Data Portability: It's The New Walled Garden
The scuffle today between Facebook and Google has very little to do with user privacy and everything to do with user control. A huge battle is underway between Google, MySpace and Facebook around control of user profiles and, therefore, users themselves.
Context & Ripple Effects
Facebook and Google had both joined the DataPortability.org effort in January, putting an interoperability banner alongside a competition for the user profile. By mid-May, Google was also sponsoring OpenSocial and demonstrating Friend Connect, while Facebook had opened chat access through Jabber.
The dispute matters because profile data is not merely a privacy asset: it determines whether a competing social service can recreate a user's relationships and reduce the cost of switching.
First-order effects
- Facebook, Google and MySpace are forced to treat access to user profiles as a competitive boundary, not simply a technical interoperability question.
- Google's OpenSocial sponsorship and Friend Connect demonstration become part of its effort to build social connections outside Facebook's controlled profile system.
Second-order effects
- Developers building social features must navigate separate profile-access rules, making the large networks' participation decisions more consequential than a shared portability pledge.
- MySpace faces the same retention pressure as Facebook: easier movement of profiles can lower switching costs, while restricted movement preserves each network's accumulated user graph.
Third-order effects
- If profile portability is governed by bilateral access terms rather than common standards, social networks can preserve gatekeeper power even while publicly supporting interoperability.
- The contest points toward social platforms competing on control of identity and relationship data, with open protocols serving as both integration tools and strategic leverage.
The trend: Social networking is moving toward a battle over whether user identity and relationship data function as portable records or platform-controlled assets.