NUREMBERG, Germany, July 11, 2011 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- On Sunday, July 10, 2011, Facebook unilaterally deactivated a tool created by Open-Xchange, Inc. (www.open-xchange.com) that enabled Facebook users to control their personal data and export and use it in any way they choose.
Made available for free at http://ox.io, the tool uses approved Facebook APIs and is not in violation of any Terms and Conditions, as interpreted by the management of Open-Xchange.
"If you want to see what a future looks like where a single company controls YOUR personal data for its own profit, this is a glimpse," said Rafael Laguna, CEO of Open-Xchange. "Clearly, Facebook management does not want you to have the ability to take your personal information outside their walls to, say, Google+ and will do everything in their power to stop you, including violating their own terms and conditions."
According to an email from Facebook:
We're writing to inform you that your app Connector for ox.io has been disabled for the following violations:
You cannot use a user's friend list outside of your application, even if a user consents to such use, but you can use connections between users who have both connected to your application. (FPP II.11)
Our expectation is that developers do not provide users with poor experiences, such as those resulting from inappropriate or misleading content, privacy and security vulnerabilities, and general spam in the Stream, Requests, and elsewhere. We appreciate your commitment to improving the application ecosystem on Platform.
Laguna continued: "From a technical standpoint, Facebook's claim of violation of terms is preposterous. All we are doing is using the Facebook API to extract the last name and first name fields. We are not parsing or scraping the email address. That same data is available on Facebook under Account->Account Settings->Download Your Information in the resulting friends.html file. This is not about user experience. It is about Facebook NOT wanting anyone to control their personal information - except Facebook."
How it works
Open-Xchange is an open source-based email server and collaboration platform that is used by tens of millions of customers worldwide.
Social OX was created by Open-Xchange to help people control their own data that they use on social networks such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+. Anyone wishing to export their data creates a Social OX account at http://ox.io. All data input and stored in this account is an individual's private data. Social OX is not a public cloud service that scans user data. It's a free demo.
Social OX then employs the approved API´s from the social and business networks to create address books for each of them. This data is then enhanced with the contacts from the user's email accounts that are already part of their Open-Xchange account. This data from all networks and address books and all contacts from emails is then merged into a central address book.
About Open-Xchange
Open-Xchange is the innovator of scalable and integrated open source email and collaboration solutions for enterprises, academic institutions and government authorities. The company provides on-premises versions called Open-Xchange Server Edition and Open-Xchange Advanced Server Edition, along with Open-Xchange Hosting Edition, which enables web hosting companies to provide an easy-to-use and feature-rich application delivered as Software as a Service (SaaS). The Open-Xchange Hosting Edition is architected to integrate into a hosting provider's existing infrastructure, such as authentication, provisioning, billing, and email storage and does not require that these systems be replaced.
Open-Xchange AG is a privately-held company headquartered in Nuremberg, Germany with offices in Olpe, Germany and Tarrytown, N.Y. For more information, visit www.open-xchange.com.