Dan Blank: Publishing, Innovation & the Web

It seems that Facebook is leveraging the data that users share on its social network, in order to make a buck. As Jason Calacanis puts it:

1. They are collecting and republishing user data on a level not before seen by users.
2. They are allowing advertisers to use this data to reach these users.
3. They are not giving this information–information that has put their value at $15 billion–back to their users.

Doc Searls gives a great recap of reactions from across the web, and asks for a solution:

“We need to create our own new rules — ones that protect our privacy while making us better members of the social and business systems we create together. I say “better” because that’s what we’re bound to be when we cease being eyeballs and start acting like whole human beings.”

As people continue to join social networks, creating these mini-clones of themselves on the web, it is intriguing that we may not fully own these personas. Will we find ourselves face to face with bizarro versions of ourselves, with each wresting control over our data - and our face to the world?