Saying it like it is since 1938

By Daniel on Jan 3, 2008

That was a very compelling argument, Loren. I’d heard about him being banned earlier today but didn’t learn about the Plaxo connection until your video. I’d like to see if Robert has anything to say in response.

By Tom Guarriello on Jan 3, 2008

This is the year we turn out all the shills.

Nice work Loren.

- Amanda

By Amanda Chapel on Jan 3, 2008

It’s like you were inside my e-mail correspondence this morning. This whole thing struck me as one big attention-fest.

By Christina Warren on Jan 3, 2008

Just a bunch of geek people getting their knickers in a twist. Non-geek people have no idea what it’s all about, and don’t really care. Though evidently there are a number of geek wannabes out there just itching to join a data martyr movement.

By patricia on Jan 3, 2008

Absolutely agree. I am so fucking tired of Scoble trying to twist everything to his own ends and then broadcasting it ad nauseam.

By Lindsay on Jan 3, 2008

What will Scoble do next? Perhaps he’ll create a new party or a religion? Really sounds like he’s packing that bunch of “friends” he has to make sure they can be easily “exported” wherever he goes. Just plain scary and laughable at the same time.

By Livia on Jan 3, 2008

What kind of crap script did they try to use I wonder? I’ve mining these wizards at FB since June with no problem.

Hell I’ll even share what I use (for a nominal fee of course) since I can’t target the 22 million data profiles we’ve already scraped.

These guys will shit themselves when they get hold of this.

Hey Scooby what’s it worth to you??

By Tiga Beck on Jan 3, 2008

Well said and on the money.

I only wish the Plaxo angle had dropped before I wrote about this. Would have changed the first couple of points. Big time.

Scoble is my new name for toilet paper.

By Eban Crawford on Jan 3, 2008

Loren - you’re full of it. It is MY data, since the people i know gave it to me!! If I want it in my outlook - it is MY BUSINESS!! If I want it in my gmail - IT’S MY BUSINESS!! If I run a software or service that utilize my data - it’s MY BUSINESS. The fact that facebook display the data - is because they know i should have it. they just don’t want me to “really have it” meaning - having it locally. ohh… for that, i’ll need to sit down and copy it for my 500 “friends” (which i do one by one, when i need to get someone’s most updated info. and it sucks!)

The F***ing Spyware companies used the “it’s in terms of service” s**t all the time! Don’t use the same stupid argument.. So what if it’s in the terms of service - it doesn’t make it a good practice - exactly like in spyware software.

Facebook motivation is simple - they want to make life harder for the competition and they want people to develop Apps inside facebook and not outside - and they do all that on the expense of the user.

By someguy on Jan 3, 2008

I believe what you call espionage is nothing more than an attempt to solve the problem that so many good people are taking a stab at.

Making your social data portable.

(This just shows that no, we’re not there yet.)

Plaxo had to do this because Facebook doesn’t allow ME to get MY friends’ details out of there. Sounds fair?

Facebook’s not trying to protect their users privacy, they’re trying to protect their money, period. They know that their value is in the email addresses. And then they come talking about openness. Bah.. my ass.

Shouldn’t I be given access to _my_ social data? To _my_ friends’ details? I think I should. That doesn’t make me want to get EVERYONE’s details. That doesn’t make me a spy.

To conclude, yes, he deserved the ban. And so does everyone else who uses the site. Their TOS is there for something… but that doesn’t make them right or ethically correct. And no, it doesn’t make Plaxo robbers too.

By André Luís on Jan 3, 2008

Nice vid.

I think both Scoble and Facebook look bad, but what’s new?

By Brian Clark on Jan 3, 2008

Loren,

Great comment - succinct, on the mark and accurate. It’s amazing how Scoble can spin things his way - he’s a media/PR master for the Scoble brand.

By Mark Evans on Jan 3, 2008

The fact of the matter is there really should be no confusion with the concept of possession and property when using social media networking site experiments. In the FREE online social media networking sites we use, data entered into whatever databank you chose to use, facebook, plaxo, linkedin etc, it is YOURS to use within the framework you chose to enter it in, and not anywhere else - once entered it’s NOT YOUR’S ANY MORE!! You gave up your exclusive rights to it when your entered into the contract with that company. You want portability? Enter that information into your computer’s address book. Email your buddies and have them email you back the old school way. The price you pay for “Free” social networking experiments = the loss of your exclusive rights to the data you enter. Period. IMHO, the argument Scoble makes is ludicrous.

By CD on Jan 3, 2008

Church! (That means I agree, I’m not sure if I need to spell that out or not…)

If he were a true data warrior he would at least be scraping the data and putting it into a standard, and not another service. If he were converting his list of facebook friends into an xfn file I would have less of a problem with it. But it’s nothing he couldn’t have done without the script. I think it’s sketchy, but if his friends allow him to see their email and other info then it’s sort of fair game.

By Coop on Jan 3, 2008

acoble is just a fat loser .. i mean, what’s with his “ha ha ha” in his videos (scoble shows). hugh … what a prick.

By jaws on Jan 3, 2008

CD makes a good point. That’s why I primarily
use email.

This kind of stuff is the reason why I began charging Scoble “fans” $9/month to be on my list.

By Jeck on Jan 3, 2008

In my opinion, friending on Facebook is just that: I agree to give access to my public profile only to those individuals I approve.

My profile includes whatever personally identifying contact info I choose in my privacy settings. All data is for access in Facebook only.

I have not given any of my friends (incl. Scoble) permission to use that data in any other way. I’d hate to think if all ~780 friends added me to their outside databases and started contacting (read: spamming) me. Ugh. That’d be an immediate unfriend.

BTW, I know many other FB members who’ve had their accounts disabled for one reason or another. And, I have to say, Scoble’s reinstatement today was probably one of the fastest turnarounds I’ve seen. Guess FB officials didn’t like the bad buzz floating around cyberspace. Weird.

By Mari Smith on Jan 3, 2008

Wow. First time I’ve actually agreed with you.

By Ian Ketcheson on Jan 3, 2008

Thanks for eliminating the need for me to have to write a blog post about this debacle.

By Rob Safuto on Jan 4, 2008

well said!

By sriram on Jan 4, 2008

ok ok loren et al - how do you back up your facebook friends data is something i have been chewing on - so your hard drive dies and you lose all your data, contact info, emails etc unless you backed it up - if facebook gets hacked and everything you spent way too much time cultivating gets lost - forgive me for i have sinned, wash my mouth out with soap and water to think of such blas-in-phamy and what will happen to all my list of suspects, con-spirators and general random mischief makers have entered the great beyond, beyond oblivion - which last time i looked was some where on the upper east side of mad-hattan around East 75th Street - but aside from that from one homeboy not so new yorker to another yer dead in the water if you don’t have a facebook backup - but you can’t backup yer facebook friends contact info easily - other then hand copying the emails too - also facebook on the other hand likes when you put your email list to find your facebook friend or even better invite friends to facebook too - food for thought - so how do you legally back up your facebook friends data - ge-oh

By geo geller on Jan 5, 2008

Yes, it’s your data… but that doesn’t give you the right to run scripts. I don’t think that Facebook is obligated to be subject to any users’ scripts. If you want to keep your data, you create your own hub on your own computer, you back it up yourself.

Loren makes a huge point: this is really about Plaxo vs. Facebook. Plaxo knows that it missed the boat. They amassed a giant database of personal information, but they have failed to monetize it in the same way as Facebook. Now, they want to take Facebook’s competitive advantage and turn it into profits for Plaxo. Let’s not forget that Plaxo, too, holds so much of your personal information.

The only real difference is that Plaxo has had no choice but to open up their network — with YOUR data — because they could not profit from keeping it a closed, proprietary system (while companies like Facebook are eating their lunch).

By Eric on Jan 5, 2008

Facebook is a member of the TRUSTe Safe Harbor seal program, meaning that it has received an EU-recognised seal of adequate privacy protection. The problem with what Scobles did is that he did it, and Facebook responded by blocking his access. I think that this removes culpability from Facebook as the platform fulfilled its obligations under the Safe Harbor Agreement principles. I blogged about it for my social media company here: http://www.attentio.com/insights/2007/12/07/the-facebook-fiasco-what-went-wrong/ (I’m an American but I specialise in te EU and work for a socia media business in Brussels, home of the EU.

By Linda Margaret on Jan 9, 2008

“Scoble argued that if folks were all atwitter about him scraping 5000 email addresses from facebook, they should be even more upset about facebook reaping millions of email addresses from Gmail.” That’s a quote from Rabble.ca.

Facebook is the biggest data scraper of them all.

By Rabble on Jan 12, 2008