[MyData & Open Data] Omlet: new privacy-based social network

[Mattias]

On 12/03/14 19:18, Sally Deffor wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Apparently this new social network site gives users total control
> over their personal data (at a small fee). I wonder if anyone has
> given this site a test run, and could tell us how and (if) it works?
Hi Sally,
Thanks for the link. Just by reading the article I get a bit curious to
how privacy has been defined as a design criteria in this solution.
Haven't tried it but added comments to paragraphs of the article below:
> Cheers,
> Sally
>
> http://news.stanford.edu/news/2014/march/privacy-economy-app-031014.html
>
> Students at Stanford, for instance, are accorded a personal Box.net
> account with 25 gigabytes of storage space when they enroll. Using Omlet,
> all their social interactions, shared photos, likes and dislikes can be
> directed to this private repository, far from prying eyes.
These are not necessarily "private". It seems to be in their view that
as long as the users feel that they have moved their data to a private
repository, then the data is private.
>
> "Omlet users are not even tied into any one cloud storage service; they
> could just as easily choose to direct their files to Dropbox, Google
> Drive, Baidu Cloud or other cloud system of their choice," said Purtell.
I find this part very interesting. From a privacy point of view; What
difference does it make to move info from proprietary social networks
such as e.g. WhatsApp & Facebook to proprietary clouds that live off the
same business models and monetize this data? It's interesting as well as
NSA surveillance programmes has been involved in some way with these
options.

Best,
Mattias
>
> As an open-source application, Omlet is infinitely customizable by
> outside
> developers. Lam likens Omlet to a browser. How people choose to modify
> the
> browser environment is up to the programmers.
>
> Andrew Myers writes for the School of Engineering.
> Media Contact
>
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>
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>
>
> Todd Davies *** email: davies at stanford.edu <mailto:davies at stanford.edu>
> Symbolic Systems Program *** phone: 1-650-723-4091
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> Stanford, CA, 94305-2150 *** web: www.stanford.edu/~davies
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> -- 
> *Sally Deffor
> Open Data & Privacy Project Coordinator | skype:deffor.selase
> | @SDeffor | +44 (0)7774 734206
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