Thursday, March 18, 2010

MySpace: We're Not Selling User Data

Los Angeles-based MySpace, under fire for selling its user data, said today that it is not selling its data. The firm said that its data is already available--free of charge--to third party developers, as well as such services as Google and its real-time search; and that it only shares data that users have made public. MySpace said that the data has been available through the MySpace Developer Platform, and allows software to pull publicly available, real-time data such as status updates, or when a user adds music, photos, or videos to their profile. Mike Jones, co-President of MySpace, said in the company's blog that "if a user does not wish to share their Real Time Stream updates outside of their friends, he/she can adjust their Stream privacy settings in their account settings." The controversy over the user data comes after a startup, Infochimps, said it was offering MySpace data for sale on Wednesday; MySpace said that service simply provides pre-packaged versions of its data for some third-party developers, who are unable to process real-time data.

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