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by thwarted 5710 days ago
Google is effectively using the same method the GPL uses to "force" people to play nice and share. It's entirely reasonable that if someone isn't going to share with you, you don't have to share with them. Of course this takes away some freedoms, most likely the freedom of the freeloader to abuse the person sharing, but often times that's the only way to get people to understand and make things a better place for everyone.
1 comments
rbarooah 5710 days ago
Agreed, except that what Google isn't sharing is my contact information not theirs and so it should be my decision who I share it with. Until now Google agreed with this position and trumpeted their intention to support data portability.

Now they are only allowing me to export my data to people who play by their rules. That's not really open at all.

Sure I'd like the choice to export my contact information from Facebook, but I'd rather Google compete with Facebook on the merit of their products rather than making things harder for Facebook users.

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thwarted 5710 days ago
Now they are only allowing me to export my data to people who play by their rules. That's not really open at all.

False. You can go to gmail right now, click on contacts, and then choose export in the upper right. You can export your contacts all you want, then give the exported file to whoever you want. Google isn't letting Facebook access your contacts. It's not Google's fault that Facebook doesn't have a CSV importer; or maybe they do, I don't know -- either way, it's not Google's responsibility to get your contacts into anywhere else. Google isn't hoarding your information, you have full access to it.

Sure I'd like the choice to export my contact information from Facebook, but I'd rather Google compete with Facebook on the merit of their products rather than making things harder for Facebook users.

It's not Google's job to make things easier for Facebook users, that's Facebook's job.

One could say that Google is competing on the merit of their product: you can export your contacts from Google and you can't from Facebook: if access to your own data is important, then Google has the stronger product.

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