Is your online address book really yours?

Posted by Vic Laurie
February 13, 2008

Many of us use one or more Web services that include our personal list of addresses and contacts. This is information that is stored online rather than on our own computer. Whether it is a social networking site, a Web email service, or whatever, the question arises about who actually owns the information. You probably assumed that the information in your own address book was private and yours alone but that may not be so. Google and Yahoo say that the address book is yours but it seems that Microsoft asserts some rights over your information. If you have a Hotmail account, Microsoft apparently wants to control whether you can transfer your contact list to another service. An article from Fortune Magazine at CNN has a very interesting discussion of this issue. Here’s an excerpt:

Many Internet companies - like Google (GOOG, Fortune 500) and Yahoo (YHOO, Fortune 500) - say unequivocally that you do. If you sign up for free e-mail accounts on their services, you’re free to take your friends with you and export your contact lists to any service that you like.

But Microsoft (MSFT, Fortune 500), while publicly embracing the idea of openness, has been saying something different behind the scenes. Since last summer, lawyers representing the company have been sending cease-and-desist letters to startups that offer new users the ability to import their Microsoft Hotmail contacts. In a move that Valley guys are deriding as ham-handed, Microsoft is offering a quid pro quo: Third-party sites can access Hotmail contacts if they make Microsoft’s instant-messaging client available to their users - for 25 cents per user per year. Then the company says it will waive the fee if the sites make Messenger the exclusive in-network messaging client. Such a deal.

Privacy

Did you enjoy this post? Why not leave a comment below and continue the conversation, or subscribe to my feed and get articles like this delivered automatically to your feed reader.

Comments

No comments yet.

Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.