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Data Ownership & Portability: What You Can Do Now, If You Care

The brouhaha about Robert Scoble being banned, and then re-instated, on Facebook for trying to move all his data off the site, is the tip of the iceberg about electronic privacy and data portability. And, as Doc Searls points out, neither Scoble nor Facebook are the real issue. Searls describes it as dependence vs independence; I see it as a civil liberties issue that can’t be taken lightly. Apparently, a lot of people don't worry about privacy, but if you do, I have some suggestions.

The real issue is who owns your information, and that issue is going to snowball in 2008. as privacy becomes the issue of the year.

Facebook is just one example of a site with privacy issues. Here’s what Yahoo! does to your data, and I’m sure they’re not the only site that does this:

Not long ago, Yahoo mail wiped out all of my mail AND all of my contacts because I hadn’t used my Yahoo mail account in a couple of months. If I wanted to avoid having this happen again, they said, I could sign up for Yahoo premium and they wouldn’t delete my contacts again.

Those were MY contacts. I should be able to download that data, move it, put it on a disk or do whatever else I want with it.

Are there privacy issues involved in my putting YOUR email and contact information on some other site so I can access it? You bet? Because anywhere I put it is going to have its own privacy policy that you may not have approved or even been aware of.

Maybe Yahoo notified me with an email to my Yahoo account, that I wasn’t looking at. Catch 22 ... I’ll never know. That’s not the point.

Forget the warnings about whether we share too much information online. The real issue is who owns what we share. And since there are no real rules yet, here’s what we’re going to have to do in the meantime:

o decide how we want our data handled in social networks and make demands of the socnets we join

o insist on plain English privacy policies from sites we join and vote with our feet when they don’t provide them

o make sure we keep backups of our data in more than one place and more than one format (I have my 15 years worth of email contacts on my iPod, my external backup drive, on a disk, and in a printout. Do you?)

o read those tiny print privacy statements we get from credit card companies, etc, etc, and opt out of letting them share our information freely

But hey, all the news is not grim. Many advances have been made toward an open Internet, privacy controls, and data ownership as Save the Internet.com has noted.
Posted by B.L. Ochman

Yahoo Mail: All Your Email and Contacts Are Gone Forever, and Screw You

Categories: Trends

BL Ochman | Jan 5 08 12:41 | TrackBack (0)

Comments

Social sites whole being is the data that we store on their servers. That is their financial worth for advertising and exit value for the owners. We should always maintain backup of your important information. I am developing a web site that focus is B2B marketing literature.

Companies can store all their marketing literature and the staff will be able to choose documents and write a letter.

And http://hotcookies.net will print and package with one or three extraordinary cookies. Instead of focusing how you can scale personal messages, companies need to think about how can, I truly create personal messages in an efficient manner.

Posted by: John Calkins at January 5, 2008 4:45 PM

I like this because it puts more responsibility on us. Too many times we wait for a Beacon to happen until we cry foul. The reality is that consumers need to do more up front to protect themselves, and companies -- as you see -- need to communicate clearly in simple terms, and not violate those terms. Good post.

Posted by: Geoff Livingston at January 6, 2008 9:52 AM

I have serious doubts as to whether ANY of my email correspondence is secure with Yahoo mail or even gmail for that matter.

I have had actual emails disappear from view permanently in gmail without ever to be seen again. I'm not joking, they are nowhere to be found. I'm sticking to my own website domain email addresses from now on - even despite the fact that Outlook Express is a horrendous email client IMO.

Posted by: advertorials at January 6, 2008 1:34 PM

Privacy for all or privacy for none should be the battle cry and the push for legislation.

Btw, great illustration for this article John Callahan is my hero. I used to see him scooting all over Portland. His humor can lift even the lowest of spirits.

Posted by: John Frost at January 7, 2008 10:58 AM

John - I am a huge fan of Callahan. Would really love to meet him.

I keep waiting for a new book to come out. And Robin WIlliams was supposed to play him in a biopic but that doesn't seem to be happening.

Posted by: B.L Ochman at January 7, 2008 2:19 PM

@advertorials -I've had emails disappear from Gmail too. that's why i get them forwarded from entourage to Gmail, so i have them in 2 places in case one screws up.

Posted by: B.L Ochman at January 7, 2008 2:25 PM

One alternative to backing up your data is to use an online backup service.

For all online backup and storage info, check out this website:

http://www.BackupReview.info

Posted by: Jenny at January 7, 2008 4:47 PM

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About BL Ochman

Blogger, social media strategy consultant to Fortune 500 companies, and sought-after corporate speaker B.L. Ochman heads the creative team of whatsnextonline.com. She also publishes the Ethics Crisis blog for SRF Global Translations

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Data Ownership & Portability: What You Can Do Now, If You Care

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