Is a Status Update Just Data Entry? Who Owns the Data?

Earlier this year, there was a big uproar when Facebook changed its policies and claimed ownership to your thoughts… well anything you gave it. While the users revolted, or took notice and got upset (but not that upset because they didn’t stop using Facebook), Facebook changed its policies back and said they would seek user input on future policy updates.

Since then it occurred to me what we are actually doing with social media. Aren’t we just doing data entry for monstrous databases overflowing with daily, monthly, hourly descriptions of what we’re doing, thinking, or thinking we’re doing? With the spread of things like Facebook Connect where your Facebook profile can be linked to over 8,000 other sites, are you becoming a mere data feed?

2009 has seen Twitter data increasingly integrated with external websites, various searches, and filters. If your tweets contain the right word, it will appear. The biggest story was when Skittles did this a month ago, but I’ve noticed Twitter search word feeds on various sites since then. Idealist went live with tweets that included the word “idealist” shortly after. WordPress incorporated Twitter feeds as a standard WordPress widget, allowing you to incorporate ANY Twitter feed into your blog by typing in just a username. The easiest way to organize and make any sense of Twitter requires external applications. They’re pulling in tweets as a data feed.
Are Privacy Expectations Pointless?

As the volume of users continues to increase and user generated data pours into social networking sites, should we have any expectations of privacy? General status updates should probably be viewed as statements you’re assuming the world may be able to see. The stories involving employees being fired due to statements on social networking sites have become regular occurrences. Direct Messages through Facebook, Twitter, and (for those who still use it) MySpace feel like personal emails, but are they? Could these personal messages be used against you and publicized in the future?
You feed them. They share the feed.

What are the overall implications of these monstrous social databases? You feed them. They’re sharing that feed.

No room for error in this data entry.