Who Owns Social Media Data? Scoble-Facebook-Plaxo Fracas Raises Questions
In the last three days a simple disagreement between one blogger and one company has erupted into a major technology industry storm fraught with questions about data ownership, corporate rights and other muddy-water questions born because explosive technological advancements have outstripped the abilities of the legal system to referee differences caused by such growth.
This brewing battle in the Social Media space is likely to boil over into the mainstream media and engulf the entire Web 2.0 marketplace.
At the core of the brouhaha is the question of who actually “owns” your data when you enter it into a social media program. Does that make sense? Let’s try again, hopefully in a more Betty Factor friendly way.
When you join a social media network, say Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn or Plaxo (just to name a few), you obviously choose to selectively share information about yourself with others on that network, right? Of course.
To do so you choose to share (upload) such datapoints about yourself as your name, email address, phone numbers and perhaps other basic info like birth date, school you attended (or are attending), favorite sports team, etc.
That data about you is just part of the uniqueness that makes you you, correct? It’s part of who you are.
So when you share such data with someone else, who owns that shared data? Do you? Or by sharing it with some social media companies do you in fact relinquish the right to what happens with your own data?
Similarly, if you choose to trust your data with a company, does that company now “own” your data? Regardless, does that company have an obligation to protect that data, either ethically or legally? Or is it both?
The reason I’m writing about this is that Robert Scoble, long-time blogging advocate (he got his blogging start inside Microsoft), just got neutered by Facebook. Well . . . then he got de-neutered (if such a thing is possible), but more about that below.
According to Scoble’s own post (and reports from such news outlets as Webware, c/net’s News.com, Wired’s blog network, Computerworld, and Dow Jones’ own Kara Swisher at AllThingsDigital.com, among others), Scoble (and his data — all of it) was completely erased from Facebook a few days ago (either 1/2/08 or 1/3/08, it’s not clear which).
His crime: Apparently using a new tool from Plaxo to access his “own” network of friends and associates on Facebook (more than 5,000 people by Scoble’s and Facebook’s accounting) to copy selected data into Plaxo Pulse (a competitor of sorts) via a new feature he was alpha-testing. [DISCLOSURE: I started using the Plaxo Pulse beta myself about a month ago; I've been using LinkedIn and the original Plaxo service for years, and although you can find Poppa Pon MySpace, I really don't use it.]
Naturally, as a fanatic blogger, Robert wrote about the entire episode on Scobleizer, five posts in all in less than 72 hours, plus more than 30 of his own responses to the more than 750 comments these five original posts fomented.
Such activity is not really surprising when one considers that Scobleizer.com currently pulls down a 7 out of 10 PageRank from Google or that Alexa ranks the blog as one of the 25,000 most visited Websites in the world.
However, less than 12 hours after Scoble’s first post, Facebook reinstated his account (which he documents in this blog post).
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So . . . how do I feel about this whole brouhaha?
Personally, I believe this is a very interesting paradox with competing principles at play. Here are my thoughts on this matter.
1. I “own” all of my personal data — but only up to a point
For example, I own dpolitis @ politis dot com as one of my email addresses, but only because Politis Communications owns the intellectual property “Politis Communications” and the underlying domain name. (We bought the URL: www.politis.com.)
Similarly, I own my hair color (light brown, but slightly graying) and other physical characteristics.
But other personal data that I “own” has actually been loaned to me or assigned to me, such as my Social Security Number, credit card numbers, even my home phone number. And in truth, each could be changed by the entity which originally loaned or assigned that identifier to me. (FYI: Thanks to number portability, your cell phone number probably does belong to you.)
2. I choose who to share my data with
Whether I “own” my personal data or not, I have the right to share such data with others*:
- individuals,
- companies,
- governments,
- etc.
And with the exception of certain governmental entities, I also have the counterbalancing right to choose to NOT share my personal data with others as well*.
3. You have responsibilities if I share my personal data with you*
If you’re my friend and we share some of our personal data with each other, there is (at minimum) an implied contract between us that we will
- Protect each other’s data, and
- Not share such data with others (within reason).
An exception is say we have a mutual friend, her computer crashes and she needs to contact you. Would I feel safe in sharing your cell number or email address with her? Of course.
Would it be appropriate to share similar information with a stranger at a bar? Duh!
[NOTE: On the business side of things, sharing information between entities is typically covered by explicit or implicit legal contracts.]
4. Entities have legal responsibilities if I share my personal data with them*
Whether I share personal data with an entity (think companies, governments, etc.) of my own free will, or if I am “forced” to do so, that entity has certain legal responsibilities.
Obviously, the entity has a responsibility to protect my data.
Additionally, the entity has certain rights to use my data.
And conversely, the entity may have rights to profit from my data.
An entity’s responsibilities and rights concerning my data are governed by the relationship we have with one another and the laws of the land.
5. I have a right to move my data (and other data that I “own”) from one location to another*
This concept seems pretty clear to me, particularly from a Common Law standpoint. This assumes, of course, that I legally obtained data from others in the first place. If so, then I have a legal right to such data and in this regard, I “own” that data.
Unfortunately, this concept flies in the face of most Terms of Service agreements (TOS) that companies have in place today, such as the TOSes used by the social networking companies mentioned in this article.
However, just because a company prohibits you from doing something in its TOS does not necessarily mean that that prohibition is legal. Then again, this doesn’t mean such TOS prohibitions are necessarily illegal either. Confusing? You bet.
I suspect our legal system is going to have to sort out this Web 2.0 legal conundrum.
In the meantime, conflicts between Terms of Service agreements and the common sense underpinnings of Common Law will result in Wild West digital shootouts like the one that just occurred between Robert Scoble and Facebook.
Last point.
6. Facebook (and other entities) risk HUGE backlash (and damage) if they mishandle this question of “Who owns social media data?”
Congratulations, Facebook. You’ve done it again.
In less than two months, you’ve accomplished three major corporate gaffes –
- Launching a legal battle against 02138 to try and force the online magazine to remove an article Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg, and the company found objectionable, in essence trying to squash the mag’s free speech rights;
- Launching your Beacon feature, Facebook’s first attempt at social advertising services, at attempt that bombed because the well-intentioned info-sharing feature was poorly thought-out, and now
- The Scobleizer fiasco.
What’s amazing about this is that for a company that has done so well, grown so quickly and is now worth more than $15 billion (given recent investments in the company), these are three royal screw-ups!
The question of who owns social network data — the company or the company’s members/subscribers — begets an entire minefield of very delicate issues that could destroy smaller (and less well-funded) companies. Be careful!
Surprisingly, when Zuckerberg blogged on 12/5/07 about how Facebook handled the Beacon controversy, he wrote that:
Facebook has succeeded so far in part because it gives people control over what and how they share information. Mark Zuckerberg
Wow!
CONCLUSION, MOVIE TIP & ADVICE
Facebook should allow individuals to move data they “own” to/from Facebook’s servers as they please, including Scoble. I believe this idea should be adopted by all Social Networking companies.
On the advice front, it sounds like Zuckerberg forgot what he had written in his 12/5/07 post. It also sounds like the other executives and employees of Facebook didn’t read his post either.
Some simple advice, Mark?
Watch Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure, and remember to “be excellent to each other,” particularly your two million-plus members.
On a more serious side, you need better PR counsel.
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* — For the record, I am not an attorney and I am NOT giving legal advice. From a practical standpoint, I am merely stating my opinions based upon nearly 25 years of working in the professional world, almost all of it involved with technology. David Politis
Filed under: Industry News, Social Media, Viewpoints