Technology, Culture, Commentary on the Internet Revolution

Facebook Banning Friend Connect is Hypocrisy

by Mike Abundo on May 16th, 2008

Heh. I figured Facebook’s data portability “initiative” was nothing more than panicked lip service. Today they’ve banned Google Friend Connect from the Facebook API.

Here’s the funny part: they say it’s because Google Friend Connect “redistributes user information from Facebook to other developers without users’ knowledge.” Ha! Talk about the pot calling the kettle black! Remember the outrage over Facebook’s spammy “social ad platform”? That thing turned users into product endorsers without their permission, by default! Now here’s Facebook accusing Google of something far more benign — something opt-in and per-site, to boot.

I met two non-techie college girls at Starbucks yesterday. Both of them use Facebook as their primary social network. When I told them Mark Zuckerberg thinks Facebook is worth $15 billion, they immediately concluded that he was insane. As data portability sweeps social networking, the networks that link up with the most other networks will become the go-to places. They will become the primary places where you store your stuff, from your photos to your friends, so you can use your stuff anywhere else. They will become the most valuable social networks. Facebook is moving in the opposite direction so Zuckerface can maintain his delusions of value in his little walled garden. Even non-techie college girls can tell he’s nuts.

Hey Fuckerberg, I manually retype my Facebook events into my Google Calendar. I’m doing what Friend Connect wants to do: give Google my Facebook data with my permission. Are you going to ban me too?

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POSTED IN: Data Portability, Google, Social Networking