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And this is an important distinction, especially for investors. Selling data is a one-time occurrence, and requires a lot of effort to maintain revenue. Selling

by tremon 8y ago

And this is an important distinction, especially for investors. Selling data is a one-time occurrence, and requires a lot of effort to maintain revenue. Selling access however uses a subscription model, and guarantees future revenue with a lot less effort. It's the same with software sales vs software subscription models (whether through cloud platforms or support contracts). That distinction should not matter to lawmakers though.

hannasanarion 8y ago
Nonsense. Changing the means of transfer or payment model doesn't mean changing the product. This is like arguing that Dominos doesn't have to obey health rules because they're not a restaurant, they're a food delivery. You don't get to decide which parts of your product the law applies to, and which don't. You can't bypass all firearms laws by selling holsters that just so happen to have guns in them as a free bonus. If Facebook tries this in court, the conversation will go something like this: Court: Do you sell data? Zuck: No, we sell access to data Court: so if you took out the data, and gave only access to your systems, completely blank and with nothing on them, people would still want to pay just as much? Zuck: No, our customers want the data Court: Then you are selling data. Case closed. Go directly to jail, do not pass go, do not collect 200 email addresses.
CaptainZapp 8y ago
Selling data is a one-time occurrence This is not necessarily true. Depending on the deal you make with address brokers you more often than not hire specific addresses for one time use. You are not allowed to reuse them for multiple mailings without paying additional fees. In order to enforce this address brokers seed the data with control addresses. Carefully curated address lists (say, something like C level managers with an income > 500K $, for example) are expensive, even for one time use. If an address broker outright sells addresses those are usually of very low quality.

by tremon 8y ago

hannasanarion 8y ago

Nonsense. Changing the means of transfer or payment model doesn't mean changing the product. This is like arguing that Dominos doesn't have to obey health rules because they're not a restaurant, they're a food delivery. You don't get to decide which parts of your product the law applies to, and which don't. You can't bypass all firearms laws by selling holsters that just so happen to have guns in them as a free bonus. If Facebook tries this in court, the conversation will go something like this: Court: Do you sell data? Zuck: No, we sell access to data Court: so if you took out the data, and gave only access to your systems, completely blank and with nothing on them, people would still want to pay just as much? Zuck: No, our customers want the data Court: Then you are selling data. Case closed. Go directly to jail, do not pass go, do not collect 200 email addresses.

CaptainZapp 8y ago

Selling data is a one-time occurrence This is not necessarily true. Depending on the deal you make with address brokers you more often than not hire specific addresses for one time use. You are not allowed to reuse them for multiple mailings without paying additional fees. In order to enforce this address brokers seed the data with control addresses. Carefully curated address lists (say, something like C level managers with an income > 500K $, for example) are expensive, even for one time use. If an address broker outright sells addresses those are usually of very low quality.