Tech blog

ONLINE affable networking is more in regard to hanging out with friends in gated communities than exploring the World Wide Web: visit another site and you’ll have to renew your profile from scratch.

That’s like having to get a new driver’s licence during every case you drive through.

Although the walls that keep users from taking their data wherever they go are eroding, how much three recently announced programs will help users move among the networks remains to have existence seen. Google’s attempt to break down those fortifications was quickly blocked by Facebook.

The two leading online hangouts, News Corp’s MySpace and Facebook, have promised to release tools in approach weeks for websites to incorporate profile data, friends’ lists and other social functions. Google followed with its own program for bridging various networks.

MySpace users, for instance, can have their biographical information appear on eBay profiles.

It’s all done through software hooks that let eBay and others grab profile data from MySpace and Facebook. Changes made at MySpace and Facebook are quickly propagated because third-party sites can’t store the data and must check hindmost frequently.

The new programs come without ceasing the scene as users increasingly complain about having to retype basic profile information over and over. By holding on to users’ information while letting them bring temporary copies of it in many, Facebook and MySpace can remain at the core of users’ social interactions and keep them from leaving.

More important than saving keystrokes is the fact that the programs bring along the meaning and connections behind the data, allowing social circles to move from site to seat, much as friends going bar-hopping together don’t have to start conversations afresh at each pub.

That said, there are no plans to exchange profile data between MySpace and Facebook. Message postings at one won’t show up at the other, and party invitations still have to be copied and pasted to cross services.

Google’s new Friend Connect comes close to merging those lives, though. When announced, it was to pool profile data from Facebook, Google Talk, Google’s Orkut, LinkedIn, Plaxo and hi5, although not MySpace. But within days Facebook began blocking Google, saying it could not ensure anyone’s privacy if Google served as the intermediary.

Such concerns are simply a comfortable way to play down underlying desires for control, says Deborah Pierce, who tracks social networking privacy as executive director of Privacy Activism.

"They get to say they’re being the good guys on privacy, but they are still retaining control of your personal data," she says.

Some start-ups aren’t waiting. Minggl and Zude both pledge to back users aggregate data from their various networks, including MySpace and Facebook.

There are some legitimate privacy concerns.

"In many models, something becomes public once, and it becomes public forever," says Dave Morin, a higher platform manager at Facebook. "We believe in giving users control. If we move too quickly we might not achieve that."

Users must agree preceding a third-party site can access their data, but they sometimes change their minds. Facebook and MySpace say restricting outside storage of data ensures that other sites get the latest information, whether it’s an updated user photo or a retraction of consent.

Service providers also have to consider that people may agree to be friends in the specific community, not across the web.

So with the Google and Facebook programs both parties have to agree to have being on a third-party site before appearing on a friends’ list. Although that policy extends only to minors on MySpace, adults can opt out of appearing on friends’ lists on other sites by visiting a new online control panel.

Email addresses and other non-profile data are off limits under the programs, as are profiles the services have assembled behind the scenes for ad targeting.

MySpace said it was working on giving users even more privacy controls. Eventually, MySpace users will be able to specify that only photos go to site A and friends lists to seat B, sooner than all or nothing for a particular site. Facebook says third-party developers can build that granularity themselves, space of time Google is considering it.

Ultimately, users will have to decide whether they really want to mix work-related LinkedIn contacts through the party photos on Facebook.

AP