All in Privacy

Facebook Connect Raises Complex Data Portability and Data Sharing Issues

Facebook Connect Raises Complex Data Portability and Data Sharing Issues

Dennis D. McDonald
DataPortability, , FriendFeed, Industry Analysis, Personal Data Management, Personal Data Ownership, Privacy, , , Standards
Successful system operation frequently depends on the quality of the data it contains. Social networking systems rely on the ability their members have to manage and keep up to date information about their identities. They also rely on the ability to describe and act upon data about relationships with other network members. If identity or relationship data are faulty, unstable, or inconsistent, the operation of the social network, and the performance of network based transactions related to it, will suffer.

Personal Data Portability: What Happened to End Users?

Dennis D. McDonald
Collaboration, DataPortability, Definitions, OpenSocial, Privacy, , , Software, Standards
I’ve made some attempt to keep up with public discussions of DataPortability.org. I’ve had a suspicion that the project is experiencing the growing pains that technology industry standards groups sometimes experience when there is no single strong and deep-pocketed voice willing to weigh in, knock heads, and force progress along a single path.
Social Data Portability, Privacy, and DRM

Social Data Portability, Privacy, and DRM

Dennis D. McDonald
Copyright, DRM, Industry Analysis, OpenSocial, Personal Data Ownership, Privacy, , , Standards
When Bob Weber published his post-CES DRM 3.0 Has Arrived he made the point that, while DRM for music may be dying, the entertainment industry’s interest in Digital Rights Management is still quite strong. This got me to wondering whether this “next generation DRM” might have some relevance to current interest in social network portability.
More Thoughts on Developing a Social Network "Portable Relationship Map" Standard

More Thoughts on Developing a Social Network "Portable Relationship Map" Standard

Dennis D. McDonald
Definitions, Identity, Personal Data Ownership, Privacy, , , Standards, Web 2.0
A couple of days ago I posted Do We Need “Portable Relationship Maps” for Social Networks? There I expressed some skepticism about the feasibility of developing a standard for mapping social and professional relationships, over and above basic personal description or identity data, that could be portable between social networking systems.
Should We Be Able to Buy and Sell our Personal Financial and Medical Data?

Should We Be Able to Buy and Sell our Personal Financial and Medical Data?

Dennis D. McDonald
Data Access, Identity, Market Research, NSA, Personal Data Ownership, Privacy, , , Web 2.0
When I first heard about USA Today breaking the NSA domestic phone spying scandal involving the major long distance phone companies, I wasn’t surprised. I won’t even be surprised when, in the next few months, word leaks out that Federal agencies are also involved in non-court-approved electronic screening of domestic call traffic looking for specific words and word combinations.

Web 2.0 Perils and Public Relations Realities

Dennis D. McDonald
Blogging, Privacy, Web 2.0
In my article Web 2.0 and Maintaining the Integrity of Online Intellectual Property I discussed what happens when information flowing through the Internet can change between the time it is created and the time it is consumed. This can be both good and bad. Good aspects include the addition of new information and the resulting rich functionality and utility that can be created. Bad aspects include the possible loss of control over quality and authority as information "morphs" in ways that may have been unintended by the information's originators.
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