert Scoble was kicked off of Facebook for trying to download his contact information from the social network.”
When it comes to data and the sharing of data online, there have been many consumer groups actively speaking out. Companies have to be extremely careful in how they handle your information, especially private information such as your email. Privacy has become a very big issue within the past 2 years with lead generation and the process of passing the information online such as social security numbers and other key components which can lead to identity theft.
Within the social space, information such as social security numbers is never asked for (and I would never put it!) but information such as email, screen names, and other pieces of your private information is thought to be very private to others while some may not care if its visible to the public or not, or how easy it is for someone else to access that information.
ComputerWorld adds :
“Their joint support of the DataPortability initiative presents a new opportunity for the next generation of software — particularly in the fields of social software, user rights and interoperability,” Saad wrote. “This means users will be able to access their friends and media across all the applications, social networking sites and widgets that implement the design into their systems.
The group’s philosophy is that user photos, videos and other forms of personal data should be discoverable by and shared between their chosen tools and vendors, he added.
“The technologies already exist; we simply need a complete reference design to pull the pieces together,” Saad noted. “Our mission: To put all existing technologies and initiatives in context to create a reference design for end-to-end data portability.”
