3 ms·

It's interesting to me that a prevailing view seems to suggest that developers have a right to plumb a given service for data. This worldview seems to come up

It's interesting to me that a prevailing view seems to suggest that developers have a right to plumb a given service for data. This worldview seems to come up most in relation to free services, so maybe it's a belief that freely consumable services via the Web or mobile give should mean a freedom to consume the same data via an API.

frabcus 14y ago
I think of it as being similar to the right to reverse engineer which you get for hardware in some jurisdictions. I feel as a user as though I should be allowed to automate my use of Internet services. I should be able to use improved clients for any service as and when I like, to get improved user experience, and to integrate them with other services. I can imagine a law that allows this. Entirely to encourage innovation and competition. Remember - it's the early days of the web. It took about a century after the printing press before the consequent law changes (such as invention of copyright) settled down. I expect it to take a century on the Internet as well. Everyone should plan for the future assuming our laws from previous centuries will be found by society to be unsuitable, and will change.
shawn-butler 14y ago
I believe a person owns the data traces of their life, not twitter, not facebook, not any financial institution or ad network. Do you think by going to a physician and having a checkup that the hospital or doctor's network should now have the right to sell the fact that you have some skin condition to Johnson & Johnson so they can target you with advertising? I do not. I feel a physician and twitter have a legal responsibility to insure my data is secured by them and also that I have the right to take my data and and provide it to a competitor. Twitter and my physician are a little different in that Twitter should be able to tell me the consumer that I can not use both their service and another, whereas a physician is obligation bound to treat me. Twitter is refusing to engage and be honest with its users however and instead is smashing competition in a similar fashion that Craigslist is not being honest with its users. I have been told my view is un-American and that is I guess proving in practice to be true. Americans seem more than happy to bargain away their information for a few pieces of candy.
- objclxt 14y ago
  Hospitals actually do sell their patient data to drug companies[1]. Not for advertising, but for medical research and drug trials. [1]: http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/drugmakers-mine-data-for-trial-patients-11032011.html http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/drugmakers-mine-data-fo...
  - KingMob 14y ago
    Having worked in a hospital and undergone HIPAA training multiple times, I can assure you there are pretty strict rules about passing along identified data. What the drug companies are purchasing is anonymized; they have the data about patient X, but they have n idea who that person is. They are literally purchasing only the chance to pass along a request through your doctors to see if you'd be interested in participating in a study if you meet some criteria.
- kalleboo 14y ago
  > Do you think by going to a physician and having a checkup that the hospital or doctor's network should now have the right to sell the fact that you have some skin condition to Johnson & Johnson so they can target you with advertising? With the healthcare situation in America right now, I could imagine a lot of people would gladly trade that for a 10% cost reduction....
- pavel_lishin 14y ago
  > I believe a person owns the data traces of their life, not twitter, not facebook, not any financial institution or ad network. And any given person may write their own client, and use one single token for their twitter account.

frabcus 14y ago

I think of it as being similar to the right to reverse engineer which you get for hardware in some jurisdictions. I feel as a user as though I should be allowed to automate my use of Internet services. I should be able to use improved clients for any service as and when I like, to get improved user experience, and to integrate them with other services. I can imagine a law that allows this. Entirely to encourage innovation and competition. Remember - it's the early days of the web. It took about a century after the printing press before the consequent law changes (such as invention of copyright) settled down. I expect it to take a century on the Internet as well. Everyone should plan for the future assuming our laws from previous centuries will be found by society to be unsuitable, and will change.

shawn-butler 14y ago

I believe a person owns the data traces of their life, not twitter, not facebook, not any financial institution or ad network. Do you think by going to a physician and having a checkup that the hospital or doctor's network should now have the right to sell the fact that you have some skin condition to Johnson & Johnson so they can target you with advertising? I do not. I feel a physician and twitter have a legal responsibility to insure my data is secured by them and also that I have the right to take my data and and provide it to a competitor. Twitter and my physician are a little different in that Twitter should be able to tell me the consumer that I can not use both their service and another, whereas a physician is obligation bound to treat me. Twitter is refusing to engage and be honest with its users however and instead is smashing competition in a similar fashion that Craigslist is not being honest with its users. I have been told my view is un-American and that is I guess proving in practice to be true. Americans seem more than happy to bargain away their information for a few pieces of candy.

objclxt 14y ago
Hospitals actually do sell their patient data to drug companies[1]. Not for advertising, but for medical research and drug trials. [1]: http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/drugmakers-mine-data-for-trial-patients-11032011.html http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/drugmakers-mine-data-fo...
- KingMob 14y ago
  Having worked in a hospital and undergone HIPAA training multiple times, I can assure you there are pretty strict rules about passing along identified data. What the drug companies are purchasing is anonymized; they have the data about patient X, but they have n idea who that person is. They are literally purchasing only the chance to pass along a request through your doctors to see if you'd be interested in participating in a study if you meet some criteria.
kalleboo 14y ago
> Do you think by going to a physician and having a checkup that the hospital or doctor's network should now have the right to sell the fact that you have some skin condition to Johnson & Johnson so they can target you with advertising? With the healthcare situation in America right now, I could imagine a lot of people would gladly trade that for a 10% cost reduction....
pavel_lishin 14y ago
> I believe a person owns the data traces of their life, not twitter, not facebook, not any financial institution or ad network. And any given person may write their own client, and use one single token for their twitter account.