More on the big three announcements … Facebook’s Connect, Google’s Friend Connect and MySpace’s Data Availability. In short, it is all about data control and extending their ‘social influence’ to other web sites to capture more and more data for the social graph … and no doubt to bolster the value of their underlying revenue streams.

Each of the services proposes keeping their member’s data on their servers – no shock there. Their version of ‘open’ is via the use of widgets, applications or iFrames – however, they all have the same strategy – extend the reach and control more data.

The early pitches from the big three (going back to Facebook's announcements in 2006) were based on the ‘Social Cloud’ and integration via simple REST APIs. The tune has changed now to integration via widgets, applications or iFrames under a “let-me-do/outsource-it-for-you” approach … we’ll just make it easy for you to inter-operate with our data using standards such as OpenID, OAuth, etc.

If you buy this approach, then you accept the fact that it is OK for Facebook, MySpace, Google, et. al. to control more of your data …

The FTC is proposing ..."greater transparency and consumer control" ... These are the most important elements in any proposed self-regulation framework. It is NOT just about behavioral advertising. Greater transparency and consumer control should be applied to a wider construct than just behavioral advertising. Data is not being collected just to provide ads targeted to the consumer.

For example, data is also collected for interchange between social networking sites (which may later be used for behavioral advertising). Data is also collected to be sold (either raw or anonymized) - are you OK with someone else making money from selling your data without paying you even a penny?