Plaxo, Marc Canter Ignore Rights of Stubborn Social Web Silent Majority
Are Plaxo’s Joseph Smarr, Marc Canter, Michael Arrington and Robert Scoble the collective James Madison of Web 2.0?: Announcing a “Bill of Rights for Users of the Social Web.”
Facebook is THE Social Web du jour. Despite popular perception, however, Facebook is NOT the face (open or closed) of the Web; There are more non-Facebookers online than Facebookers. Mark Zuckerberg, of course, is determined to change that.
Under the guise of “Facebook messaging just got better,” Facebook engineer Luke Shepard announced that those “stubborn friends who haven’t joined Facebook…yet” can now be honorary Facebookers, whether they like it or not.
Michael Arrington applauded the move at TechCrunch, hailing “Facebook opens email up a little more (but declaring )I want (even) more”:
Facebook opened up their very closed email platform by allowing users to add normal email adresses. This is great news for people who use Facebook for most or all of their emailing.
NOT so great news for the purportedly stubborn non-Facebooker “normal email addresses” however, as I expose in Zuckerberg Message: Facebook Resistance Futile, Billions of Stubborn Email Accounts Targeted.
The privacy of non-Facebooker friends’ email addresses, accounts and messages can now be violated, big time, under the (not so) “new and improved” Facebook Messaging.
Despite the tech blogosphere’s love affair with Facebook, the Zuckerberg production is NOT a mainstream one. Tens of millions of people are NOT on Facebook because they do NOT want to be, privacy often a concern.
NOW, non-Facebookers’ actions are subject to being tracked and archived by the Facebook “social graph” as well, if the non-Facebooker happens to be emailed by a Facebooker from within Facebook. Facebook is gaining access to non Facebookers’ private email addresses AND personal, private email message replies, WITHOUT PERMISSION.
Facebook has sent a MESSAGING message all right: Zuckerberg resistance is futiile! Be “stubborn,” if you like, the social graph will STILL have your email address!
SO, will Plaxo, Canter, Arrington and Scoble step-up for the privacy rights of drive-by social networkers?
The Quechup “scandal” illustrates that even in the hands of the tech savvy early adopters, “social” email address imports are risky business, as I analyze in Quechup Spam Hysteria? Beware Facebook Risky Email Business.
Plaxo IS aware of the big, non-user privacy problem, as its privacy policy for “Opt-Out Users” indicates:
Non-members may elect to permanently opt-out from receiving Plaxo Update Request e-mails sent by Plaxo members. When you register for permanent opt-out, you provide us with a validated e-mail address at which you no longer wish to receive Plaxo Update Requests. If necessary, we will send you an opt-out confirmation e-mail to the address you enter. You must respond to that e-mail to complete the opt-out process.
This information will only be used to honor your opt-out request and not be shared with any third-party.
Plaxo has acknowledged the Social Web growth vs. privacy dilemma: “The big ‘if’ in all of this was of course convincing everyone in the world to use Plaxo–and contact management is not always the sexiest of problems.”
Plaxo has identified the “Update Request Emails” as “arguably the single most controversial feature of Plaxo.”
Why then are the rights of non, (but prospective, targeted) Social Web users not specifically addressed in the Plaxo, Canter, Arrington, Scoble proposal? Respect for the privacy rights of the Social Web’s silent majority ought to be a core principle of any Web 2.0 “Bill of Rights.”
After all, as at the end of the Social Web day, we are all users, one (direct or indirect) way or another, non official users are also entitled to “certain fundamental rights.”
ALSO: Scoble is Right on Facebook: Zuckerberg Stalks All Your Friends and Big Facebook Tease is OLD News: Google Still Rules People Search