Comments on: Robert Scoble and Plaxo: Data Thieves

By: Green Ink

Green Ink — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 17:41:46 +0000

By: Evert Bopp

Evert Bopp — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 21:20:11 +0000

Maybe now the people who start “friend-ing” others in every next-big-thing network learn to be a bit more selective.
If you do not want someone to have access to this info you should not be so eager to list him/her as a friend…
In the end it is you that is responsible for your data security.

By: Johnny

Johnny — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 10:04:58 +0000

I just read on ENN that Plaxo is up for sale.

From ENN:

Finally, social networking site Plaxo is reportedly up for sale. The New York Times is claiming that Plaxo has hired Revolution Partners to take charge of an auction that it hopes will yield as much as USD100 million. The site has over 15 million registered users and has taken USD20 million in funding to date from backers including Sequoia Capital and DAG Ventures. As of late, it has been overtaken by more popular social networking sites such as Facebook.

By: Tuppenceworth.ie blog » Facebook and Data Breaches: Up With This I Will Not Put

Fri, 04 Jan 2008 01:34:26 +0000

[...] weren’t enough, we have Famous-For-Nerds Robert Scoble trying out an automatic Data scoop, collecting personal information from members’ profiles for his own [...]

By: Paul Walsh

Paul Walsh — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 01:09:52 +0000

@Ina - are you saying you want that information to be easily harvested?

By: Alexia

Alexia — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 01:04:18 +0000

I beg to differ on social networking being in the ” very early stages of evolution”. Social networking has always been in the comms habitat back to the very first bulletin boards. And for the record, the first was over 30 years ago. The year was 1973, the place - a record store in Berkley, CA. It may not have the bells, whistles and vampire apps that we are all accustomed to on Facebook, but it was social networking. Conversation around a social object.

However, I believe you are missing the point here, Ina. You see - social networking doesn’t really fit into little, tidy boxes of profiles and throwing sheep. You see what we are doing here? Commenting and responding on Damien’s space. This is the core of social networking. We are hankering close around a social object. This post. And socialising. That’s the point.

New networks? But don’t these networks really just instansiate the actions of the old networks around a new social object.

Data portability at who’s benefit? Have you investigated Plaxo in this example to see what they have done in the past?

And do you really think that have data decentralised makes a jot of difference to an entity that really wants to harvest your data? Having personal collateral in different places actually increases the amount of data sitting there, waiting to be harvested. Look at the checks and balences added to further secure your identity. Mother’s maiden name, cat’s name, first car. Home address. Likes. Dislikes. Having this data in many spots, duplicated simply reinforces the truth of a harvested identity. Indeed, it’s a more scary proposition.

By: Ina

Ina — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 00:40:24 +0000

Alexia agreed.
However social networking is in the very early stages of evolution.There is plenty of scope for the development of new networks.Ego networks are more personalised types of networks yet to evolve based on the needs of the individual/ego involved. It is good for information to be decentralised. Different types of networks will be needed according to the individuals requirement.Networks of quality over quantity.Data should be portable and flexible not restricted to one site and one app.Its very easy to harvest information once it is centralised.

By: Canuckflack / Plaxo, Scraping and Data Portability

Canuckflack / Plaxo, Scraping and Data Portability — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 00:32:29 +0000

[...] that be acceptable? No. Damien Mulley has it right. It could be considered data [...]

By: Paul Walsh

Paul Walsh — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 00:16:37 +0000

@Jeremiah the fact that you said you thought Plaxo and Robert were both wrong, was good enough for me. You don’t have to be as harsh with your wording as me - it amounts to the same thing.

By: Paul Fabretti

Paul Fabretti — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 00:15:38 +0000

Great stuff Damien.

Trying to do my bit, this side of the channel too. It’s pissing me right off. So much for Open Social!